Presented by the Richmond Art Center in partnership with the Northern California Surface Design Association, What Knot? features contemporary art by Californian artists working with fiber and textile construction techniques, and offering new twists on traditional processes, materials and concepts. The exhibition is juried by Camille Ann Brewer, Curator of Contemporary Art at The George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum, D.C.
About the Juror: Camille Ann Brewer joined The George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum as its first full-time curator of contemporary art in October 2016. This new curatorial position is supported by a five-and-a-half year grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to advance the museum’s contemporary art initiative. Since joining GWU, she has been the coordinating curator for three exhibitions at the museum: Ebony: Fifty Years of Ebony Fashion Fair (2017), Scraps: Fashion, Textiles, and Creative Reuse (2017), and The Box Project: Uncommon Threads (2017). Camille comes to the museum from the University of Chicago, where she served as executive director of the Black Metropolis Research Consortium. She formerly served as an assistant curator at the Detroit Institute of Arts and as an art consultant and curator for her own company, CAB Fine Art, building collections and organizing exhibitions for public museums, corporations, and private collectors. A former East Bay resident, Brewer was the Artist-in-Residence at the Richmond Art Center in the late 1980s.
About the Northern California Surface Design Association: The Surface Design Association was founded in 1977 to promote awareness and appreciation of textile-inspired art and design through member-supported benefits including publications, exhibitions and conferences. With the Surface Design journal, awards for student excellence, member grants, a biannual conference, and networking opportunities, SDA seeks to encourage innovation and advocate for artistic excellence as the global leader in textile-inspired art and design. Northern California SDA, one of numerous regional groups, connects to its local community with newsletters, meetings featuring nationally acclaimed speakers, workshops, and juried exhibitions.
Image: Danielle Wright, UCan‘t Touch This, 2016. Courtesy of the Artist.
¿Qué nudo? Galería: West Gallery Fechas de la Exposición: 11 de septiembre – 16 de noviembre de 2018 Inauguración: sábado, 8 de septiembre, de 5:00 a 7:00 p.m. Artistas: Marie Bergstedt, George-Ann Bowers, Cheryl Coon, Deborah Corsini, Julia Couzens, Rachel Beth Egenhoefer, Richard Elliott, Julie Garner, Polly Jacobs Giacchina, Lori Goldman, Laura Kamian McDermott, Lisa Klofkorn, Teddy Milder, Sabine Reckewell, Mary Catherine Richardson, Barbara Shapiro, Stacy Speyer, Ruth Tabancay, Phyllis Thelen, Chris Triplett, Holly Wong, Nanette Wood, Melissa Woodburn, Danielle Wright Presentado por el Richmond Art Center en asociación con la Asociación de Diseño de Superficies del Norte de California, ¿Qué nudo? presenta arte contemporáneo de artistas californianos que trabajan con técnicas de construcción de fibras y textiles, y ofrece novedades en los procesos, materiales y conceptos tradicionales. La exposición fue jurada por Camille Ann Brewer, curadora de arte contemporáneo en el Museo de la Universidad George Washington y The Textile Museum, D.C. Acerca del Jurado: Camille Ann Brewer se unió al Museo de la Universidad George Washington y al Museo Textil como su primer comisario de arte contemporáneo a tiempo completo en octubre de 2016. Esta nueva posición curatorial está respaldada por una subvención de cinco años y medio del Fundación Andrew W. Mellon para avanzar en la iniciativa de arte contemporáneo del museo. Desde que se unió a GWU, ha sido curadora coordinadora de tres exposiciones en el museo: Ebony: Fifty Years of Ebony Fashion Fair (2017), Scraps: Fashion, Textiles y Creative Reuse (2017) y The Box Project: Uncommon Threads ( 2017). Camille llega al museo de la Universidad de Chicago, donde se desempeñó como directora ejecutiva del Black Metropolis Research Consortium. Anteriormente se desempeñó como curadora asistente en el Instituto de Artes de Detroit y como consultora de arte y curadora de su propia compañía, CAB Fine Art, construyendo colecciones y organizando exposiciones para museos públicos, corporaciones y coleccionistas privados. Un antiguo residente de East Bay, Brewer fue el artista en residencia en el Richmond Art Centre a finales de 1980. Acerca de la Asociación de Diseño de Superficies del Norte de California: la Surface Design Association se fundó en 1977 para promover el conocimiento y la apreciación del arte y el diseño inspirados en los textiles a través de beneficios respaldados por los miembros que incluyen publicaciones, exposiciones y conferencias. Con la Revista Surface Design, premios a la excelencia estudiantil, becas para miembros, una conferencia bianual y oportunidades de networking, SDA busca alentar la innovación y abogar por la excelencia artística como el líder mundial en arte y diseño inspirados en textiles. El SDA del Norte de California, uno de los numerosos grupos regionales, se conecta con su comunidad local con boletines informativos, reuniones con oradores aclamados a nivel nacional, talleres y exhibiciones con jurado.
Imagen: Danielle Wright, U Can‘t Touch This (No Puedes Tocar Esto), 2016. Cortesía del Artista.
Inner Traces will present recent jacquard loom pieces by Lia Cook. Cook is an established Bay Area artist who combines weaving with self-portraiture, photography, digital technology and neuroscience. Most of the work in the exhibition has not been shown in California before. Guest Curator: Inez Brooks-Myers
Image: Lia Cook, Revisioned, 2018. Courtesy of the Artist and Seager Gray Gallery
Lia Cook: Rastros Internos Galería: Galería Sur Fechas de la Exposición: 11 de septiembre – 16 de noviembre de 2018 Inauguración: sábado, 8 de septiembre, de 5:00 a 7:00 p.m. Artista: Lia Cook Rastros Internos presenta piezas recientes de telar jacquard de Lia Cook. Cook es un artista establecida en El Área de la Bahía que combina el tejido con el autorretrato, la fotografía, la tecnología digital y la neurociencia. La mayor parte del trabajo en la exhibición no se ha mostrado en California antes. Curadora invitada: Inez Brooks-Myers Imagen: Lia Cook, revisada, 2018. Cortesía del artista y Seager Gray Gallery
Califas: Art of the US-Mexico Borderlands / El Arte de la Zona Fronteriza México-Estados Unidos explores representations of the US-Mexico ‘borderlands’ in contemporary art, with a special emphasis on the Bay Area.
This exhibition comes at a moment when the current nationwide immigration crisis has once again focused attention on the border between Mexico and the United States. Californian communities, activists, politicians, and artists have been especially vocal in this crisis.
Featuring works by 21 contemporary artists and collaborative groups, Califas explores the origins of migrant memory, the consequences of boundary line fortifications, the mixing of border cultures, responses to injustice and inequality, and solutions to advance the borderlands and its peoples.
The exhibition adopts a unique lens to re-examine the past, grapple with understanding the present, and connect with the future of a distinct cross-border culture. The name Califas is commonly used to refer to California by Chicanos wishing to emphasize the deep histories, memories, and identities that existed in the state long before the international boundary was created in 1848. Adapted for use in this exhibition, Califas provides new ways of seeing California and Baja California – as borderlands before walls, when people understood the border as a connecting tissue not a line of separation.
Featured Artists: AGENCY (Ersela Kripa & Stephen Mueller), Chester Arnold, Jesus Barraza, Enrique Chagoya, CRO studio (Adriana Cuellar & Marcel Sánchez), Ana Teresa Fernández, Nathan Friedman, Guillermo Galindo, Rebeca García-González, Andrea Carrillo Iglesias, Amalia Mesa-Bains, Richard Misrach, Alejandro Luperca Morales, Julio César Morales, Postcommodity, Rael San Fratello (Ronald Rael & Virginia San Fratello), Fernando Reyes, Favianna Rodriguez, Stephanie Syjuco, David Taylor, Judi Werthein, Rio Yañez
Califas is guest co-curated by UC Berkeley professors Michael Dear, author of Why Walls Won’t Work, and Ronald Rael, author of Borderwall as Architecture: A Manifesto for the U.S.-Mexico Boundary.
The exhibition is made possible with support from the Zellerbach Family Foundation, Susan Chamberlin, Matt and Margaret Jacobson, and anonymous donors.
Image: Julio César Morales, Day Dreaming Series (detail), 2018. Courtesy of the Artist and Gallery Wendi Norris, San Francisco
—
Califas: el Arte de la Zona Fronteriza México-Estados Unidos
Galería: Galería Principal y Galería Oeste Fechas de la Exposición: 11 de septiembre – 16 de noviembre de 2018 Inauguración: sábado, 8 de septiembre, de 5:00 a 7:00 p.m. Califas: el Arte de la Zona Fronteriza de México-Estados Unidos explora las representaciones de las “zonas fronterizas” de México y Estados Unidos en el arte contemporáneo, con un énfasis especial en El Área de la Bahía.
Esta exposición se produce en un momento en que la actual crisis de inmigración nacional ha vuelto a centrar la atención en la frontera entre México y los Estados Unidos. Las comunidades, los activistas, los políticos y los artistas de California han sido especialmente activos en esta crisis. Con obras de 21 artistas contemporáneos y grupos colaborativos, Califas explora los orígenes de la memoria migratoria, las consecuencias de las fortificaciones fronterizas, la mezcla de culturas fronterizas, las respuestas a la injusticia y la desigualdad, y las soluciones para avanzar en las fronteras y sus pueblos. La exhibición adopta una lente única para reexaminar el pasado, lidiar con la comprensión del presente y conectarse con el futuro de una cultura transfronteriza diferente. El nombre Califas se usa comúnmente para referirse a California por los Chicanos que desean enfatizar las profundas historias, memorias e identidades que existían en el estado mucho antes de que se creara el límite internacional en 1848. Adaptado para su uso en esta exposición, Califas ofrece nuevas formas de ver a California y Baja California, como fronteras antes que los muros existieran, cuando la gente entendía el límite como un tejido que conecta, no como una línea de separación. Artistas destacados: AGENCIA (Ersela Kripa y Stephen Mueller), Chester Arnold, Jesús Barraza, Enrique Chagoya, estudio CRO (Adriana Cuellar y Marcel Sánchez), Ana Teresa Fernández, Nathan Friedman, Guillermo Galindo, Rebeca García-González, Amalia Mesa-Bains , Richard Misrach, Alejandro ‘Luperca’ Morales, Julio César Morales, Postcommodity, Rael San Fratello, Fernando Reyes, Favianna Rodríguez, Stephanie Syjuco, David Taylor, Judi Werthein, Rio Yañez Califas es comisariada por los profesores de UC Berkeley Michael Dear, autor de Why Walls Won’t Work (Por Qué los Muros No Funcionarán), y Ronald Rael, autor de Borderwall as Architecture: A Manifesto for the US-Mexico Boundary (Muro Fronterizo como Arquitectura: un Manifiesto para el Límite Entre Estados Unidos y México). La exposición es posible gracias al apoyo de la Fundación de la Familia Zellerbach, Susan Chamberlin, Matt y Margaret Jacobson, y donadores anónimos. Imagen: Julio César Morales, Day Dreaming Series (detalle), 2018. Cortesía del artista y la galería Wendi Norris, San Francisco
Strange Forest presents contemporary drawings devoted to abstract and surreal dimensions of the natural world. Utilizing techniques of botanical and scientific illustration, six Bay Area artists – Leo Bersamina, John Casey, Masako Miki, Nora Pauwels, Lela Shields and Elizabeth Sims – take on the role of experimental naturalists. Through processes such as painstaking delineation, classification, and focus on the lifecycle, the artists express a deep respect for the flora and fauna of our planet, while at the same time reimagining it.
Looking for encounters that move her, Elizabeth Sims starts with a close observation of nature – a Bristlecone pine and a piece of obsidian – to create large scale drawings that are part realism, part invention. The titles of her work reference artists and fictional characters who have disappeared into the wilderness.
Using an unlikely mix of sea salt, quartz and glitter, Lela Shields creates surfaces on which to depict detailed botanical scenes using gouache, pencil and gold leaf. The uneven and unstable base for the imagery prevents Shields from working perfectly, and represents a kind of metamorphosis as the fragile work is always susceptible to change.
Nora Pauwels’ work focuses on the flora that spreads unchecked around her semi-industrial Emeryville neighborhood. It does not matter what the species of plant is – Pauwels often gathers weeds – rather the leaves, flowers and twigs are collected for their aesthetic subtleties and as markers of the places they determinedly grow.
Inspired by Shinto traditions, Masako Miki’s animals and abstracted scenes represent a space in-between the material and spiritual worlds. Using a palette of primarily blue and white, these colors can be interpreted as symbolic of the known and unknown.
Flowers are a metaphor for growth in John Casey’s drawings. On the surface they represent beauty, love and purity. Yet when the flower becomes an appendage growing from one of Casey’s creatures it takes on darker meanings; beauty through unnatural mutation, as well as the ability to persist and thrive in spite of a cancer-like growth.
Leo Bersamina studies nature for its patterns and textures. These elements are simplified and somewhat abstracted in his work, yet at the same time amplified. River rocks become repeating ovals of negative space on a field of black charcoal, the layered forms cannily mimic the rippling of shadows underwater.
Delineating a rock, a weed, a feather; the artists in Strange Forest share an affinity for the natural world. Taking a microscope to nature, their chosen subjects become microcosms for exploring the state of the earth and our place within it.
Extraño Bosque Extraño Bosque presenta dibujos contemporáneos dedicados a dimensiones abstractas y surrealistas del mundo natural. Utilizando técnicas de ilustraciones científicas y de botánica, seis artistas de la Bay Area (Leo Bersamina, John Casey, Masako Miki, Nora Pauwels, Lela Shields y Elizabeth Sims) asumen el papel de naturalistas experimentales. A través de procesos tales como delineación minuciosa, clasificación y enfoque en el ciclo de la vida, los artistas expresan un profundo respeto por la flora y la fauna de nuestro planeta, mientras que al mismo tiempo lo reinventan. Buscando encuentros que la emocionen, Elizabeth Sims empieza con una observación cercana de la naturaleza, un pino Bristlecone y un pedazo de obsidiana, para crear dibujos a gran escala que son parte real y parte invención. Los títulos de su obra hacen referencia a artistas y personajes de ficción que han desaparecido en el desierto. Usando una mezcla poco común de sal marina, cuarzo y purpurina, Lela Shields crea superficies en las que se representan escenas botánicas detalladas con gouache, lápiz y pan de oro. La base desigual e inestable de las imágenes impide que Shields funcione a la perfección, y representa una especie de metamorfosis ya que el trabajo frágil está siempre susceptible de cambio. El trabajo de Nora Pauwels se centra en la flora que se extiende sin control alrededor de su barrio semi-industrial de Emeryville. No importa cuál sea la especie de planta – Pauwels frecuentemente recolecta malas hierbas – hojas, flores y ramas también son recolectadas debido a su sutileza estética y también porque son demarcadores de los lugares que ellas están determinadas a crecer. Inspirados en las tradiciones sintoístas, los animales y las escenas abstractas de Masako Miki representan un espacio intermedio entre el mundo material y el espiritual. Utilizando una paleta de colores enfocada en azul y blanco, estos colores se pueden interpretar como símbolos de lo conocido y lo desconocido. Las flores son una metáfora del crecimiento en los dibujos de John Casey. En la superficie, representan la belleza, el amor y la pureza. Sin embargo, cuando la flor se convierte en una adición que crece de una de las criaturas de Casey, se adquiere significados más oscuros; belleza a través de una mutación antinatural, así como la capacidad de persistir y prosperar a pesar de un crecimiento similar al cáncer. Leo Bersamina estudia la naturaleza por sus patrones y texturas. Estos elementos son simplificados y algo abstraídos en su trabajo, pero al mismo tiempo amplificados. Las rocas de los ríos se convierten en óvalos repetitivos de espacio negativo en un campo de carbón negro, las formas estratificadas pueden imitar el ondulado de las sombras bajo el agua. Delineando una roca, una hierba, una pluma; los artistas de Extraño Bosque comparten una afinidad por el mundo natural. Tomando un microscopio para mirar la naturaleza, sus temas elegidos se convierten en microcosmos para explorar el estado de la tierra y nuestro lugar dentro de ella.
Small Works: Selections by Phil Linhares features original small works of art (up to 14 inches) by California artists, representing a wide range of media, artistic styles and topics. Total cash awards of $1,000.
Juror’s Statement:
“As juror for the Small Works exhibition I was very pleased by the quality of the work submitted. Approximately 60 works were ultimately selected, the number limited by the available gallery space; more works could have easily qualified otherwise.
Artists often ask exhibition jurors “What are you looking for?” as if the juror is seeking a particular form of expression to make a larger point. My response would be “looking for very good work in any form”; the artworks here illustrate that view.
I want to thank all the artists who submitted work for consideration, and also thank the staff of the Richmond Art Center for their gracious cooperation on every phase of the exhibition.” Phil Linhares Small Works Juror
About the Juror: Former Chief Curator of the Oakland Museum of California, Philip Linhares has organized numerous exhibitions on contemporary art, including solo exhibitions of the work of Leon Golub, Joan Brown, Jim Nutt, Bruce Nauman, and Ruth Asawa. In the Oakland Museum of California’s recent gallery transformation and reinstallation, Linhares directed the installation on Folk Art and Counter Culture including works by Peter Mason Bond and Martin Ramirez (Folk Art) and Wally Hedrick, Jay DeFeo and Bruce Conner (Counter Culture).
Image:
Gina Golledge, Visceral Motion, 2017, linen, upcycled wool, silk, and cotton, silk and wool thread
Each year, the Richmond Art Center invites our members to participate in our Annual Members’ Show, which is showcased in our Main and West Galleries. This year’s featured Member Spotlight Artists are John Friedman, Ed Lay, Hilda Robinson, and Sandy Walker.
Please be sure to join us for the Opening Reception on Saturday, June 9, from 5:00 to 7:00 pm. Our Members’ Artist Talk will take place on Saturday, June 16 at 11:00 am.
Artists exhibiting: Tarnel Abbott, Bill Abright, Cassandra Adams, Cristina Alvarez Magliano, Peter Baczek, Donna Barati, Debra Barnes, Kirsten Barrere, Wallace Bastein, Benjamin Beede, Joseph Bellacera, Paula Bellacera, Dave Benoit, Mira Benoni, David Bernard, Jim Billy, Andi Biren, Priscilla Birge, Stephen Bischoff, Ruth Block, Bonnie Randall Boller, Lorraine Bonner, Claire Bowman, Linda Lee Boyd, Jennie Braman, Susan Brand, Stella Breslin, Edythe Bresnahan , Clair Brown, Jayma Brown, Walter Bruszewski, Sheila Cain, Lois Cantor, Donna Caplin, Suzanne Carey, Cherie Carter, Suzanne Cerny, Mari Chovan-Upton, Will Clipson, Kay Coffee, Lorna Cogen, Mort Cohn, Sas Colby, Robin Cooper, Edmund Coppinger, Hélène Paulette Côté, Larry Craighill, Cheryl Crane, Tara Daly, Barbara Daniell, Riti Dhesi, Deb Dyer, Gene Erickson, Danielle Fafchamps, Claudine Feibusch, Donna Fenstermaker, Lorrie Fink, Carole Fitzgerald, Duane Fitzgerald, Mary Fong, Thomas Franco, Nancy Freeman, John Friedman, Kathleen Gadway, Rita Gardner, Marilyn Gee-Cartwright, Carla Gelbaum, Elaine Gerber, Regina Gilligan, Kate Godfrey, Alisa Golden, Edith Goldstein, Sally Goldstein, Kathy Grady, Goodman Gries, Vicki Gunter, Patricia Guthrie, Annie Hallatt, Victoria Hamlin, Colleen Haraden-Gorski, Bryan Harris, Bea Hartman, Larry Hatfield, Ellen Hauptli, Karl Hauser, Katie Hawkinson, Heidi Headapohl, Will Headapohl, Bill Helsel, Jeanne Hendrickson, Marilyn Hill, Susie Hodges, Susan Hybloom, Lisa Jacobs, Carol Jenkins, Carol Jenkins, Dale Johnson, Bill Johnston Jr., Jessica Jordao, Sharon Jue, Myoung Kang, Kristen George Kavanagh, Betsy Kellas, Betsy Kendall, Holly King, Fred Kling, Elisabeth Koss, Lisa Krepela, Doris Kretschmer, Carol Ladewig, Eloise Larson, Allen Lavee, Diana Lawrence , Robbin Légère Henderson, Ed Lay, Sue Levin, Linna Lippke, Malcolm Lubliner, Lynn Maack, Barbara Maricle, Michael Maszk, Vicky McAdams, Erin McCluskey Wheeler, Susan Meinke, Kat Mill, Donovan Miller, Judy Miller, David Mintim, Steven Morales, Gordon Morris, Claire Murphy, Dawn Nakashima, Irene Nelson, Bernadette Ngai, Shamy Noily, Stephen Nomura, Fletcher Oakes, Owen Oakley, Karen Ondracek, Elmarise Owens, Anne Meade Paden, Rachel Padilla, Shirley Parini, Javier Perez, Heli Perrett, Lucy Phenix, Rich Quade, Lynda Reed, Jimmy Reina, Virginia Rigney, Solveig Roberts, Hilda Robinson, Joseph Rogers, Mark Rosenthal, Brian Rothstein, Linda Ruiz-Lozito, Elke Savala, Jabali Sawicki, Victoria Sawicki, Susan Schneider, Karen Schwartz, Stephanie Scott, Andrea Segall, Joani Share, James Shefik, Michael Shemchuk, Amrita Singhal, Allison Skidgel, Joseph Slusky, Bertrell Smith, Maryly Snow, Sophie Stathakos, Larry Stefl, John Steinberg, Jan Stevenson, Bethia Stone, Lynn Sullivan, Ruth Tabancay, Phoebe Tanner, Claudia Tarantino, Leitha Thrall, Pam Stefl Toki, George Tomberlin, Toby Tover, Susan Tureck, Sandy Walker, Catherine Waller, Marlene Walters, Wei-Jing Wan, John Wehrle, Susan Wehrle, Eleanor Day West, Marcy Wheeler, Heather Wilson, Albert Wong, Danielle Wright, Jan Wurm, Dave Yoas, Clarie Young, Susan Zimmerman
Richmond Creates: The 6th Annual Art in the Community Show brings a portion of the work created this year in our off-site satellite classes here to the Richmond Art Center. The artists shown here range from ages 5 to 85 and were all participants in 6-10 week art classes held at local school and community centers. This exhibition showcases work made in a variety of media – printmaking, sculpture, metals, book arts, public art, weaving, painting, ceramics and mixed media. The talented teaching artists facilitating these classes are dedicated to sharing the joy and power of the creative process in service to learning and well-being.
This year, AIC offered a total of 38 classes and one school-wide residency, engaging over 1500 students. In collaboration with the WCCUSD office of expanded learning, we provided after-school art classes in 6 elementary schools, one middle and one high school. In its third year, our school-wide spring residency at Washington elementary focused on printmaking, ceramics and book arts. Half of our partnerships occur in non-traditional learning spaces which include local non profits, City of Richmond community centers, the E.M. Downer YMCA, and housing-affiliated community centers. This year Art Center staff and teaching artists shared strategies for artmaking with 45 elementary school teachers and 20 after school group leaders through the Bring Art to Your Classroom professional development workshop series.
In collaboration with the West Contra Costa School District (WCCUSD), the Richmond Art Center will present the annual West Contra Costa Unified School District Art Show in its Community Gallery.
The Richmond Art Center has a prosperous and long-standing 53-year partnership with the WCCUSD, and this year there are over 300 works of various media and subject matter on display representing the creative artistic talents of students from middle and high schools throughout the school district. The Art Center and WCCUSD share an ongoing vision that art education is a crucial component of a thriving and productive society.
There will be a special reception honoring the students and art teachers on Tuesday, April 17 from 5:00 – 7:00 pm, which will be free and open to the public.
In addition, numerous art awards will be given out by the Richmond Art Center, the El Sobrante Art Guild, and other community members for the students’ artistic talent and originality.
The West Contra Costa Unified School District has generously sponsored the annual student exhibition.
The student show coincides with the Art Center’s featured exhibitions: Face Forward: Self-Image & Self-Worth and Selections from the Betty Ann and Raymond Barnett Collection.
Face Forward: Self-image & Self-Worth Artists Panel Discussion: Saturday, April 7, 2-4pm
The group exhibition, Face Forward: Self-Image & Self-Worth, includes artists working across many platforms to address issues of identity, race, gender, status and societal values. Painting, photography, sculpture, and video present the variety of ways in which artists situate themselves in life.
Over the centuries artists from Rembrandt to Warhol have used the self-portrait as a vehicle to investigate aging, wealth and poverty, social position and social non-conformity. The contemporary artists gathered together in this exhibition use the self-portrait in these and other explorations to reflect contemporary life. In these times of diversity and multicultural experience, the artist’s image is both a cypher for the human condition as well as the foundation for complex iconography in which the cultural object stands to reflect the impact of societal norms on the individual.
From the groundbreaking feminist work of Judy Dater in her personifications of societal expectations, to the deceptively bright scenes of Allan deSouza’s collaged alter-ego responding to racism, these artworks all bring pause. The underlying values of contemporary society are brought forward for reflection and response.
Other artists participating in Face Forward: Self-Image & Self-Worth include Mildred Howard, Judith Linhares, Abel Rodriguez, Nyé Lyn Tho, Lava Thomas, Cate White, and Vanessa Woods. Using brush or camera, these artists bring humor, persistence, and intimacy to life.
Image:
Abel Rodriguez Self-Portrait in Green with My Hair Pulled Back 2006
Oil on panel
16” x 12”
Face Forward: Self-Image & Self-Worth (Mire Adelante: Autoimagen & Autoestima) Galería: Main Gallery Fechas de la Exposición: 27 de Marzo – 19 de Mayo de 2018 Inauguración: Sábado, 24 de Marzo, 5:00 – 7:00 pm
La exposición colectiva, Face Forward: Self-Image & Self-Wort (Mire Adelante: Autoimagen & Autoestima), incluye artistas que trabajan en diversas plataformas que abordan cuestiones de identidad, raza, género, estado y valores sociales. Pintura, fotografía, escultura y video presentan la variedad de las formas en que los artistas se sitúan en la vida.
A lo largo de los siglos, artistas desde el Rembrandt al Warhol han utilizado el autorretrato como vehículo para investigar el envejecimiento, la riqueza y la pobreza, la posición social y la inconformidad social. Los artistas contemporáneos reunidos en esta exposición usan el autorretrato en estas y otras exploraciones para reflejar acerca de la vida contemporánea. En estos tiempos de diversidad y experiencia multicultural, la imagen del artista es tanto un código para la condición humana como la base para una iconografía compleja en la que el objeto cultural puede reflejar el impacto de las normas sociales en el individuo.
Desde el innovador trabajo feminista de Judy Dater en sus personificaciones de las expectativas de la sociedad, hasta las escenas engañosamente brillantes del alter ego de Allan deSouza que responde al racismo, estas obras de arte provocan una pausa. Los valores subyacentes de la sociedad contemporánea se presentan para la reflexión y para la respuesta.
Otros artistas que participan en Face Forward: Self-Image & Self-Worth(Mire Adelante: Autoimagen & Autoestima)incluyen a Mildred Howard, Judith Linhares, Abel Rodríguez, Nyé Lyn Tho, Lava Thomas, Cate White y Vanessa Woods. Usando un pincel o una cámara, estos artistas dan vida al humor, la persistencia y la intimidad.
Imagen:
Abel Rodriguez
Autorretrato en verde con mi cabello al lado.
2006
Óleo sobre tabla
16 “x 12”
The century of collage that began with George Braque and Pablo Picasso taking wallpaper or newspaper directly to drawing or painting opened a floodgate of exploration and expression making use of diverse materials in concert. Of today’s moment, the seven artists in The Cutting Edge exhibition sharpen their vision employing scissors and wit, glue and gumption. John Hundt, David Jones, Diana Krevsky, Sherry Parker, Kim Smith, Livia Stein, and Shayna Yasuhara each pursue a different vein of inquiry to touch upon the dream, the dreaded, the seductive, and the puzzling. Riotous color, cool text, and fanciful imaginings all call for visual discovery.
Heir to this lineage, John Hundt makes use of vintage printed images to reconfigure the erotic body, to relocate the physical landscape, and to disorient the conventional thought. In the hands of Sherry Parker, the diverse elements seek to coalesce in a bitter-sweet scene of poignancy. And with yet another inflection, one tinged with nostalgia as well as irony, Kim Smith glues and writes to ask directly what is missing, what is lost, and how do we manage to make things whole again.
It is with the bits and pieces from her own drawings and paintings that Diana Krevsky re-imagines psychological landscapes. This transcends a recycling of materials and images to a discovery of new voices in the re-assembled. The taking of an element from previous work to propel a new vision is also common to Livia Stein as seen in etchings re-incorporated in larger compositions.
Livia Stein opens her work to the culture of India where she has had artist’s residencies: the intensity of color, the sensuality of cloth, and the impulse of ornamentation all propel these complex compositions into an abundance of energy and movement. Similarly, Shayna Yasuhara takes on a visual language of a specific culture – but here it is popular culture: the visual language of animé, the sensibility of cute, and the flat, close values of a palette orchestrated in a muted register.
The specificity of palette, the convention of drawing style, and the open expansiveness of space also figure in the work of David Jones. Lending a sense of nostalgia to the found images that are interrupted by the mixing of puzzles, the inconsistent visual narratives themselves take on a dreamlike disorientation so that even in a seemingly completed construction – the scene, the story, the meaning – remain puzzling.