Kat Flyn
JOHN ADELMAN
5,307 nails, 2018
gel ink & acrylic paint on canvas
35.50h x 24.50w in
John Adelman was born in a small town in northwest Ohio in 1969. In 1992, he earned a BFA in painting, drawing and printmaking from Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. Upon graduation he worked first for CM/SNP Printing, a local newspaper print shop, and then for Airwaves Inc. a t-shirt design silk screen printing manufacturer for ten years, in which, it is estimated he produced over 12 million images during his tenure. In 2006, John earned his MFA from the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas. Prior to graduating he began being represented in Dallas by Holly Johnson Gallery. John moved to Houston where he found a live/work space at Commerce Street Artists' Warehouse (CSAW) which closed in 2008. While there he worked with galleries in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Marfa Texas and Bradbury Gallery at Arkansas State University. In total John had 7 solo shows and 41 group showings from 2006-2008. After the shutdown of CSAW, John moved to a small one-bedroom apartment 20 miles north of Houston, where he currently lives and works. Since the autumn of 2008, John has been represented by 2 galleries in Houston, Nicole Longnecker Gallery, one in Los Angeles, Diane Rosenstein Fine Art, Wally Workman Gallery in Austin, Texas, Works on Paper in Marfa, Texas along with HJG in Dallas. Adelman has been a finalist for the Hunting Art Prize, awarded by Hunting PLC, 3 times (2009, 2012, 2014.) In total, he has had 25 solo shows, 2 2-person exhibitions. The 22nd Annual NO DEAD ARTISTS at Jonathan Ferrara Gallery will be his 181 group exhibition.
STATEMENT|||
My work of drawing on canvas is an exploration of process, rules-based art. This procedure is comprised of a formula of specific actions based upon a variable circumstance and can be rooted in computer based algorithmic if...then statements. These procedural mandates are instituted from the beginning of a work and continue through its completion. The formula can dictate, structure, color, composition, scale and interior or exterior values. The formula not only controls my actions as the artist but likes organizes either the component parts of a (dismantled) object or the component parts of a single used dictionary. When the dictionary is put into play, I transcribe definitions from the 1979 Unabridged Webster's Encyclopedic Dictionary. I create dense, layered images of handwriting or convert letters of the definition into their numeric counterpart and proceed through the formula with the use of that number as a means a moving through the whole of the image. Primarily, the most used component is nails, an extension of the dismantled object, traced and sometimes labeled. Other works have included individual stitches from an entire embroidery, every part of a motorcycle, electric organ or a parts manual of a 50-caliber machine gun, to name a few. Regardless of whichever methodology is employed, every work has a large volume of traced or transcribed components. Each work’s title conveys this understanding to the viewer. Traced component works are entitled by the total number of tracings. While transcribed component works are titled by the initial defined word (which picks up where the last piece ended.) This procedure establishes an internal chronology within the text-based body of the work. While I have been using this system of creation for fourteen years the formulas continue to increase and produce ever new and diverse works. For it is my desire to see, not foresee, the complete determination of the formula.
JOHN ADELMAN
16,423 hand drawn nails, 2018
gel ink & acrylic paint on canvas
24h x 24w in
John Adelman was born in a small town in northwest Ohio in 1969. In 1992, he earned a BFA in painting, drawing and printmaking from Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. Upon graduation he worked first for CM/SNP Printing, a local newspaper print shop, and then for Airwaves Inc. a t-shirt design silk screen printing manufacturer for ten years, in which, it is estimated he produced over 12 million images during his tenure. In 2006, John earned his MFA from the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas. Prior to graduating he began being represented in Dallas by Holly Johnson Gallery. John moved to Houston where he found a live/work space at Commerce Street Artists' Warehouse (CSAW) which closed in 2008. While there he worked with galleries in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Marfa Texas and Bradbury Gallery at Arkansas State University. In total John had 7 solo shows and 41 group showings from 2006-2008. After the shutdown of CSAW, John moved to a small one-bedroom apartment 20 miles north of Houston, where he currently lives and works. Since the autumn of 2008, John has been represented by 2 galleries in Houston, Nicole Longnecker Gallery, one in Los Angeles, Diane Rosenstein Fine Art, Wally Workman Gallery in Austin, Texas, Works on Paper in Marfa, Texas along with HJG in Dallas. Adelman has been a finalist for the Hunting Art Prize, awarded by Hunting PLC, 3 times (2009, 2012, 2014.) In total, he has had 25 solo shows, 2 2-person exhibitions. The 22nd Annual NO DEAD ARTISTS at Jonathan Ferrara Gallery will be his 181 group exhibition.
STATEMENT|||
My work of drawing on canvas is an exploration of process, rules-based art. This procedure is comprised of a formula of specific actions based upon a variable circumstance and can be rooted in computer based algorithmic if...then statements. These procedural mandates are instituted from the beginning of a work and continue through its completion. The formula can dictate, structure, color, composition, scale and interior or exterior values. The formula not only controls my actions as the artist but likes organizes either the component parts of a (dismantled) object or the component parts of a single used dictionary. When the dictionary is put into play, I transcribe definitions from the 1979 Unabridged Webster's Encyclopedic Dictionary. I create dense, layered images of handwriting or convert letters of the definition into their numeric counterpart and proceed through the formula with the use of that number as a means a moving through the whole of the image. Primarily, the most used component is nails, an extension of the dismantled object, traced and sometimes labeled. Other works have included individual stitches from an entire embroidery, every part of a motorcycle, electric organ or a parts manual of a 50-caliber machine gun, to name a few. Regardless of whichever methodology is employed, every work has a large volume of traced or transcribed components. Each work’s title conveys this understanding to the viewer. Traced component works are entitled by the total number of tracings. While transcribed component works are titled by the initial defined word (which picks up where the last piece ended.) This procedure establishes an internal chronology within the text-based body of the work. While I have been using this system of creation for fourteen years the formulas continue to increase and produce ever new and diverse works. For it is my desire to see, not foresee, the complete determination of the formula.
JOHN ADELMAN
Oxalyl, 2018
gel ink & acrylic paint on canvas
28h x 29w in
John Adelman was born in a small town in northwest Ohio in 1969. In 1992, he earned a BFA in painting, drawing and printmaking from Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. Upon graduation he worked first for CM/SNP Printing, a local newspaper print shop, and then for Airwaves Inc. a t-shirt design silk screen printing manufacturer for ten years, in which, it is estimated he produced over 12 million images during his tenure. In 2006, John earned his MFA from the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas. Prior to graduating he began being represented in Dallas by Holly Johnson Gallery. John moved to Houston where he found a live/work space at Commerce Street Artists' Warehouse (CSAW) which closed in 2008. While there he worked with galleries in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Marfa Texas and Bradbury Gallery at Arkansas State University. In total John had 7 solo shows and 41 group showings from 2006-2008. After the shutdown of CSAW, John moved to a small one-bedroom apartment 20 miles north of Houston, where he currently lives and works. Since the autumn of 2008, John has been represented by 2 galleries in Houston, Nicole Longnecker Gallery, one in Los Angeles, Diane Rosenstein Fine Art, Wally Workman Gallery in Austin, Texas, Works on Paper in Marfa, Texas along with HJG in Dallas. Adelman has been a finalist for the Hunting Art Prize, awarded by Hunting PLC, 3 times (2009, 2012, 2014.) In total, he has had 25 solo shows, 2 2-person exhibitions. The 22nd Annual NO DEAD ARTISTS at Jonathan Ferrara Gallery will be his 181 group exhibition.
STATEMENT|||
My work of drawing on canvas is an exploration of process, rules-based art. This procedure is comprised of a formula of specific actions based upon a variable circumstance and can be rooted in computer based algorithmic if...then statements. These procedural mandates are instituted from the beginning of a work and continue through its completion. The formula can dictate, structure, color, composition, scale and interior or exterior values. The formula not only controls my actions as the artist but likes organizes either the component parts of a (dismantled) object or the component parts of a single used dictionary. When the dictionary is put into play, I transcribe definitions from the 1979 Unabridged Webster's Encyclopedic Dictionary. I create dense, layered images of handwriting or convert letters of the definition into their numeric counterpart and proceed through the formula with the use of that number as a means a moving through the whole of the image. Primarily, the most used component is nails, an extension of the dismantled object, traced and sometimes labeled. Other works have included individual stitches from an entire embroidery, every part of a motorcycle, electric organ or a parts manual of a 50-caliber machine gun, to name a few. Regardless of whichever methodology is employed, every work has a large volume of traced or transcribed components. Each work’s title conveys this understanding to the viewer. Traced component works are entitled by the total number of tracings. While transcribed component works are titled by the initial defined word (which picks up where the last piece ended.) This procedure establishes an internal chronology within the text-based body of the work. While I have been using this system of creation for fourteen years the formulas continue to increase and produce ever new and diverse works. For it is my desire to see, not foresee, the complete determination of the formula.
JOSEPH BARRON
An Unfortunate Series of Distractions, 2018
acrylic on canvas
48h x 36w in
57.25h x 45.25w in (framed)
Joseph Barron was born in St Louis Missouri in 1959. His father worked in the corporate shoe business and his mother stayed home. Joe worked his way to The School of the Art Institute of Chicago where he was inspired by his teacher, Tony Phillips, and subsequently came out on the other side with a Bachelors and a Masters degree in Fine Art. Shortly after graduating, Barron was awarded a Pollock-Krasner foundation Grant that allowed him to create a series of works which helped him demonstrate the artistic strength that would help him to soon win another award, a New York City studio space grant from the Marie Walsh Sharp Foundation. During College at SAIC he had met his wife to be, and together after graduating, they spent 5 years in New York where Joe pursued his art, painting at the Sharpe Foundation studios, and helped defray some bills with jobs doing textile design work. Joe now lives in Sarasota County in Florida where he paints canvases and large scale murals for public and private spaces. Joe is now focusing mainly on canvas works, drawing thematic material from current events and reconciling them with timeless archetypes and mythologies. And he is hoping to raise the bar again, stating, “I am honored and excited about being included in this exhibition. It’s an amazing opportunity to show at an important gallery, in a city that I have loved since first visiting on family vacations as an early adolescent. New Orleans accomplishes what my paintings aspire to. It brings together elements and themes from everywhere, creating a world that is unique but familiar, but always fresh, and always expanding by using its great resource, the past that its planted in.”
STATEMENT|||
The first goal: to perform the ritual of mixing and preparing the paint. The second: to make something intelligible in the language of paint, in a perceptual representational style drawing from history, to speak to a timeless ethos. My traditional technique lets me flex socially acceptable muscles in a sleight of hand that allows the deviant to slip in, and it also offers a personal disciplined challenge that gives me both pain and pleasure. I enjoy the deceitful convention of painting a visually recognizable form onto a two dimensional surface. My representational technique could be read as retrograde but that would be only a partial superficial and therefore inaccurate reading. I believe in my work, the technical style is also defiantly and simultaneously cutting edge, in its audacious triaxial intent of entertaining, informing and perplexing the audience in service of contemporary socio-geo-political criticism. Life is chaotic and wacky. But, it has a purpose. I don’t know what that purpose is, but it appears to me, (and of course I am not proclaiming anything that hasn’t been already proposed by wiser individuals than me), to be about energy- a harmony of energies or maybe a single energy that runs throughout everything or maybe that energy just simply is everything. The reason for our existence may not necessarily be a reason that we even can know. It might be a simple purpose and it might be complex, but one thing I’m sure of is that we are complex. Our sociology is complex. Our politics are complex. Our histories are complex. In my current work I’m starting my departure from a place in art history, albeit mainly that of western history. As a white male from the suburban midwest I must start where I was planted, shedding ballast as I portage between points on the map. I’m exploring the past both visually and sociopolitically and reconciling that past with current characters’ foibles and folly. I believe, that maybe more than ever, art is needed today, to preclude conflict and attempt healing. In today’s factional and toxic climate there is need for art which hands itself over in an enlightening, sympathetic way. My hope and belief is that a deflective display of comedy will be ultimately more persuasive than inflammatory demagoguery. I hope I am not so unique in this conviction but perhaps I would like to think of myself as singular in depiction, my particular assortment and juxtaposition of characters which I draw into my art. My aim is to share a vision of optimism while also reflecting contemporary circumstances, whether they be triumphant or troubling. I always want to do this with humor, (well at least for now), and I truly always want to do this with critical self scrutiny and I always want to do this with everything that I have in me. Having said all the above, with all of its self-conscious, pretentious, art-critical and philosophical cliches, plainly and simply, I just love to paint landscapes, plants, people and life. And, I hope, through art’s filter, some good comes of it.
JOSEPH BARRON
Draining the Swamp, 2018
acrylic on canvas
36h x 24w in
Joseph Barron was born in St Louis Missouri in 1959. His father worked in the corporate shoe business and his mother stayed home. Joe worked his way to The School of the Art Institute of Chicago where he was inspired by his teacher, Tony Phillips, and subsequently came out on the other side with a Bachelors and a Masters degree in Fine Art. Shortly after graduating, Barron was awarded a Pollock-Krasner foundation Grant that allowed him to create a series of works which helped him demonstrate the artistic strength that would help him to soon win another award, a New York City studio space grant from the Marie Walsh Sharp Foundation. During College at SAIC he had met his wife to be, and together after graduating, they spent 5 years in New York where Joe pursued his art, painting at the Sharpe Foundation studios, and helped defray some bills with jobs doing textile design work. Joe now lives in Sarasota County in Florida where he paints canvases and large scale murals for public and private spaces. Joe is now focusing mainly on canvas works, drawing thematic material from current events and reconciling them with timeless archetypes and mythologies. And he is hoping to raise the bar again, stating, “I am honored and excited about being included in this exhibition. It’s an amazing opportunity to show at an important gallery, in a city that I have loved since first visiting on family vacations as an early adolescent. New Orleans accomplishes what my paintings aspire to. It brings together elements and themes from everywhere, creating a world that is unique but familiar, but always fresh, and always expanding by using its great resource, the past that its planted in.”
STATEMENT|||
The first goal: to perform the ritual of mixing and preparing the paint. The second: to make something intelligible in the language of paint, in a perceptual representational style drawing from history, to speak to a timeless ethos. My traditional technique lets me flex socially acceptable muscles in a sleight of hand that allows the deviant to slip in, and it also offers a personal disciplined challenge that gives me both pain and pleasure. I enjoy the deceitful convention of painting a visually recognizable form onto a two dimensional surface. My representational technique could be read as retrograde but that would be only a partial superficial and therefore inaccurate reading. I believe in my work, the technical style is also defiantly and simultaneously cutting edge, in its audacious triaxial intent of entertaining, informing and perplexing the audience in service of contemporary socio-geo-political criticism. Life is chaotic and wacky. But, it has a purpose. I don’t know what that purpose is, but it appears to me, (and of course I am not proclaiming anything that hasn’t been already proposed by wiser individuals than me), to be about energy- a harmony of energies or maybe a single energy that runs throughout everything or maybe that energy just simply is everything. The reason for our existence may not necessarily be a reason that we even can know. It might be a simple purpose and it might be complex, but one thing I’m sure of is that we are complex. Our sociology is complex. Our politics are complex. Our histories are complex. In my current work I’m starting my departure from a place in art history, albeit mainly that of western history. As a white male from the suburban midwest I must start where I was planted, shedding ballast as I portage between points on the map. I’m exploring the past both visually and sociopolitically and reconciling that past with current characters’ foibles and folly. I believe, that maybe more than ever, art is needed today, to preclude conflict and attempt healing. In today’s factional and toxic climate there is need for art which hands itself over in an enlightening, sympathetic way. My hope and belief is that a deflective display of comedy will be ultimately more persuasive than inflammatory demagoguery. I hope I am not so unique in this conviction but perhaps I would like to think of myself as singular in depiction, my particular assortment and juxtaposition of characters which I draw into my art. My aim is to share a vision of optimism while also reflecting contemporary circumstances, whether they be triumphant or troubling. I always want to do this with humor, (well at least for now), and I truly always want to do this with critical self scrutiny and I always want to do this with everything that I have in me. Having said all the above, with all of its self-conscious, pretentious, art-critical and philosophical cliches, plainly and simply, I just love to paint landscapes, plants, people and life. And, I hope, through art’s filter, some good comes of it.
JOSEPH BARRON
Nasty Woman, 2018
acrylic on canvas
36h x 24w in
45.75h x 34w in (framed)
Joseph Barron was born in St Louis Missouri in 1959. His father worked in the corporate shoe business and his mother stayed home. Joe worked his way to The School of the Art Institute of Chicago where he was inspired by his teacher, Tony Phillips, and subsequently came out on the other side with a Bachelors and a Masters degree in Fine Art. Shortly after graduating, Barron was awarded a Pollock-Krasner foundation Grant that allowed him to create a series of works which helped him demonstrate the artistic strength that would help him to soon win another award, a New York City studio space grant from the Marie Walsh Sharp Foundation. During College at SAIC he had met his wife to be, and together after graduating, they spent 5 years in New York where Joe pursued his art, painting at the Sharpe Foundation studios, and helped defray some bills with jobs doing textile design work. Joe now lives in Sarasota County in Florida where he paints canvases and large scale murals for public and private spaces. Joe is now focusing mainly on canvas works, drawing thematic material from current events and reconciling them with timeless archetypes and mythologies. And he is hoping to raise the bar again, stating, “I am honored and excited about being included in this exhibition. It’s an amazing opportunity to show at an important gallery, in a city that I have loved since first visiting on family vacations as an early adolescent. New Orleans accomplishes what my paintings aspire to. It brings together elements and themes from everywhere, creating a world that is unique but familiar, but always fresh, and always expanding by using its great resource, the past that its planted in.”
STATEMENT|||
The first goal: to perform the ritual of mixing and preparing the paint. The second: to make something intelligible in the language of paint, in a perceptual representational style drawing from history, to speak to a timeless ethos. My traditional technique lets me flex socially acceptable muscles in a sleight of hand that allows the deviant to slip in, and it also offers a personal disciplined challenge that gives me both pain and pleasure. I enjoy the deceitful convention of painting a visually recognizable form onto a two dimensional surface. My representational technique could be read as retrograde but that would be only a partial superficial and therefore inaccurate reading. I believe in my work, the technical style is also defiantly and simultaneously cutting edge, in its audacious triaxial intent of entertaining, informing and perplexing the audience in service of contemporary socio-geo-political criticism. Life is chaotic and wacky. But, it has a purpose. I don’t know what that purpose is, but it appears to me, (and of course I am not proclaiming anything that hasn’t been already proposed by wiser individuals than me), to be about energy- a harmony of energies or maybe a single energy that runs throughout everything or maybe that energy just simply is everything. The reason for our existence may not necessarily be a reason that we even can know. It might be a simple purpose and it might be complex, but one thing I’m sure of is that we are complex. Our sociology is complex. Our politics are complex. Our histories are complex. In my current work I’m starting my departure from a place in art history, albeit mainly that of western history. As a white male from the suburban midwest I must start where I was planted, shedding ballast as I portage between points on the map. I’m exploring the past both visually and sociopolitically and reconciling that past with current characters’ foibles and folly. I believe, that maybe more than ever, art is needed today, to preclude conflict and attempt healing. In today’s factional and toxic climate there is need for art which hands itself over in an enlightening, sympathetic way. My hope and belief is that a deflective display of comedy will be ultimately more persuasive than inflammatory demagoguery. I hope I am not so unique in this conviction but perhaps I would like to think of myself as singular in depiction, my particular assortment and juxtaposition of characters which I draw into my art. My aim is to share a vision of optimism while also reflecting contemporary circumstances, whether they be triumphant or troubling. I always want to do this with humor, (well at least for now), and I truly always want to do this with critical self scrutiny and I always want to do this with everything that I have in me. Having said all the above, with all of its self-conscious, pretentious, art-critical and philosophical cliches, plainly and simply, I just love to paint landscapes, plants, people and life. And, I hope, through art’s filter, some good comes of it.
JOSEPH BARRON
Resurrection, Study, 2018
acrylic on canvas
9h x 12w in
Joseph Barron was born in St Louis Missouri in 1959. His father worked in the corporate shoe business and his mother stayed home. Joe worked his way to The School of the Art Institute of Chicago where he was inspired by his teacher, Tony Phillips, and subsequently came out on the other side with a Bachelors and a Masters degree in Fine Art. Shortly after graduating, Barron was awarded a Pollock-Krasner foundation Grant that allowed him to create a series of works which helped him demonstrate the artistic strength that would help him to soon win another award, a New York City studio space grant from the Marie Walsh Sharp Foundation. During College at SAIC he had met his wife to be, and together after graduating, they spent 5 years in New York where Joe pursued his art, painting at the Sharpe Foundation studios, and helped defray some bills with jobs doing textile design work. Joe now lives in Sarasota County in Florida where he paints canvases and large scale murals for public and private spaces. Joe is now focusing mainly on canvas works, drawing thematic material from current events and reconciling them with timeless archetypes and mythologies. And he is hoping to raise the bar again, stating, “I am honored and excited about being included in this exhibition. It’s an amazing opportunity to show at an important gallery, in a city that I have loved since first visiting on family vacations as an early adolescent. New Orleans accomplishes what my paintings aspire to. It brings together elements and themes from everywhere, creating a world that is unique but familiar, but always fresh, and always expanding by using its great resource, the past that its planted in.”
STATEMENT|||
The first goal: to perform the ritual of mixing and preparing the paint. The second: to make something intelligible in the language of paint, in a perceptual representational style drawing from history, to speak to a timeless ethos. My traditional technique lets me flex socially acceptable muscles in a sleight of hand that allows the deviant to slip in, and it also offers a personal disciplined challenge that gives me both pain and pleasure. I enjoy the deceitful convention of painting a visually recognizable form onto a two dimensional surface. My representational technique could be read as retrograde but that would be only a partial superficial and therefore inaccurate reading. I believe in my work, the technical style is also defiantly and simultaneously cutting edge, in its audacious triaxial intent of entertaining, informing and perplexing the audience in service of contemporary socio-geo-political criticism. Life is chaotic and wacky. But, it has a purpose. I don’t know what that purpose is, but it appears to me, (and of course I am not proclaiming anything that hasn’t been already proposed by wiser individuals than me), to be about energy- a harmony of energies or maybe a single energy that runs throughout everything or maybe that energy just simply is everything. The reason for our existence may not necessarily be a reason that we even can know. It might be a simple purpose and it might be complex, but one thing I’m sure of is that we are complex. Our sociology is complex. Our politics are complex. Our histories are complex. In my current work I’m starting my departure from a place in art history, albeit mainly that of western history. As a white male from the suburban midwest I must start where I was planted, shedding ballast as I portage between points on the map. I’m exploring the past both visually and sociopolitically and reconciling that past with current characters’ foibles and folly. I believe, that maybe more than ever, art is needed today, to preclude conflict and attempt healing. In today’s factional and toxic climate there is need for art which hands itself over in an enlightening, sympathetic way. My hope and belief is that a deflective display of comedy will be ultimately more persuasive than inflammatory demagoguery. I hope I am not so unique in this conviction but perhaps I would like to think of myself as singular in depiction, my particular assortment and juxtaposition of characters which I draw into my art. My aim is to share a vision of optimism while also reflecting contemporary circumstances, whether they be triumphant or troubling. I always want to do this with humor, (well at least for now), and I truly always want to do this with critical self scrutiny and I always want to do this with everything that I have in me. Having said all the above, with all of its self-conscious, pretentious, art-critical and philosophical cliches, plainly and simply, I just love to paint landscapes, plants, people and life. And, I hope, through art’s filter, some good comes of it.
MASH BUHTAYDUSSS
Nursery Grime, 2016
archival photographic print on canvas with mixed media and collage
16h x 24w in
Mash Buhtaydusss launched in 2016, when painter Barbie L’Hoste and photographer Brandt Vicknair, both native to New Orleans, decided to merge their respective art mediums. Witnessing the appropriation of culture within their hometown, the duo was moved to create abstract stories that reflect on the absurdities which surround us, while simultaneously displaying parts of our world that have been casually discarded or irreverently taken from us. Brandt’s documentation of abandoned spaces reveal hidden stages that are given an encore with Barbie’s invention of imaginative landscapes through paint and collage. Heavy use of satire and nostalgia punctuate each story as the pair address issues most of us worry about: the human condition, excessive voyeurism, the environment, materialism, and social media obsession. In order to assign a greater meaning to the ridiculous events in the world, the team breathes new life into Brandt’s carefully chosen, decayed spaces by reinterpreting the original intentions of classic imagery. Barbie invites unlikely characters to join the narrative, and their pieces become a metaphor for our countless collective personas on social media. These figures are accompanied by reminders of pop-culture, corruption, and perversion, which clash with the ideals of naivety and youth to reveal hard truths. Mash Buhtaydusss is giving these structures a chance to have a permanent existence by giving them life through stories. While their collaborative name is a reflection of their sense of humor, these stories are sincerely personal, ironic, and open for interpretation.
STATEMENT|||
Mash Buhtaydusss is a collaborative art duo native to New Orleans, LA. Barbie L’Hoste and Brandt Vicknair merge to create new worlds from old abandonments. Photographs printed on canvas are combined with mixed media elements including stencils, collage, transparency, paint, and found objects. The team breathes new life into decaying spaces by inviting unlikely characters to join them. These characters aid in the invention of imaginative landscapes that become metanarratives in a series of surreal events and interpretive disappointments. Heavy use of satire, nostalgia, and absurdity punctuate each story as they explore the human condition and more closely examine our predisposition to assign a greater meaning to the ridiculous events of our own lives. A reality of popular culture, social media, corruption, and perversion clash with the ideals of youth to reveal hard truths. In the moments of these abstract stories, we are able to witness the last bits of innocence escape while thinking about the parts of our world that have casually been discarded.
MASH BUHTAYDUSSS
Child Labor Day GO!, 2016
archival photographic print on canvas with mixed media and collage
16h x 24w in
Mash Buhtaydusss launched in 2016, when painter Barbie L’Hoste and photographer Brandt Vicknair, both native to New Orleans, decided to merge their respective art mediums. Witnessing the appropriation of culture within their hometown, the duo was moved to create abstract stories that reflect on the absurdities which surround us, while simultaneously displaying parts of our world that have been casually discarded or irreverently taken from us. Brandt’s documentation of abandoned spaces reveal hidden stages that are given an encore with Barbie’s invention of imaginative landscapes through paint and collage. Heavy use of satire and nostalgia punctuate each story as the pair address issues most of us worry about: the human condition, excessive voyeurism, the environment, materialism, and social media obsession. In order to assign a greater meaning to the ridiculous events in the world, the team breathes new life into Brandt’s carefully chosen, decayed spaces by reinterpreting the original intentions of classic imagery. Barbie invites unlikely characters to join the narrative, and their pieces become a metaphor for our countless collective personas on social media. These figures are accompanied by reminders of pop-culture, corruption, and perversion, which clash with the ideals of naivety and youth to reveal hard truths. Mash Buhtaydusss is giving these structures a chance to have a permanent existence by giving them life through stories. While their collaborative name is a reflection of their sense of humor, these stories are sincerely personal, ironic, and open for interpretation.
STATEMENT|||
Mash Buhtaydusss is a collaborative art duo native to New Orleans, LA. Barbie L’Hoste and Brandt Vicknair merge to create new worlds from old abandonments. Photographs printed on canvas are combined with mixed media elements including stencils, collage, transparency, paint, and found objects. The team breathes new life into decaying spaces by inviting unlikely characters to join them. These characters aid in the invention of imaginative landscapes that become metanarratives in a series of surreal events and interpretive disappointments. Heavy use of satire, nostalgia, and absurdity punctuate each story as they explore the human condition and more closely examine our predisposition to assign a greater meaning to the ridiculous events of our own lives. A reality of popular culture, social media, corruption, and perversion clash with the ideals of youth to reveal hard truths. In the moments of these abstract stories, we are able to witness the last bits of innocence escape while thinking about the parts of our world that have casually been discarded.
MASH BUHTAYDUSSS
Bloodthirst, 2017
archival photographic print on canvas with mixed media and collage
16h x 24w in
Mash Buhtaydusss launched in 2016, when painter Barbie L’Hoste and photographer Brandt Vicknair, both native to New Orleans, decided to merge their respective art mediums. Witnessing the appropriation of culture within their hometown, the duo was moved to create abstract stories that reflect on the absurdities which surround us, while simultaneously displaying parts of our world that have been casually discarded or irreverently taken from us. Brandt’s documentation of abandoned spaces reveal hidden stages that are given an encore with Barbie’s invention of imaginative landscapes through paint and collage. Heavy use of satire and nostalgia punctuate each story as the pair address issues most of us worry about: the human condition, excessive voyeurism, the environment, materialism, and social media obsession. In order to assign a greater meaning to the ridiculous events in the world, the team breathes new life into Brandt’s carefully chosen, decayed spaces by reinterpreting the original intentions of classic imagery. Barbie invites unlikely characters to join the narrative, and their pieces become a metaphor for our countless collective personas on social media. These figures are accompanied by reminders of pop-culture, corruption, and perversion, which clash with the ideals of naivety and youth to reveal hard truths. Mash Buhtaydusss is giving these structures a chance to have a permanent existence by giving them life through stories. While their collaborative name is a reflection of their sense of humor, these stories are sincerely personal, ironic, and open for interpretation.
STATEMENT|||
Mash Buhtaydusss is a collaborative art duo native to New Orleans, LA. Barbie L’Hoste and Brandt Vicknair merge to create new worlds from old abandonments. Photographs printed on canvas are combined with mixed media elements including stencils, collage, transparency, paint, and found objects. The team breathes new life into decaying spaces by inviting unlikely characters to join them. These characters aid in the invention of imaginative landscapes that become metanarratives in a series of surreal events and interpretive disappointments. Heavy use of satire, nostalgia, and absurdity punctuate each story as they explore the human condition and more closely examine our predisposition to assign a greater meaning to the ridiculous events of our own lives. A reality of popular culture, social media, corruption, and perversion clash with the ideals of youth to reveal hard truths. In the moments of these abstract stories, we are able to witness the last bits of innocence escape while thinking about the parts of our world that have casually been discarded.
EMMA CHILDS
Buoyant, 2018
acrylic on canvas
61h x 72w in
Emma Childs was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, where she lives and works today. Childs just completed her senior year at Maryland Institute College of Art, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in general fine arts. Throughout her time at MICA, she was featured in several on-campus exhibitions and was awarded scholarship every year based on both her portfolio and academic performance. Childs has been featured in several exhibitions in the Maryland/DC area.
STATEMENT|||
In this current body of work, I have been developing a language of painting that allows me to explore both emotion and viscerality as well as physicality and presence. I am interested in the ability of a work to evoke an energetically emotional response from a viewer as well as creating objects that physically interact with their environment. I have been trying to walk a line between creating something self-contained as well as reaching outward. While creating efficiently eloquent shapes, choices of color and application are integral steps within my process. Transforming experiences and emotions into a language of simplified form, color, edge, and paint applications has allowed me to simplify what is actually complicated interconnected metaphors about relationships and the world we build around us.
NANCEE CLARK
Orphanage, 2017
oil on canvas
40h x 52w in
Nancee Clark grew up in Jacksonville, Florida, with its then lush forests, raw beaches, the St. Johns River and the perfumes of the paper mill and the Maxwell House Coffee plant. Following a colorful high school experience, she attended the University of Florida where, studying with her mentor, Hiram Williams, she earned a B.A.A. Degree with Honors and a Master of Fine Arts degree.
Her work has been supported by two State of Florida Artist Fellowships; a visiting artist residency at the Studio Art Center International in Florence, Italy; a residency at the Vermont Studio Center; the Blumenthal Foundation residency at Wildacres in Little Switzerland, North Carolina; and she received the President‘s Award in Painting from the University of Florida.
Clark’s paintings have been exhibited across the United States, extensively in Florida, and in Monte Carlo, Italy and Japan. These international venues include the “XVth International Exhibition of Contemporary Art” in Monte Carlo presented by Prince Ranier and Princess Grace, the Prefecture Museum at Chiba in Tokyo, and the Studio Art Center International in Florence, Italy.
She taught in the Fine Arts Department at University of Florida for three years, then was appointed to the Santa Fe College faculty earning tenure there. In 1995, she joined the Ringling College of Art and Design faculty, where she taught until 2016.
STATEMENT|||
In my paintings I imagine an altered and sometimes awkward space in which the observed and the observer overlap. They are enigmatic narratives about parading time, cycles and absurdities allegorizing our movement through physical life and knocking against the depth and awareness of the spirit within human experience.
I work with a personal assemblage, populating my strange spaces with a synthesis of human figures and animals - animals who confront or frolic. I have an intimacy with my subject matter, and the work is always about the hand. Combining drawing and painting, my process builds rich lyrical surfaces of line, brushwork, density, and color.
The paintings sometimes evoke a thrill like a still from a Fellini-like charade, or like a psychological carnival ride with flashing frames of human folly. With wicked humor, I expose the artifice of our social hierarchies and illuminate our search for higher dimensions of truth beyond the limiting facade.
Discovery is sometimes funny, and I have found laughter to be a vital part of the evolution of my painting. You may laugh upon viewing the work, but just as frequently, you may squirm a bit, as you question familiar assumptions while being confronted by unexpected juxtapositions and ambiguities.
NANCEE CLARK
Waking, 2018
oil on canvas
36h x 42w in
Nancee Clark grew up in Jacksonville, Florida, with its then lush forests, raw beaches, the St. Johns River and the perfumes of the paper mill and the Maxwell House Coffee plant. Following a colorful high school experience, she attended the University of Florida where, studying with her mentor, Hiram Williams, she earned a B.A.A. Degree with Honors and a Master of Fine Arts degree.
Her work has been supported by two State of Florida Artist Fellowships; a visiting artist residency at the Studio Art Center International in Florence, Italy; a residency at the Vermont Studio Center; the Blumenthal Foundation residency at Wildacres in Little Switzerland, North Carolina; and she received the President‘s Award in Painting from the University of Florida.
Clark’s paintings have been exhibited across the United States, extensively in Florida, and in Monte Carlo, Italy and Japan. These international venues include the “XVth International Exhibition of Contemporary Art” in Monte Carlo presented by Prince Ranier and Princess Grace, the Prefecture Museum at Chiba in Tokyo, and the Studio Art Center International in Florence, Italy.
She taught in the Fine Arts Department at University of Florida for three years, then was appointed to the Santa Fe College faculty earning tenure there. In 1995, she joined the Ringling College of Art and Design faculty, where she taught until 2016.
STATEMENT|||
In my paintings I imagine an altered and sometimes awkward space in which the observed and the observer overlap. They are enigmatic narratives about parading time, cycles and absurdities allegorizing our movement through physical life and knocking against the depth and awareness of the spirit within human experience.
I work with a personal assemblage, populating my strange spaces with a synthesis of human figures and animals - animals who confront or frolic. I have an intimacy with my subject matter, and the work is always about the hand. Combining drawing and painting, my process builds rich lyrical surfaces of line, brushwork, density, and color.
The paintings sometimes evoke a thrill like a still from a Fellini-like charade, or like a psychological carnival ride with flashing frames of human folly. With wicked humor, I expose the artifice of our social hierarchies and illuminate our search for higher dimensions of truth beyond the limiting facade.
Discovery is sometimes funny, and I have found laughter to be a vital part of the evolution of my painting. You may laugh upon viewing the work, but just as frequently, you may squirm a bit, as you question familiar assumptions while being confronted by unexpected juxtapositions and ambiguities.
NANCEE CLARK
Illusion, 2018
acrylic on canvas
40h x 36w in
Nancee Clark grew up in Jacksonville, Florida, with its then lush forests, raw beaches, the St. Johns River and the perfumes of the paper mill and the Maxwell House Coffee plant. Following a colorful high school experience, she attended the University of Florida where, studying with her mentor, Hiram Williams, she earned a B.A.A. Degree with Honors and a Master of Fine Arts degree.
Her work has been supported by two State of Florida Artist Fellowships; a visiting artist residency at the Studio Art Center International in Florence, Italy; a residency at the Vermont Studio Center; the Blumenthal Foundation residency at Wildacres in Little Switzerland, North Carolina; and she received the President‘s Award in Painting from the University of Florida.
Clark’s paintings have been exhibited across the United States, extensively in Florida, and in Monte Carlo, Italy and Japan. These international venues include the “XVth International Exhibition of Contemporary Art” in Monte Carlo presented by Prince Ranier and Princess Grace, the Prefecture Museum at Chiba in Tokyo, and the Studio Art Center International in Florence, Italy.
She taught in the Fine Arts Department at University of Florida for three years, then was appointed to the Santa Fe College faculty earning tenure there. In 1995, she joined the Ringling College of Art and Design faculty, where she taught until 2016.
STATEMENT|||
In my paintings I imagine an altered and sometimes awkward space in which the observed and the observer overlap. They are enigmatic narratives about parading time, cycles and absurdities allegorizing our movement through physical life and knocking against the depth and awareness of the spirit within human experience.
I work with a personal assemblage, populating my strange spaces with a synthesis of human figures and animals - animals who confront or frolic. I have an intimacy with my subject matter, and the work is always about the hand. Combining drawing and painting, my process builds rich lyrical surfaces of line, brushwork, density, and color.
The paintings sometimes evoke a thrill like a still from a Fellini-like charade, or like a psychological carnival ride with flashing frames of human folly. With wicked humor, I expose the artifice of our social hierarchies and illuminate our search for higher dimensions of truth beyond the limiting facade.
Discovery is sometimes funny, and I have found laughter to be a vital part of the evolution of my painting. You may laugh upon viewing the work, but just as frequently, you may squirm a bit, as you question familiar assumptions while being confronted by unexpected juxtapositions and ambiguities.
KAT FLYN
Affordable Housing, 2017
hand made billboard, old wood box with painted transfer signs, racist stereotype dolls, can
25h x 11w x 5d in
Kat Flyn is a self-taught assemblage artist working presently out of San Diego. She began her career as a costume designer in Southern California. Over the years she amassed a trove of artifacts and collectables which she began using to create assemblage art in the 1990's. In 2000 she sold her business and moved to Cuyamaca, a remote community in the mountains outside of San Diego to devote herself exclusively to her artwork. In 2003 her work was interrupted when the Cedar Fire swept through San Diego county and destroyed the forest, her home & studio along with almost all of her collections and works of art. Following the fire she relocated to San Francisco, where she spent a decade concentrating on her art in her studio in SOMA and exhibiting at galleries in the Bay Area. In 2015 she returned to San Diego and now works out of her studio in La Jolla, exhibiting there and in Los Angeles.
Kat Flyn refers to herself as an Assemblage Sculptor and her works as Political Art or Protest Art. She separates herself from other assemblage artists in that she only employs “saved” as opposed to “found” objects in her work; and her pieces always have a political or cultural narrative to them rather than being surreal or abstract. She also constructs or refashions many of the pieces which she uses in her art – a soft drink box into a tenement building (Affordable Housing 2017), a jewelry box into a wheelchair (Last Lily Foot 2016), an old shoe shine box into a hearse (Katrina 2018). The result is her work is closer in appearance to Folk Art than Assemblage Art.
STATEMENT|||
Strictly speaking I am an assemblage artist, but in fact I construct more than assemble my works. I search out collectables, artifacts and wood carvings and then build scenes to make statements regarding American society. Even when using artifacts from earlier centuries, my theme is almost always about contemporary America. Social injustice, racism, sexism, and violence - aspects of our national psyche – exist in the present but have their seeds planted in our past. Additionally, the artifacts I use, often are meant to amplify the meaning of the work. For instance, the Black stereotype wood figures I use in many of my pieces were almost certainly crafted by a White person. By using such artifacts I ask: what kind of society produces such items in the first place?
In my art I make a strict distinction between found objects and saved objects.. A found object - which most assemblage artists use in their works - is devoid of intrinsic or emotional value, having been discarded by its owner as worthless or broken. A saved object on the other hand has retained value, either because it was intrinsically valuable or because emotional value had been added to it (such as a photograph, an old shoe, a vintage toy) and consequently it was saved rather than discarded. The fact that I only use “saved objects” often results in viewers being attracted to the individual pieces within my works rather than seeing the narrative I am attempting to portray.
The pieces on display in this exhibit are from my American Home Series. I have assembled an array of old artifacts, carved figures, and iconic symbols, each spotlighting an aspect of living conditions within our borders; and as is consistent with my art, focus is placed on failings in our social contract – overcrowded tenements, trailer parks with their plethora of social ills, poverty back to back with middle class affluence until the foreclosure crisis united both in misery. I realize my presentation in this series is somewhat cartoonish, given the seriousness of the subject matter – racism, poverty, immigration. However, I have found that viewers' initial response to my work is more favorable when I visually phrase my topic in this way. My goal is to get viewers to pause long enough to see past the art and into the narrative advanced by my work.
KAT FLYN
Trailer Park, 2018
hand made wood trailer, hand painted wood carvings, old empty tin of lard, hand painted sign
43h x 22w x 16d in
Kat Flyn is a self-taught assemblage artist working presently out of San Diego. She began her career as a costume designer in Southern California. Over the years she amassed a trove of artifacts and collectables which she began using to create assemblage art in the 1990's. In 2000 she sold her business and moved to Cuyamaca, a remote community in the mountains outside of San Diego to devote herself exclusively to her artwork. In 2003 her work was interrupted when the Cedar Fire swept through San Diego county and destroyed the forest, her home & studio along with almost all of her collections and works of art. Following the fire she relocated to San Francisco, where she spent a decade concentrating on her art in her studio in SOMA and exhibiting at galleries in the Bay Area. In 2015 she returned to San Diego and now works out of her studio in La Jolla, exhibiting there and in Los Angeles.
Kat Flyn refers to herself as an Assemblage Sculptor and her works as Political Art or Protest Art. She separates herself from other assemblage artists in that she only employs “saved” as opposed to “found” objects in her work; and her pieces always have a political or cultural narrative to them rather than being surreal or abstract. She also constructs or refashions many of the pieces which she uses in her art – a soft drink box into a tenement building (Affordable Housing 2017), a jewelry box into a wheelchair (Last Lily Foot 2016), an old shoe shine box into a hearse (Katrina 2018). The result is her work is closer in appearance to Folk Art than Assemblage Art.
STATEMENT|||
Strictly speaking I am an assemblage artist, but in fact I construct more than assemble my works. I search out collectables, artifacts and wood carvings and then build scenes to make statements regarding American society. Even when using artifacts from earlier centuries, my theme is almost always about contemporary America. Social injustice, racism, sexism, and violence - aspects of our national psyche – exist in the present but have their seeds planted in our past. Additionally, the artifacts I use, often are meant to amplify the meaning of the work. For instance, the Black stereotype wood figures I use in many of my pieces were almost certainly crafted by a White person. By using such artifacts I ask: what kind of society produces such items in the first place?
In my art I make a strict distinction between found objects and saved objects.. A found object - which most assemblage artists use in their works - is devoid of intrinsic or emotional value, having been discarded by its owner as worthless or broken. A saved object on the other hand has retained value, either because it was intrinsically valuable or because emotional value had been added to it (such as a photograph, an old shoe, a vintage toy) and consequently it was saved rather than discarded. The fact that I only use “saved objects” often results in viewers being attracted to the individual pieces within my works rather than seeing the narrative I am attempting to portray.
The pieces on display in this exhibit are from my American Home Series. I have assembled an array of old artifacts, carved figures, and iconic symbols, each spotlighting an aspect of living conditions within our borders; and as is consistent with my art, focus is placed on failings in our social contract – overcrowded tenements, trailer parks with their plethora of social ills, poverty back to back with middle class affluence until the foreclosure crisis united both in misery. I realize my presentation in this series is somewhat cartoonish, given the seriousness of the subject matter – racism, poverty, immigration. However, I have found that viewers' initial response to my work is more favorable when I visually phrase my topic in this way. My goal is to get viewers to pause long enough to see past the art and into the narrative advanced by my work.
KAT FLYN
The White House, 2017
hand made wood house, hand painted graffiti, old metal elephant, toy wood frog with yellow hair
26h x 17w x 6d in
Kat Flyn is a self-taught assemblage artist working presently out of San Diego. She began her career as a costume designer in Southern California. Over the years she amassed a trove of artifacts and collectables which she began using to create assemblage art in the 1990's. In 2000 she sold her business and moved to Cuyamaca, a remote community in the mountains outside of San Diego to devote herself exclusively to her artwork. In 2003 her work was interrupted when the Cedar Fire swept through San Diego county and destroyed the forest, her home & studio along with almost all of her collections and works of art. Following the fire she relocated to San Francisco, where she spent a decade concentrating on her art in her studio in SOMA and exhibiting at galleries in the Bay Area. In 2015 she returned to San Diego and now works out of her studio in La Jolla, exhibiting there and in Los Angeles.
Kat Flyn refers to herself as an Assemblage Sculptor and her works as Political Art or Protest Art. She separates herself from other assemblage artists in that she only employs “saved” as opposed to “found” objects in her work; and her pieces always have a political or cultural narrative to them rather than being surreal or abstract. She also constructs or refashions many of the pieces which she uses in her art – a soft drink box into a tenement building (Affordable Housing 2017), a jewelry box into a wheelchair (Last Lily Foot 2016), an old shoe shine box into a hearse (Katrina 2018). The result is her work is closer in appearance to Folk Art than Assemblage Art.
STATEMENT|||
Strictly speaking I am an assemblage artist, but in fact I construct more than assemble my works. I search out collectables, artifacts and wood carvings and then build scenes to make statements regarding American society. Even when using artifacts from earlier centuries, my theme is almost always about contemporary America. Social injustice, racism, sexism, and violence - aspects of our national psyche – exist in the present but have their seeds planted in our past. Additionally, the artifacts I use, often are meant to amplify the meaning of the work. For instance, the Black stereotype wood figures I use in many of my pieces were almost certainly crafted by a White person. By using such artifacts I ask: what kind of society produces such items in the first place?
In my art I make a strict distinction between found objects and saved objects.. A found object - which most assemblage artists use in their works - is devoid of intrinsic or emotional value, having been discarded by its owner as worthless or broken. A saved object on the other hand has retained value, either because it was intrinsically valuable or because emotional value had been added to it (such as a photograph, an old shoe, a vintage toy) and consequently it was saved rather than discarded. The fact that I only use “saved objects” often results in viewers being attracted to the individual pieces within my works rather than seeing the narrative I am attempting to portray.
The pieces on display in this exhibit are from my American Home Series. I have assembled an array of old artifacts, carved figures, and iconic symbols, each spotlighting an aspect of living conditions within our borders; and as is consistent with my art, focus is placed on failings in our social contract – overcrowded tenements, trailer parks with their plethora of social ills, poverty back to back with middle class affluence until the foreclosure crisis united both in misery. I realize my presentation in this series is somewhat cartoonish, given the seriousness of the subject matter – racism, poverty, immigration. However, I have found that viewers' initial response to my work is more favorable when I visually phrase my topic in this way. My goal is to get viewers to pause long enough to see past the art and into the narrative advanced by my work.
KAT FLYN
Foreclosure, 2017
old child's kitchen table, hand made signs, hand made house & wood dolls
45h x 20w x 20d in
Kat Flyn is a self-taught assemblage artist working presently out of San Diego. She began her career as a costume designer in Southern California. Over the years she amassed a trove of artifacts and collectables which she began using to create assemblage art in the 1990's. In 2000 she sold her business and moved to Cuyamaca, a remote community in the mountains outside of San Diego to devote herself exclusively to her artwork. In 2003 her work was interrupted when the Cedar Fire swept through San Diego county and destroyed the forest, her home & studio along with almost all of her collections and works of art. Following the fire she relocated to San Francisco, where she spent a decade concentrating on her art in her studio in SOMA and exhibiting at galleries in the Bay Area. In 2015 she returned to San Diego and now works out of her studio in La Jolla, exhibiting there and in Los Angeles.
Kat Flyn refers to herself as an Assemblage Sculptor and her works as Political Art or Protest Art. She separates herself from other assemblage artists in that she only employs “saved” as opposed to “found” objects in her work; and her pieces always have a political or cultural narrative to them rather than being surreal or abstract. She also constructs or refashions many of the pieces which she uses in her art – a soft drink box into a tenement building (Affordable Housing 2017), a jewelry box into a wheelchair (Last Lily Foot 2016), an old shoe shine box into a hearse (Katrina 2018). The result is her work is closer in appearance to Folk Art than Assemblage Art.
STATEMENT|||
Strictly speaking I am an assemblage artist, but in fact I construct more than assemble my works. I search out collectables, artifacts and wood carvings and then build scenes to make statements regarding American society. Even when using artifacts from earlier centuries, my theme is almost always about contemporary America. Social injustice, racism, sexism, and violence - aspects of our national psyche – exist in the present but have their seeds planted in our past. Additionally, the artifacts I use, often are meant to amplify the meaning of the work. For instance, the Black stereotype wood figures I use in many of my pieces were almost certainly crafted by a White person. By using such artifacts I ask: what kind of society produces such items in the first place?
In my art I make a strict distinction between found objects and saved objects.. A found object - which most assemblage artists use in their works - is devoid of intrinsic or emotional value, having been discarded by its owner as worthless or broken. A saved object on the other hand has retained value, either because it was intrinsically valuable or because emotional value had been added to it (such as a photograph, an old shoe, a vintage toy) and consequently it was saved rather than discarded. The fact that I only use “saved objects” often results in viewers being attracted to the individual pieces within my works rather than seeing the narrative I am attempting to portray.
The pieces on display in this exhibit are from my American Home Series. I have assembled an array of old artifacts, carved figures, and iconic symbols, each spotlighting an aspect of living conditions within our borders; and as is consistent with my art, focus is placed on failings in our social contract – overcrowded tenements, trailer parks with their plethora of social ills, poverty back to back with middle class affluence until the foreclosure crisis united both in misery. I realize my presentation in this series is somewhat cartoonish, given the seriousness of the subject matter – racism, poverty, immigration. However, I have found that viewers' initial response to my work is more favorable when I visually phrase my topic in this way. My goal is to get viewers to pause long enough to see past the art and into the narrative advanced by my work.
SHERRY KARVER
Playing the Game, 2018
dye sublimation print on metal
24h x 36w in
Sherry Karver has been an artist since childhood, born and raised in Chicago, and attended kid's classes at the Art Institute of Chicago. Her undergraduate degree from Indiana University in Bloomington, IN is in sociology, although she always took art classes.
There she became hooked on ceramics, and after graduating had a pottery shop and studio in Chicago for four years. She continued to take classes in ceramics at the Art Institute, then left to get her M.F.A. degree in Ceramics from the Newcomb School of Art of Tulane University in New Orleans, LA.
She continued to create ceramic sculpture professionally and moved to California where she taught college level ceramics until this past year. Around 1996 Sherry’s work moved away from clay to photo-based mixed media painting, combining my photo images with oil paint, narrative text and resin surface on wood panels which she still does today.
Sherry is now doing more experimental photography like the work in this exhibition, where she is photographing images from my TV screen when they 'pixelate' due to uneven reception. They are printed as dye sublimation on metal.
Sherry’s work is in over 175 private, corporate, and museum collections, and is represented by Martha Schneider Gallery in Chicago, Cumberland Gallery in Nashville, and Susan Lanoue Gallery, Boston.
Sherry lives in Oakland, California with her husband Jerry Ratch.
STATEMENT |||
It seems that we are in a difficult period in our history, where things are disintegrating and falling apart, which is what my work reflects. At the same time I try to see the beauty and hopefulness in the uncertainty.
Embracing chance, serendipity and random occurrences as the basis of my current photography series, I am 'capturing' images off of a TV monitor. I intentionally wait and photograph when the screen becomes 'pixelated' and broken-up due to uneven reception.
The images become deconstructed, stretching the colors, lines, and shapes into a new format, from recognizable to totally abstract. The squares that arbitrarily appear on the image represent to me how our technological world interacts with, and effects people, and the environment. (These images are Not created manually in Photoshop or by any other computer program).
I see these photographs as 'found pictures' that I freeze at the right moment, with little manipulation other than cropping. This method of working is exciting because it is almost like magic, where I am surrendering control, allowing fortuitous happenings, and being open to the possibilities of the universe entering the picture. It is like the TV is 'channeling' images to me. These deconstructed photos have their own uniqueness, which could not happen using any other photographic technique.
They are professionally printed as dye sublimation on metal. This is a very archival method, allowing the metal to shine through the surface, adding another visual layer, and giving the photo an almost luminescent quality.
SHERRY KARVER
The Singer, 2017
dye sublimation print on metal
24h x 36w in
Sherry Karver has been an artist since childhood, born and raised in Chicago, and attended kid's classes at the Art Institute of Chicago. Her undergraduate degree from Indiana University in Bloomington, IN is in sociology, although she always took art classes.
There she became hooked on ceramics, and after graduating had a pottery shop and studio in Chicago for four years. She continued to take classes in ceramics at the Art Institute, then left to get her M.F.A. degree in Ceramics from the Newcomb School of Art of Tulane University in New Orleans, LA.
She continued to create ceramic sculpture professionally and moved to California where she taught college level ceramics until this past year. Around 1996 Sherry’s work moved away from clay to photo-based mixed media painting, combining my photo images with oil paint, narrative text and resin surface on wood panels which she still does today.
Sherry is now doing more experimental photography like the work in this exhibition, where she is photographing images from my TV screen when they 'pixelate' due to uneven reception. They are printed as dye sublimation on metal.
Sherry’s work is in over 175 private, corporate, and museum collections, and is represented by Martha Schneider Gallery in Chicago, Cumberland Gallery in Nashville, and Susan Lanoue Gallery, Boston.
Sherry lives in Oakland, California with her husband Jerry Ratch.
STATEMENT |||
It seems that we are in a difficult period in our history, where things are disintegrating and falling apart, which is what my work reflects. At the same time I try to see the beauty and hopefulness in the uncertainty.
Embracing chance, serendipity and random occurrences as the basis of my current photography series, I am 'capturing' images off of a TV monitor. I intentionally wait and photograph when the screen becomes 'pixelated' and broken-up due to uneven reception.
The images become deconstructed, stretching the colors, lines, and shapes into a new format, from recognizable to totally abstract. The squares that arbitrarily appear on the image represent to me how our technological world interacts with, and effects people, and the environment. (These images are Not created manually in Photoshop or by any other computer program).
I see these photographs as 'found pictures' that I freeze at the right moment, with little manipulation other than cropping. This method of working is exciting because it is almost like magic, where I am surrendering control, allowing fortuitous happenings, and being open to the possibilities of the universe entering the picture. It is like the TV is 'channeling' images to me. These deconstructed photos have their own uniqueness, which could not happen using any other photographic technique.
They are professionally printed as dye sublimation on metal. This is a very archival method, allowing the metal to shine through the surface, adding another visual layer, and giving the photo an almost luminescent quality.
SELINA MCKANE
Shalimar, 2017
powdered graphite and graphite pencil on paper
30h x 28w in
Selina McKane is an American visual artist from Northwest Alabama. She studied and earned her BFA in studio art from the University of West Florida in Pensacola. There, Selina worked under the studio of Gregory B. Saunders and focused on improving her technical skills. More importantly however, she developed a true passion for drawing and the creative process. Selina currently lives and produces in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her current body of work explores fatality within vulnerability. She has exhibited locally in Pensacola, Florida and New Orleans, Louisiana.
STATEMENT |||
Drawing is a form of expressive language unique to humanity. Over the course of human existence, artists have established innumerable dialects with differing principles necessary for the process of image making. On that basis, the tradition of representational art is grounded in artistic canons, practiced skills, and the ability to create captivating false realities.
I am fascinated by imagery existing as symbols of human connection; a literal and objective representation translated into abstract thought with the potential to evoke feeling. I strive to develop images that are not only accurate depictions of reality but simultaneously provide a compelling expression onto the subject. My process focuses on understanding the mechanics of the visual world as the laws of art are a direct reflection of the rules seen and understood in life.
REID NICHOLLS
Lines, lines, lines, 2018
ceramic, glaze, clay pigment, paint, acrylic glass
60h x 32w x 28d in
Reid Nicholls is an American ceramic artist from Ohio, where he studied and received his BA in Visual Communications Technology at Bowling Green State University. He studied studio art at Hunter College in New York City and received his MFA in Ceramics from Indiana University Bloomington’s School of Art & Design. Nicholls is a painter, sculpture, and ceramic artist currently living and working in New Orleans, Louisiana. His ongoing body of work centers on systems, either inherent or self imposed. He has exhibited nationally and internationally, most recently in Hundisburg, Germany at the Terra Arte Symposium.
STATEMENT |||
I use abstraction to create compressed symbols referencing the body, manipulation of line, and landscape. These forms are abstracted in their mimicry of the process in which we design and shape our cultural boundaries, political geographic borders, and our communities. I see these shapes and lines as a reflection of an act of passive violence. The core of the work reflects on the divide in our culture seemingly motivated by power, control, aggression, and concealment, creating abstractions that are both landscapes and figures morphing into formal tableaus that focus on the ways in which we create and design space for ourselves. Through borders, perceptions of lines, walls, and architecture the lines and shapes define a space, one in which people perceive safety and one in which people perceive otherness, cutting through the landscape as monuments to progress or failure.
REWA
INA UNO, 2018
acrylic and ink on canvas
36h x 48w in
REWA was born and raised between Nigeria and England and received a BSc. in Physiology and Pharmacology from University College London (UCL). She currently works as the Head of Corporate Development and Investor Relations for a Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) listed company. Prior to this, she was the Specialty Insurance Executive for Old Mutual West Africa and a Management Consultant at Accenture (UK).
Never having received formal art training, she is self-taught and developed her innate talent from a very early age. Growing up, her father encouraged her creative drive, his expansive art collection from West Africa, providing further impetus for her development. Her formal training as a physiologist / pharmacologist at UCL also prepared her for what has become an exciting journey; she learned to observe in greater detail and to seek deeper meaning.
She knew a few truths about what ignited a frenzy - when going for long stretches creating art with a particular song or artist playing on a continuous loop - but still sought a clear “artistic direction". She finds that her spirit is neither moved by what she refers to as "depicted sentience" and through the celebration of the female form and bright, vivid colours. Her preferred medium of acrylics and watercolours on cartridge paper provides the immediacy, proximity and transparency to express her most personal experiences and influences living between Lagos, London and Johannesburg, cities she considers home.
REWA decided to pursue art as a form of catharsis following a nadir. She created her first 14-piece body of work, The Pantheon, celebrating Nigerian deities which was very well received and led to her appointment as ReLe Gallery’s 2017 Young Contemporary in Lagos, Nigeria. In this same year, the prestigious Gallery of African Art (GAFRA) in Mayfair, London invited REWA to participate in a joint exhibition, Her Story: Sisterhood That Transcends, alongside a acclaimed Dutch photographer, Dagmar van Weeghel. Her collection, Onicha Ado N’Idu delved into the significance of naming rites and traditions within the Igbo culture in Nigeria – how the names shape the identity of the individuals they are bestowed upon.
REWA’s work was featured at the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA) in Brooklyn, New York as part of MoCADA’s annual 2017 gala. Most recently, the School of African & Oriental Studies (SOAS) in London, in conjunction with Cambridge University, approached REWA to work as one of the visual creatives for their upcoming three-year long Colonial Archives project. She has finally found her truth in a voice that is unique to her, one that has induced prolonged frenzies and abundant hours of introverted happiness and zen. For REWA, art creation is synonymous with catharsis and her creations are her life's diary.
STATEMENT|||
The Igbos are one of the three major tribes of Nigeria and comprise the largest group of people living in south-eastern region of the country. How a culture survives depends on its people’s capacity to learn and transmit it to succeeding generations. I hope to provide viewers with an understanding of who we are as a people and educate about this rich legacy and my country as a whole. A lot of my generation within the diaspora, myself included, are losing elements of our heritage therefore, I would like to perpetuate key elements of Igbo traditions and language through my art.
Women also inspire my art and are at the core of it all. I have so many adjectives I can attach to women and the potent female form; women give birth to life, women are society's vertebrae. I want my audience, whether male or female, to look at one of my women and be able to identify with her story and the meaning behind her name. I want her to represent a message, a memory, a story or a prayer for the viewer.
My most recent exhibition held at the Gallery of African Art (GAFRA) in London was titled, “Onicha Ado N’Idu: Naming Rites & Traditions of the Igbos of Nigeria”. I would like to continue in this vein, drawing on elements of cultural awareness and audience education. Having very recently undergone both traditional and white (western) marriage ceremonies myself, I am keen to depict and highlight the now obsolete marital practices of the Igbos & educate my generation and a wider audience, on the symbolic practices of our forebears before it is lost to us entirely. My current collection, INU NWUNYE (Bride Price) showcases a female child’s passage from INYO- UNO – the introduction ceremony which heralds a betrothal through to IGO MUO and INU- MMANYA – the wedding & (palm) wine-carrying ceremony. Many of these traditions have since died out. As the old adage says – old order changeth yielding place to the new. Cultural customs faded to the pervasive western systems but some lingering elements of yesteryear still constitute a solid foundation upon which the marriage rites are operated today. Current western practices of marriage in Igboland are a superstructure imposed on the underpinnings of indigenous betrothal & engagement practices.
REWA
URI, 2018
acrylic and ink on canvas
48h x 36w in
REWA was born and raised between Nigeria and England and received a BSc. in Physiology and Pharmacology from University College London (UCL). She currently works as the Head of Corporate Development and Investor Relations for a Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) listed company. Prior to this, she was the Specialty Insurance Executive for Old Mutual West Africa and a Management Consultant at Accenture (UK).
Never having received formal art training, she is self-taught and developed her innate talent from a very early age. Growing up, her father encouraged her creative drive, his expansive art collection from West Africa, providing further impetus for her development. Her formal training as a physiologist / pharmacologist at UCL also prepared her for what has become an exciting journey; she learned to observe in greater detail and to seek deeper meaning.
She knew a few truths about what ignited a frenzy - when going for long stretches creating art with a particular song or artist playing on a continuous loop - but still sought a clear “artistic direction". She finds that her spirit is neither moved by what she refers to as "depicted sentience" and through the celebration of the female form and bright, vivid colours. Her preferred medium of acrylics and watercolours on cartridge paper provides the immediacy, proximity and transparency to express her most personal experiences and influences living between Lagos, London and Johannesburg, cities she considers home.
REWA decided to pursue art as a form of catharsis following a nadir. She created her first 14-piece body of work, The Pantheon, celebrating Nigerian deities which was very well received and led to her appointment as ReLe Gallery’s 2017 Young Contemporary in Lagos, Nigeria. In this same year, the prestigious Gallery of African Art (GAFRA) in Mayfair, London invited REWA to participate in a joint exhibition, Her Story: Sisterhood That Transcends, alongside a acclaimed Dutch photographer, Dagmar van Weeghel. Her collection, Onicha Ado N’Idu delved into the significance of naming rites and traditions within the Igbo culture in Nigeria – how the names shape the identity of the individuals they are bestowed upon.
REWA’s work was featured at the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA) in Brooklyn, New York as part of MoCADA’s annual 2017 gala. Most recently, the School of African & Oriental Studies (SOAS) in London, in conjunction with Cambridge University, approached REWA to work as one of the visual creatives for their upcoming three-year long Colonial Archives project. She has finally found her truth in a voice that is unique to her, one that has induced prolonged frenzies and abundant hours of introverted happiness and zen. For REWA, art creation is synonymous with catharsis and her creations are her life's diary.
STATEMENT |||
The Igbos are one of the three major tribes of Nigeria and comprise the largest group of people living in south-eastern region of the country. How a culture survives depends on its people’s capacity to learn and transmit it to succeeding generations. I hope to provide viewers with an understanding of who we are as a people and educate about this rich legacy and my country as a whole. A lot of my generation within the diaspora, myself included, are losing elements of our heritage therefore, I would like to perpetuate key elements of Igbo traditions and language through my art.
Women also inspire my art and are at the core of it all. I have so many adjectives I can attach to women and the potent female form; women give birth to life, women are society's vertebrae. I want my audience, whether male or female, to look at one of my women and be able to identify with her story and the meaning behind her name. I want her to represent a message, a memory, a story or a prayer for the viewer.
My most recent exhibition held at the Gallery of African Art (GAFRA) in London was titled, “Onicha Ado N’Idu: Naming Rites & Traditions of the Igbos of Nigeria”. I would like to continue in this vein, drawing on elements of cultural awareness and audience education. Having very recently undergone both traditional and white (western) marriage ceremonies myself, I am keen to depict and highlight the now obsolete marital practices of the Igbos & educate my generation and a wider audience, on the symbolic practices of our forebears before it is lost to us entirely. My current collection, INU NWUNYE (Bride Price) showcases a female child’s passage from INYO- UNO – the introduction ceremony which heralds a betrothal through to IGO MUO and INU- MMANYA – the wedding & (palm) wine-carrying ceremony. Many of these traditions have since died out. As the old adage says – old order changeth yielding place to the new. Cultural customs faded to the pervasive western systems but some lingering elements of yesteryear still constitute a solid foundation upon which the marriage rites are operated today. Current western practices of marriage in Igboland are a superstructure imposed on the underpinnings of indigenous betrothal & engagement practices.
REWA
IBUNABAITE, 2018
acrylic and ink on canvas
48h x 36w in
REWA was born and raised between Nigeria and England and received a BSc. in Physiology and Pharmacology from University College London (UCL). She currently works as the Head of Corporate Development and Investor Relations for a Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) listed company. Prior to this, she was the Specialty Insurance Executive for Old Mutual West Africa and a Management Consultant at Accenture (UK).
Never having received formal art training, she is self-taught and developed her innate talent from a very early age. Growing up, her father encouraged her creative drive, his expansive art collection from West Africa, providing further impetus for her development. Her formal training as a physiologist / pharmacologist at UCL also prepared her for what has become an exciting journey; she learned to observe in greater detail and to seek deeper meaning.
She knew a few truths about what ignited a frenzy - when going for long stretches creating art with a particular song or artist playing on a continuous loop - but still sought a clear “artistic direction". She finds that her spirit is neither moved by what she refers to as "depicted sentience" and through the celebration of the female form and bright, vivid colours. Her preferred medium of acrylics and watercolours on cartridge paper provides the immediacy, proximity and transparency to express her most personal experiences and influences living between Lagos, London and Johannesburg, cities she considers home.
REWA decided to pursue art as a form of catharsis following a nadir. She created her first 14-piece body of work, The Pantheon, celebrating Nigerian deities which was very well received and led to her appointment as ReLe Gallery’s 2017 Young Contemporary in Lagos, Nigeria. In this same year, the prestigious Gallery of African Art (GAFRA) in Mayfair, London invited REWA to participate in a joint exhibition, Her Story: Sisterhood That Transcends, alongside a acclaimed Dutch photographer, Dagmar van Weeghel. Her collection, Onicha Ado N’Idu delved into the significance of naming rites and traditions within the Igbo culture in Nigeria – how the names shape the identity of the individuals they are bestowed upon.
REWA’s work was featured at the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA) in Brooklyn, New York as part of MoCADA’s annual 2017 gala. Most recently, the School of African & Oriental Studies (SOAS) in London, in conjunction with Cambridge University, approached REWA to work as one of the visual creatives for their upcoming three-year long Colonial Archives project. She has finally found her truth in a voice that is unique to her, one that has induced prolonged frenzies and abundant hours of introverted happiness and zen. For REWA, art creation is synonymous with catharsis and her creations are her life's diary.
STATEMENT|||
The Igbos are one of the three major tribes of Nigeria and comprise the largest group of people living in south-eastern region of the country. How a culture survives depends on its people’s capacity to learn and transmit it to succeeding generations. I hope to provide viewers with an understanding of who we are as a people and educate about this rich legacy and my country as a whole. A lot of my generation within the diaspora, myself included, are losing elements of our heritage therefore, I would like to perpetuate key elements of Igbo traditions and language through my art.
Women also inspire my art and are at the core of it all. I have so many adjectives I can attach to women and the potent female form; women give birth to life, women are society's vertebrae. I want my audience, whether male or female, to look at one of my women and be able to identify with her story and the meaning behind her name. I want her to represent a message, a memory, a story or a prayer for the viewer.
My most recent exhibition held at the Gallery of African Art (GAFRA) in London was titled, “Onicha Ado N’Idu: Naming Rites & Traditions of the Igbos of Nigeria”. I would like to continue in this vein, drawing on elements of cultural awareness and audience education. Having very recently undergone both traditional and white (western) marriage ceremonies myself, I am keen to depict and highlight the now obsolete marital practices of the Igbos & educate my generation and a wider audience, on the symbolic practices of our forebears before it is lost to us entirely. My current collection, INU NWUNYE (Bride Price) showcases a female child’s passage from INYO- UNO – the introduction ceremony which heralds a betrothal through to IGO MUO and INU- MMANYA – the wedding & (palm) wine-carrying ceremony. Many of these traditions have since died out. As the old adage says – old order changeth yielding place to the new. Cultural customs faded to the pervasive western systems but some lingering elements of yesteryear still constitute a solid foundation upon which the marriage rites are operated today. Current western practices of marriage in Igboland are a superstructure imposed on the underpinnings of indigenous betrothal & engagement practices.
REWA
INU NWUNYE, 2018
acrylic and ink on canvas
48h x 36w in
REWA was born and raised between Nigeria and England and received a BSc. in Physiology and Pharmacology from University College London (UCL). She currently works as the Head of Corporate Development and Investor Relations for a Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) listed company. Prior to this, she was the Specialty Insurance Executive for Old Mutual West Africa and a Management Consultant at Accenture (UK).
Never having received formal art training, she is self-taught and developed her innate talent from a very early age. Growing up, her father encouraged her creative drive, his expansive art collection from West Africa, providing further impetus for her development. Her formal training as a physiologist / pharmacologist at UCL also prepared her for what has become an exciting journey; she learned to observe in greater detail and to seek deeper meaning.
She knew a few truths about what ignited a frenzy - when going for long stretches creating art with a particular song or artist playing on a continuous loop - but still sought a clear “artistic direction". She finds that her spirit is neither moved by what she refers to as "depicted sentience" and through the celebration of the female form and bright, vivid colours. Her preferred medium of acrylics and watercolours on cartridge paper provides the immediacy, proximity and transparency to express her most personal experiences and influences living between Lagos, London and Johannesburg, cities she considers home.
REWA decided to pursue art as a form of catharsis following a nadir. She created her first 14-piece body of work, The Pantheon, celebrating Nigerian deities which was very well received and led to her appointment as ReLe Gallery’s 2017 Young Contemporary in Lagos, Nigeria. In this same year, the prestigious Gallery of African Art (GAFRA) in Mayfair, London invited REWA to participate in a joint exhibition, Her Story: Sisterhood That Transcends, alongside a acclaimed Dutch photographer, Dagmar van Weeghel. Her collection, Onicha Ado N’Idu delved into the significance of naming rites and traditions within the Igbo culture in Nigeria – how the names shape the identity of the individuals they are bestowed upon.
REWA’s work was featured at the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA) in Brooklyn, New York as part of MoCADA’s annual 2017 gala. Most recently, the School of African & Oriental Studies (SOAS) in London, in conjunction with Cambridge University, approached REWA to work as one of the visual creatives for their upcoming three-year long Colonial Archives project. She has finally found her truth in a voice that is unique to her, one that has induced prolonged frenzies and abundant hours of introverted happiness and zen. For REWA, art creation is synonymous with catharsis and her creations are her life's diary.
STATEMENT|||
The Igbos are one of the three major tribes of Nigeria and comprise the largest group of people living in south-eastern region of the country. How a culture survives depends on its people’s capacity to learn and transmit it to succeeding generations. I hope to provide viewers with an understanding of who we are as a people and educate about this rich legacy and my country as a whole. A lot of my generation within the diaspora, myself included, are losing elements of our heritage therefore, I would like to perpetuate key elements of Igbo traditions and language through my art.
Women also inspire my art and are at the core of it all. I have so many adjectives I can attach to women and the potent female form; women give birth to life, women are society's vertebrae. I want my audience, whether male or female, to look at one of my women and be able to identify with her story and the meaning behind her name. I want her to represent a message, a memory, a story or a prayer for the viewer.
My most recent exhibition held at the Gallery of African Art (GAFRA) in London was titled, “Onicha Ado N’Idu: Naming Rites & Traditions of the Igbos of Nigeria”. I would like to continue in this vein, drawing on elements of cultural awareness and audience education. Having very recently undergone both traditional and white (western) marriage ceremonies myself, I am keen to depict and highlight the now obsolete marital practices of the Igbos & educate my generation and a wider audience, on the symbolic practices of our forebears before it is lost to us entirely. My current collection, INU NWUNYE (Bride Price) showcases a female child’s passage from INYO- UNO – the introduction ceremony which heralds a betrothal through to IGO MUO and INU- MMANYA – the wedding & (palm) wine-carrying ceremony. Many of these traditions have since died out. As the old adage says – old order changeth yielding place to the new. Cultural customs faded to the pervasive western systems but some lingering elements of yesteryear still constitute a solid foundation upon which the marriage rites are operated today. Current western practices of marriage in Igboland are a superstructure imposed on the underpinnings of indigenous betrothal & engagement practices.
REWA
INYO UNO, 2018
acrylic and ink on canvas
48h x 36w in
REWA was born and raised between Nigeria and England and received a BSc. in Physiology and Pharmacology from University College London (UCL). She currently works as the Head of Corporate Development and Investor Relations for a Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) listed company. Prior to this, she was the Specialty Insurance Executive for Old Mutual West Africa and a Management Consultant at Accenture (UK).
Never having received formal art training, she is self-taught and developed her innate talent from a very early age. Growing up, her father encouraged her creative drive, his expansive art collection from West Africa, providing further impetus for her development. Her formal training as a physiologist / pharmacologist at UCL also prepared her for what has become an exciting journey; she learned to observe in greater detail and to seek deeper meaning.
She knew a few truths about what ignited a frenzy - when going for long stretches creating art with a particular song or artist playing on a continuous loop - but still sought a clear “artistic direction". She finds that her spirit is neither moved by what she refers to as "depicted sentience" and through the celebration of the female form and bright, vivid colours. Her preferred medium of acrylics and watercolours on cartridge paper provides the immediacy, proximity and transparency to express her most personal experiences and influences living between Lagos, London and Johannesburg, cities she considers home.
REWA decided to pursue art as a form of catharsis following a nadir. She created her first 14-piece body of work, The Pantheon, celebrating Nigerian deities which was very well received and led to her appointment as ReLe Gallery’s 2017 Young Contemporary in Lagos, Nigeria. In this same year, the prestigious Gallery of African Art (GAFRA) in Mayfair, London invited REWA to participate in a joint exhibition, Her Story: Sisterhood That Transcends, alongside a acclaimed Dutch photographer, Dagmar van Weeghel. Her collection, Onicha Ado N’Idu delved into the significance of naming rites and traditions within the Igbo culture in Nigeria – how the names shape the identity of the individuals they are bestowed upon.
REWA’s work was featured at the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA) in Brooklyn, New York as part of MoCADA’s annual 2017 gala. Most recently, the School of African & Oriental Studies (SOAS) in London, in conjunction with Cambridge University, approached REWA to work as one of the visual creatives for their upcoming three-year long Colonial Archives project. She has finally found her truth in a voice that is unique to her, one that has induced prolonged frenzies and abundant hours of introverted happiness and zen. For REWA, art creation is synonymous with catharsis and her creations are her life's diary.
STATEMENT|||
The Igbos are one of the three major tribes of Nigeria and comprise the largest group of people living in south-eastern region of the country. How a culture survives depends on its people’s capacity to learn and transmit it to succeeding generations. I hope to provide viewers with an understanding of who we are as a people and educate about this rich legacy and my country as a whole. A lot of my generation within the diaspora, myself included, are losing elements of our heritage therefore, I would like to perpetuate key elements of Igbo traditions and language through my art.
Women also inspire my art and are at the core of it all. I have so many adjectives I can attach to women and the potent female form; women give birth to life, women are society's vertebrae. I want my audience, whether male or female, to look at one of my women and be able to identify with her story and the meaning behind her name. I want her to represent a message, a memory, a story or a prayer for the viewer.
My most recent exhibition held at the Gallery of African Art (GAFRA) in London was titled, “Onicha Ado N’Idu: Naming Rites & Traditions of the Igbos of Nigeria”. I would like to continue in this vein, drawing on elements of cultural awareness and audience education. Having very recently undergone both traditional and white (western) marriage ceremonies myself, I am keen to depict and highlight the now obsolete marital practices of the Igbos & educate my generation and a wider audience, on the symbolic practices of our forebears before it is lost to us entirely. My current collection, INU NWUNYE (Bride Price) showcases a female child’s passage from INYO- UNO – the introduction ceremony which heralds a betrothal through to IGO MUO and INU- MMANYA – the wedding & (palm) wine-carrying ceremony. Many of these traditions have since died out. As the old adage says – old order changeth yielding place to the new. Cultural customs faded to the pervasive western systems but some lingering elements of yesteryear still constitute a solid foundation upon which the marriage rites are operated today. Current western practices of marriage in Igboland are a superstructure imposed on the underpinnings of indigenous betrothal & engagement practices.
KIM RICE
Redlining Tapestries, 2017
HOLC maps and house wrap
11ft x 3 ft each panel (two panels)
Kim Rice creates large-scale works using common materials. Her installations are a meditation on institutional racism and the policies that continue to affect American society today. Kim earned her BFA in Sculpture and MFA in Printmaking from the University of Oklahoma. Her work has been shown throughout the country including the 19th No Dead Artists at Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, Prospect 4 Satellite, and the Delaware Museum of Art. She has received multiple awards, including the McNeese Grant for Socially Engaged Practice.
Born in Kentucky, raised in California, educated in Oklahoma, loved in New Orleans and now home in Baltimore, Kim’s work is influenced by her two children and the pile of books by her bed.
STATEMENT|||
In the 1930’s the US Government made mortgages available through a program called the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC). In a well-documented process known as redlining, government officials outlined neighborhoods on city maps and then color-coded the areas. The neighborhoods deemed “declining” (yellow) or “hazardous” (red) were not considered for mortgages—these were the integrated or non-white neighborhoods. Banks and insurance companies followed the example of the Federal Government and did not finance home ownership in these areas either. This practice was legal until 1968. The residue of this institutional racism continues to segregate, allowing some communities to thrive while others suffer.
Equality in America is directly linked to property. It is the way we accrue money, pass down inheritance, and get access to education, food, and employment. Where you live in the United States is even linked to life expectancy. In an era of constant information it is important to repeat a truth over and over again until we fully understand it and deal with it. As a white person I recognize my middle class status, my education, my profession and my ability to be a homeowner today are directly linked to my grandparents’ and great- grandparents’ ability to own property.
AMY SCHISSEL
Animate Ground 2, 2015
acrylic, graphite, charcoal, ink on Fabriano hot press paper
85h x 105w in
Amy Schissel is a Canadian Artist, currently based near Pittsburgh, PA. She obtained her BFA and MFA (2009) from the University of Ottawa in Ontario and has recently been awarded U.S.A.’s $25,000.00 Joan Mitchell Painting and Sculpture Award. In 2013 she received Ottawa’s Royal Bank of Canada Emerging Artist Award and in 2011 was a finalist in the RBC Canadian Painting Competition and National Exhibition, touring the Art Gallery of Alberta, the Hamilton Art Gallery, and Toronto’s Power Plant. Schissel was also Canada’s 2009 recipient of the Brucebo Foundation Fine Arts Award and Residency in Visby, Sweden. Recent national and international exhibitions include VOLTA Basel, Switzerland, VOLTA NY, NYC, Contemporary Fine Art Museum at West Virginia University, Huntington Museum of Art, USA, Florida State Museum of Fine Arts, Florida, USA, Pittsburgh Centre for the Arts, Pittsburgh PA, University of Brussels Gallery, Belgium, Karsh Masson City Hall Gallery, Ottawa,ON, Sjalso Studios, Sweden, Manifest Creative Research Centre in Cincinnati Ohio, Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa, ON, and Patrick Mikhail Galleries in Montreal and Ottawa. Ms. Schissel has lectured across the country and internationally in Halifax, Toronto, Ottawa, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, and Pittsburgh. Collections include the West Virginia Museum of Fine Art at WVU, Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, the New Zealand Consulate, University of Brussels, Gotland Museum of Fine Art, the City of Ottawa, and Canada’s Council for the Arts Art Bank. Schissel has received Grants and Awards from the Canada Council of the Arts, the City of Ottawa, Ontario Arts Council, the Myers Foundation of West Virginia, and the Joan Mitchell Foundation.
STATEMENT|||
My past large-scale paintings and drawings confront anxieties about the role of painting/drawing in the information age, responding to a constant technological presence in a data-driven, media saturated culture. I subscribe to digital processes to reappraise the language of painting/drawing, lending its analog form of expression relevance within an overarching new-media environment. I examine how abstract painting/drawing can be coaxed out of being ‘old media’ with the application of digital language to the painterly field. The surface of the work acts as a lens through which to translate current understandings of space: Embedding modes of digital representation such as pixels, clusters, loops, and linear arrays within the material specificity of acrylic paint and drawing materials, opens up an arena of vague yet familiar spatial emulations of digital environments, and forms a hybrid abstract language. Combining the analogue continuous nature of the painted brushstroke with algorithmic digital processes, although hand-made, my work often takes on the look of a digitized Abstract Expressionism.
AMY SCHISSEL
Post Digital Landscape: Blue, 2018
oil, acrylic and archival ink on canvas
35h x 29w in
Amy Schissel is a Canadian Artist, currently based near Pittsburgh, PA. She obtained her BFA and MFA (2009) from the University of Ottawa in Ontario and has recently been awarded U.S.A.’s $25,000.00 Joan Mitchell Painting and Sculpture Award. In 2013 she received Ottawa’s Royal Bank of Canada Emerging Artist Award and in 2011 was a finalist in the RBC Canadian Painting Competition and National Exhibition, touring the Art Gallery of Alberta, the Hamilton Art Gallery, and Toronto’s Power Plant. Schissel was also Canada’s 2009 recipient of the Brucebo Foundation Fine Arts Award and Residency in Visby, Sweden. Recent national and international exhibitions include VOLTA Basel, Switzerland, VOLTA NY, NYC, Contemporary Fine Art Museum at West Virginia University, Huntington Museum of Art, USA, Florida State Museum of Fine Arts, Florida, USA, Pittsburgh Centre for the Arts, Pittsburgh PA, University of Brussels Gallery, Belgium, Karsh Masson City Hall Gallery, Ottawa,ON, Sjalso Studios, Sweden, Manifest Creative Research Centre in Cincinnati Ohio, Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa, ON, and Patrick Mikhail Galleries in Montreal and Ottawa. Ms. Schissel has lectured across the country and internationally in Halifax, Toronto, Ottawa, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, and Pittsburgh. Collections include the West Virginia Museum of Fine Art at WVU, Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, the New Zealand Consulate, University of Brussels, Gotland Museum of Fine Art, the City of Ottawa, and Canada’s Council for the Arts Art Bank. Schissel has received Grants and Awards from the Canada Council of the Arts, the City of Ottawa, Ontario Arts Council, the Myers Foundation of West Virginia, and the Joan Mitchell Foundation.
STATEMENT|||
My past large-scale paintings and drawings confront anxieties about the role of painting/drawing in the information age, responding to a constant technological presence in a data-driven, media saturated culture. I subscribe to digital processes to reappraise the language of painting/drawing, lending its analog form of expression relevance within an overarching new-media environment. I examine how abstract painting/drawing can be coaxed out of being ‘old media’ with the application of digital language to the painterly field. The surface of the work acts as a lens through which to translate current understandings of space: Embedding modes of digital representation such as pixels, clusters, loops, and linear arrays within the material specificity of acrylic paint and drawing materials, opens up an arena of vague yet familiar spatial emulations of digital environments, and forms a hybrid abstract language. Combining the analogue continuous nature of the painted brushstroke with algorithmic digital processes, although hand-made, my work often takes on the look of a digitized Abstract Expressionism.
AMY SCHISSEL
Yellow Field 1, 2018
acrylic, ink, oil on canvas
35h x 29w in
Amy Schissel is a Canadian Artist, currently based near Pittsburgh, PA. She obtained her BFA and MFA (2009) from the University of Ottawa in Ontario and has recently been awarded U.S.A.’s $25,000.00 Joan Mitchell Painting and Sculpture Award. In 2013 she received Ottawa’s Royal Bank of Canada Emerging Artist Award and in 2011 was a finalist in the RBC Canadian Painting Competition and National Exhibition, touring the Art Gallery of Alberta, the Hamilton Art Gallery, and Toronto’s Power Plant. Schissel was also Canada’s 2009 recipient of the Brucebo Foundation Fine Arts Award and Residency in Visby, Sweden. Recent national and international exhibitions include VOLTA Basel, Switzerland, VOLTA NY, NYC, Contemporary Fine Art Museum at West Virginia University, Huntington Museum of Art, USA, Florida State Museum of Fine Arts, Florida, USA, Pittsburgh Centre for the Arts, Pittsburgh PA, University of Brussels Gallery, Belgium, Karsh Masson City Hall Gallery, Ottawa,ON, Sjalso Studios, Sweden, Manifest Creative Research Centre in Cincinnati Ohio, Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa, ON, and Patrick Mikhail Galleries in Montreal and Ottawa. Ms. Schissel has lectured across the country and internationally in Halifax, Toronto, Ottawa, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, and Pittsburgh. Collections include the West Virginia Museum of Fine Art at WVU, Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, the New Zealand Consulate, University of Brussels, Gotland Museum of Fine Art, the City of Ottawa, and Canada’s Council for the Arts Art Bank. Schissel has received Grants and Awards from the Canada Council of the Arts, the City of Ottawa, Ontario Arts Council, the Myers Foundation of West Virginia, and the Joan Mitchell Foundation.
STATEMENT|||
My past large-scale paintings and drawings confront anxieties about the role of painting/drawing in the information age, responding to a constant technological presence in a data-driven, media saturated culture. I subscribe to digital processes to reappraise the language of painting/drawing, lending its analog form of expression relevance within an overarching new-media environment. I examine how abstract painting/drawing can be coaxed out of being ‘old media’ with the application of digital language to the painterly field. The surface of the work acts as a lens through which to translate current understandings of space: Embedding modes of digital representation such as pixels, clusters, loops, and linear arrays within the material specificity of acrylic paint and drawing materials, opens up an arena of vague yet familiar spatial emulations of digital environments, and forms a hybrid abstract language. Combining the analogue continuous nature of the painted brushstroke with algorithmic digital processes, although hand-made, my work often takes on the look of a digitized Abstract Expressionism.
KERRA TAYLOR
Kids Go Bump in the Night, 2018
oil on canvas
43.50h x 37.25w x 2.50d in
Kerra Taylor was born in Overland Park, KS 1985. Kerra received a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Painting and a Minor in Art History in 2012 from Missouri State University. She then received a Master of Fine Arts Degree in Painting from Southern Illinois University Carbondale in 2016. She has exhibited her work throughout Missouri, Illinois, Kansas, and Indiana. Her work has been featured in group shows in China and in Poland. She has received several honorable mentions and student awards. She is also published in New American Paintings MFA editions #117 and #129. As a Per-Course Faculty member, she currently teaches beginning and intermediate drawing courses at Missouri State University. In her own time, she really enjoys submitting work to shows, giving artist talks, and leading workshops.
STATEMENT|||
Stories are told through many mediums. My work exploits the narrative potential of painting. A painting, however, cannot encompass the entirety of a narrative, but it can imply a narrative. It functions more like a single scene from the story rather than the whole story. When we take a scene out of context, we are left to fill in the gaps. For every person, for every story, their interpretation of the scene will be unique. In this manner, I allow room for the viewer to enter into my paintings and complete the stories with their own past experiences.
I playfully fabricate memories with my spouse, parents, siblings, and in-laws, as I fill in the holes caused by the loss of stories. I take into consideration the various personalities, quirks, and typical environments that my relatives and I live in. My paintings are embellishments of personal experiences with family. By putting them in these normal settings with such unusual circumstances, I create my own stories, both familiar and fantastic at the same time. It is in these extraordinary situations that we find the stories that are more worth telling.
KERRA TAYLOR
We Interrupt This Program, 2015
oil on canvas
51.50h x 66.50w x 2.50d in
Kerra Taylor was born in Overland Park, KS 1985. Kerra received a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Painting and a Minor in Art History in 2012 from Missouri State University. She then received a Master of Fine Arts Degree in Painting from Southern Illinois University Carbondale in 2016. She has exhibited her work throughout Missouri, Illinois, Kansas, and Indiana. Her work has been featured in group shows in China and in Poland. She has received several honorable mentions and student awards. She is also published in New American Paintings MFA editions #117 and #129. As a Per-Course Faculty member, she currently teaches beginning and intermediate drawing courses at Missouri State University. In her own time, she really enjoys submitting work to shows, giving artist talks, and leading workshops.
STATEMENT|||
Stories are told through many mediums. My work exploits the narrative potential of painting. A painting, however, cannot encompass the entirety of a narrative, but it can imply a narrative. It functions more like a single scene from the story rather than the whole story. When we take a scene out of context, we are left to fill in the gaps. For every person, for every story, their interpretation of the scene will be unique. In this manner, I allow room for the viewer to enter into my paintings and complete the stories with their own past experiences.
I playfully fabricate memories with my spouse, parents, siblings, and in-laws, as I fill in the holes caused by the loss of stories. I take into consideration the various personalities, quirks, and typical environments that my relatives and I live in. My paintings are embellishments of personal experiences with family. By putting them in these normal settings with such unusual circumstances, I create my own stories, both familiar and fantastic at the same time. It is in these extraordinary situations that we find the stories that are more worth telling.
KERRA TAYLOR
This One's a Keeper, 2014
oil on canvas
62h x 51.50w x 2.50d in
Kerra Taylor was born in Overland Park, KS 1985. Kerra received a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Painting and a Minor in Art History in 2012 from Missouri State University. She then received a Master of Fine Arts Degree in Painting from Southern Illinois University Carbondale in 2016. She has exhibited her work throughout Missouri, Illinois, Kansas, and Indiana. Her work has been featured in group shows in China and in Poland. She has received several honorable mentions and student awards. She is also published in New American Paintings MFA editions #117 and #129. As a Per-Course Faculty member, she currently teaches beginning and intermediate drawing courses at Missouri State University. In her own time, she really enjoys submitting work to shows, giving artist talks, and leading workshops.
STATEMENT|||
Stories are told through many mediums. My work exploits the narrative potential of painting. A painting, however, cannot encompass the entirety of a narrative, but it can imply a narrative. It functions more like a single scene from the story rather than the whole story. When we take a scene out of context, we are left to fill in the gaps. For every person, for every story, their interpretation of the scene will be unique. In this manner, I allow room for the viewer to enter into my paintings and complete the stories with their own past experiences.
I playfully fabricate memories with my spouse, parents, siblings, and in-laws, as I fill in the holes caused by the loss of stories. I take into consideration the various personalities, quirks, and typical environments that my relatives and I live in. My paintings are embellishments of personal experiences with family. By putting them in these normal settings with such unusual circumstances, I create my own stories, both familiar and fantastic at the same time. It is in these extraordinary situations that we find the stories that are more worth telling.
KERRA TAYLOR
Meandering Through the Woods, 2016
oil on canvas
45.50h x 61w x 2.50d in
Kerra Taylor was born in Overland Park, KS 1985. Kerra received a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Painting and a Minor in Art History in 2012 from Missouri State University. She then received a Master of Fine Arts Degree in Painting from Southern Illinois University Carbondale in 2016. She has exhibited her work throughout Missouri, Illinois, Kansas, and Indiana. Her work has been featured in group shows in China and in Poland. She has received several honorable mentions and student awards. She is also published in New American Paintings MFA editions #117 and #129. As a Per-Course Faculty member, she currently teaches beginning and intermediate drawing courses at Missouri State University. In her own time, she really enjoys submitting work to shows, giving artist talks, and leading workshops.
STATEMENT|||
Stories are told through many mediums. My work exploits the narrative potential of painting. A painting, however, cannot encompass the entirety of a narrative, but it can imply a narrative. It functions more like a single scene from the story rather than the whole story. When we take a scene out of context, we are left to fill in the gaps. For every person, for every story, their interpretation of the scene will be unique. In this manner, I allow room for the viewer to enter into my paintings and complete the stories with their own past experiences.
I playfully fabricate memories with my spouse, parents, siblings, and in-laws, as I fill in the holes caused by the loss of stories. I take into consideration the various personalities, quirks, and typical environments that my relatives and I live in. My paintings are embellishments of personal experiences with family. By putting them in these normal settings with such unusual circumstances, I create my own stories, both familiar and fantastic at the same time. It is in these extraordinary situations that we find the stories that are more worth telling.
SOPHIE TREPPENDAHL
Hockney in the Kitchen, 2018
oil on canvas
22h x 24w in
Sophie Treppendahl is a painter and printmaker living in Richmond, Virginia. She is from Saint Francisville, Louisiana and received her BA in Painting and Printmaking from College of Charleston in South Carolina. Her work is inspired by the landscape and people that surround her.
STATEMENT|||
I paint because I love the way shadows and light can completely change an object or a place. I want to capture that feeling of being temporarily overwhelmed by the thing in front of you - when it feels both otherworldly and ordinary.
I paint because I love the people around me and the way they make me feel.
I paint the things I want to keep. The quiet at the river, the sun on my favorite shirt, the shadow on my best friends face.
Through painting, I aim to capture not the likeness to an image but the overwhelming feeling of the space or a memory. In my studio, I work from recorded observations, often photographs and drawings, that then serve as a springboard to explore pattern, color, light and shadow. When creating, the representation becomes secondary, my primary focus becoming the painting process itself. As I translate reflection, pattern, and shadows through paint, the image lends itself to abstraction, manipulation and exaggeration.
Through this, the painting takes on new life. And instead of creating a hollow representation of a moment that once was, I hope to create something altogether new - a painting imbued with the vibrance of that instance, the glow of how it felt, and the love of translating it through paint.
SOPHIE TREPPENDAHL
Margaret in the Chair, 2016
oil on paper
23h x 16w in
Sophie Treppendahl is a painter and printmaker living in Richmond, Virginia. She is from Saint Francisville, Louisiana and received her BA in Painting and Printmaking from College of Charleston in South Carolina. Her work is inspired by the landscape and people that surround her.
STATEMENT|||
I paint because I love the way shadows and light can completely change an object or a place. I want to capture that feeling of being temporarily overwhelmed by the thing in front of you - when it feels both otherworldly and ordinary.
I paint because I love the people around me and the way they make me feel.
I paint the things I want to keep. The quiet at the river, the sun on my favorite shirt, the shadow on my best friends face.
Through painting, I aim to capture not the likeness to an image but the overwhelming feeling of the space or a memory. In my studio, I work from recorded observations, often photographs and drawings, that then serve as a springboard to explore pattern, color, light and shadow. When creating, the representation becomes secondary, my primary focus becoming the painting process itself. As I translate reflection, pattern, and shadows through paint, the image lends itself to abstraction, manipulation and exaggeration.
Through this, the painting takes on new life. And instead of creating a hollow representation of a moment that once was, I hope to create something altogether new - a painting imbued with the vibrance of that instance, the glow of how it felt, and the love of translating it through paint.
SOPHIE TREPPENDAHL
Ladies in Pink, 2017
oil on paper
21h x 29w in
Sophie Treppendahl is a painter and printmaker living in Richmond, Virginia. She is from Saint Francisville, Louisiana and received her BA in Painting and Printmaking from College of Charleston in South Carolina. Her work is inspired by the landscape and people that surround her.
STATEMENT|||
I paint because I love the way shadows and light can completely change an object or a place. I want to capture that feeling of being temporarily overwhelmed by the thing in front of you - when it feels both otherworldly and ordinary.
I paint because I love the people around me and the way they make me feel.
I paint the things I want to keep. The quiet at the river, the sun on my favorite shirt, the shadow on my best friends face.
Through painting, I aim to capture not the likeness to an image but the overwhelming feeling of the space or a memory. In my studio, I work from recorded observations, often photographs and drawings, that then serve as a springboard to explore pattern, color, light and shadow. When creating, the representation becomes secondary, my primary focus becoming the painting process itself. As I translate reflection, pattern, and shadows through paint, the image lends itself to abstraction, manipulation and exaggeration.
Through this, the painting takes on new life. And instead of creating a hollow representation of a moment that once was, I hope to create something altogether new - a painting imbued with the vibrance of that instance, the glow of how it felt, and the love of translating it through paint.
SOPHIE TREPPENDAHL
Riverday, 2018
oil on canvas
41h x 36w in
Sophie Treppendahl is a painter and printmaker living in Richmond, Virginia. She is from Saint Francisville, Louisiana and received her BA in Painting and Printmaking from College of Charleston in South Carolina. Her work is inspired by the landscape and people that surround her.
STATEMENT|||
I paint because I love the way shadows and light can completely change an object or a place. I want to capture that feeling of being temporarily overwhelmed by the thing in front of you - when it feels both otherworldly and ordinary.
I paint because I love the people around me and the way they make me feel.
I paint the things I want to keep. The quiet at the river, the sun on my favorite shirt, the shadow on my best friends face.
Through painting, I aim to capture not the likeness to an image but the overwhelming feeling of the space or a memory. In my studio, I work from recorded observations, often photographs and drawings, that then serve as a springboard to explore pattern, color, light and shadow. When creating, the representation becomes secondary, my primary focus becoming the painting process itself. As I translate reflection, pattern, and shadows through paint, the image lends itself to abstraction, manipulation and exaggeration.
Through this, the painting takes on new life. And instead of creating a hollow representation of a moment that once was, I hope to create something altogether new - a painting imbued with the vibrance of that instance, the glow of how it felt, and the love of translating it through paint.
30 August – 28 September 2018
Exhibition opening during Arts District New Orleans' (ADNO)
First Saturday Gallery Openings [6-9PM] - 1 September 2018
JONATHAN FERRARA GALLERY proudly presents the 22nd Annual NO DEAD ARTISTS International Juried Exhibition of Contemporary Art. For the 2018 installment of the exhibition, the gallery will host works by fourteen artists hailing from the United States and one from Nigeria. The exhibition will be on view from 30 August through 28 September 2018, with an opening reception on 1 September, 6-9 pm in conjunction with the Arts District New Orleans’ (ADNO) First Saturday Gallery Openings.
The NO DEAD ARTISTS exhibition was founded by Jonathan Ferrara in 1995 to give a voice to emerging artists. The exhibition's name is derived from the old adage that artists never achieve success until they are dead. NO DEAD ARTISTSturns that notion on its head and often gives emerging artists their first break in the art world. In the 90's, the exhibition was open to New Orleans-based artists and subsequently grew to include artists of Louisiana, then becoming a national juried exhibition in 2010. And in 2014, the exhibition went international. Now in its 22nd iteration, the exhibition has been a springboard for numerous artists; leading to national press coverage, recognition, gallery representation and acquisitions by museums and other prominent collections.
Each year the gallery invites a panel of renowned arts professionals and collectors to select the newest creative talents for around the world. Past jurors have included: Prospect.1 Founder and Curator, Dan Cameron; Museum Director, Billie Milam Weisman; Collector and Philanthropist, Beth Rudin DeWoody; MacArthur Fellow, John Scott; Whitney Trustee and Ballroom Marfa Co-founder, Fairfax Dorn; NOMA Director, Susan Taylor; former Director of the Andy Warhol Museum, Eric Shiner; Director of the National Art Gallery of the Bahamas and Founder/Artistic Director of the VOLTA Fair, Amanda Coulson; ArtBridge Curator, Jordana Zeldin; Collector and MoMA Board Member, Lawrence Benenson; CAMH Director, Bill Arning; Collector and Brooklyn Museum Board Member, Stephanie Ingrassia; Collector and Prospect New Orleans Biennial board member, Nick Mayor; Director/Owner of Art Market Productions, Max Fishko; Associate Curator at the Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, Anastasia James; Director of Perez Art Museum Miami and Artistic Director of Prospect.3 Biennial, New Orleans, Franklin Sirmans; and collector Lester Marks.
For the 2018 edition, the three renowned jurors for NO DEAD ARTISTS are:::
CCH POUNDER (New Orleans, LA/ Los Angeles,CA) – Collector/Art Advocate/Actress, Board Member of the African Millennium Foundation, founding member of Artists for a New South African and of the Boribana Museum in Dakar.
RENÉ PAUL BARILLEAUX (San Antonio, TX) – Head of Curatorial Affairs at the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio
FRANCIS H WILLIAMS (New York, NY) – Collector / Principle of the Francis H. Williams Collection
Of the approximate 2,500 artworks submitted to this jury by over 500 artists worldwide, only fourteen artists were selected to have their work exhibited at JONATHAN FERRARA GALLERY.
::: The 22nd Annual NO DEAD ARTISTS finalists :::
JOHN ADELMAN – Norwalk, OH / Houston, TX
JOSEPH BARRON – St. Louis, MO / Osprey, FL
MASH BUHTAYDUSSS – New Orleans, LA
EMMA CHILDS – Baltimore, MD
NANCEE CLARK – Jacksonville, FL / Bradenton, FL
KAT FLYN – Washington, D.C. / La Jolla, CA
SHERRY KARVER – Chicago, IL / Oakland, CA
SELINA MCKANE – Tuscaloosa, AL / New Orleans, LA
REID NICHOLLS – Bryan, OH / New Orleans, LA
REWA – Onitsha, Nigeria / Lagos, Nigeria
KIM RICE – Lexington, KY / Baltimore, MD
AMY SCHISSEL - Ontario, Canada / Pittsburgh, PA
KERRA TAYLOR – Overland, KS / Springfield, MO
SOPHIE TREPPENDAHL – St. Francisvile, LA / Richmond, VA
Comprised of painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, printmaking, mixed-media, installation, ceramics, video and new media, NO DEAD ARTISTS continues to exhibit a great diversity in media with a cohesive cross-section of the pulse of Contemporary Art. Presenting just over 30 artworks ranging in media, style and purpose from the socio-political assemblages of Kat Flyn to the large-scale abstract paintings of Amy Schissel. Other highlights of the exhibition include Nigerian artist REWA’s colorful portraiture and the whimsical yet timely narrative canvases of Joseph Barron. For the 22nd year in a row, No Dead Artists showcases the latest trends and talent in Contemporary Art adhering to its mission of giving emerging artists a platform to have their creative voices heard.
For the grand prize of the exhibition, one of the selected jury winning artists will be awarded a solo exhibition in 2019 at JFG. Previous recipient awardees: Nikki Rosato (2012, Washington D.C.), Marna Shopoff (2014, Indianapolis), Richelle Gribble (Los Angeles, 2015), Ti-Rock Moore (New Orleans, 2016), and Jenny Day (Santa Fe, 2017) not only received the solo show at gallery, but also, have successfully gone on to exhibit in art fairs in New York, Miami, Basel (Switzerland), Leipzig (Germany), San Francisco, Houston and Seattle and other traveling exhibitions and museums worldwide. These artists and the No Dead Artists exhibition have garnered great interest from curators, museums and press as well as been acquired by many prominent public and private collections. . . Stay tuned for the announcement of the 2018 winner at the close of the exhibition.
For more information, press or sales inquiries please contact the gallery director Matthew Weldon Showman at 504.343.6827 or matthew@jonathanferraragallery.com. Please join the conversation with JFG on Facebook (@JonathanFerraraGallery), Twitter (@JFerraraGallery), and Instagram (@JonathanFerraraGallery) via the hashtags: #NoDeadArtists, #NDA2018 and #JonathanFerraraGallery.
