JONATHAN FERRARA GALLERY is proud to announce the inaugural exhibition at its new location on Julia Street, the main thoroughfare SIDONIE VILLERE will open to the public on Saturday June 2, 2007 with a reception to meet the artist from 6-10pm.
“Organic Intervention” is Villere’s first solo exhibition. The works are a geologically based exposition in clay, porcelain, plaster, concrete, wax, and paint. Her works are process oriented, using the material to construct, deconstruct, repair, and sanctify objects with architectural, geological, and biographical references. The exhibition has two distinct parts: clay forms as ceramic sculpture and paintings as assemblages that are deconstructed. The clay forms are personal and distinct and relate to a specific geological metaphor while also acting as a vehicle for self-expression. The paintings are another vehicle for her self-portraits. They inspire her clay work though material, form and color.
In her own words:
“The ceramic forms and their specific arrangements are created visually by borrowing a geological metaphor. I create moods through closely observing and then paralleling both the emotion to be expressed as well as the logistics of the geological metaphor. It is not just the colossal or the private that I want read in these pieces; it is the profound experience of their dichotomy that I give my viewer. My two-dimensional works hover somewhere between painting and sculpture, transcending the definitions of these particular media. I create works that are better understood by looking rather than by reading or describing. I am going after the empathetic, rather than the learned response.”
SIDONIE VILLERE works under the premise that her objects possess a sense of history and reflect her current surroundings through constructing and deconstructing her forms, she expresses dichotomies such as architectural vs. geological, abstract vs. literal and gestural vs. minimal. Her works are physically transformed by her process, leaving the artist’s mark on each piece; a subtle history evidenced by the raw wearing and tearing of time and intention.
Villere received her BFA from Tulane University and her MFA in Ceramics from the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. She also studied at Rhode Island School of Design. Her work has been exhibited in Oregon, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, New York, Maryland, Massachusetts and Louisiana. In addition to her work as an artist, she has been active as an exhibition curator (New Orleans and Portland, OR) and member of the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA). She currently teaches ceramics and art at the Louise S. McGehee School on New Orleans.
“Organic Intervention” is the inaugural exhibition at Jonathan Ferrara Gallery’s new gallery space located at 400a Julia Street, New Orleans, LA, 70130