December 9, 2016 - March 12, 2017
Laying by Time
Laying-by Time highlights a broad sample of work by William Christenberry. Drawing on his explorations, recollections and interpretations of Hale County, Ala., Christenberry balanced the beauty, hopefulness and resilience of the deep south against its tensions, pathos and flaws. Moving fluidly between painting, photography, sculpture and drawing, the artist wove a story that is simultaneously celebratory and melancholy, inviting and inhospitable.
The exhibition includes examples of the artist's lesser-known works alongside iconic imagery, as well as the charged and rarely exhibited Klan Room Tableau, a dense multimedia installation that is his response to the Ku Klux Klan and human capacity for hatred and violence. The exhibition is an opportunity to consider the artist's practice and influences, as well as his work's relevance against a backdrop of contemporary concerns.
Website here
Tenant House by William Christenberry .
November, 2016 - December, 2016
Kelimeler Kıyafetsiz (:Words Naked/Are Not Enough)
Sera Boeno's “Kelimeler Kıyafetsiz (:Words Naked/Are Not Enough) is an ongoing collection of quotes from public speeches of current Turkish politicians.
In 2014, the text took the form of 10 writing stones. The installation visually drew from Orkhon Inscriptions: bilingually inscribed Turkic artifacts erected to glorify 8th Century Göktürk Princes.
For this iteration, the content is built into a concrete frieze. From the palaces in Nineveh to the border before Syria, walls –physical and abstract – have protected, segregated and confined throughout history.
While the methodology, the typography and the materials all relate to modern processes such as gentrification and mass-printing, the visual language is ancient and archeological. The oxymoron connotes a backward evolution. "*
Taken from the artist's statement.
Installation shot with the artist, Sera Boeno.
September, 2016 - October, 2016
Codes of Uncertainty
"My practice is grounded in walking and exploring remote natural areas. With the approach of the French flâneur who wanders the city, hiking opens the mind to discovery. I explore the liminal space between the beginning and destination of a walk. Guy Debord’s “psychogeography,” “the study of the specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals,” guides my work (1955). In this wandering act of walking, the body/mind/spirit floats through places, influenced by them. Through printmaking, drawing, and paper sculpture, my subjective experience in these places colors and overgrows imagery of factual geographies. I am drawn to that which is invisible in these places: atmosphere, sound, memory, intuition.
The visual language of my work is derived from the natural world. Sky, clouds, earth strata, and cliffs become metaphors for uncertainty, and a state of being in-between. I combine minute and expansive elements to form new environments that grow, drift, and pull. Repetitive marks reference the world but ambiguity of scale and location separates them from it. The amassing of marks and layers can both hide and reveal, and possess transparency and density. I seek to capture this liminal quality. I see liminality in the expanse of the horizon – the inaccessible and sublime space where the land and sky come together.
With a background as a printmaker, my work functions in layers. The build up of layers and ability to combine the same images in different ways speaks to the idea of possibilities. In the body of work presented, mylar layers and cut paper shapes come together in multiple combinations, creating new potentials. In possibility there is fluidity and unknown. I seek to create work that balances in the space between: between falling and float-
ing, suspension and flight, boundaries and freedom, lightness and weight."*
Hannah Ireland's artist statement. Website here.
(Detail), Graphite, mylar, cut paper, 22x30”, artist: Hannah Ireland
June, 2016 - July, 2016
The Power of Yellow: Hamida Khatri
Hamida Khatri's work is a personal response to being a woman in today's society. Born and raised in Pakistan, Khatri has come against patriarchal boundaries both within and outside of her home country. She learned to understand herself better and began to question her existence. The direction she found led her to celebrating her womanhood which never happened back home.
Keenly interested in myths and legends from Hindu culture, the Goddess Kali serves as inspiration. Kali is known for her strong womanhood and is worshiped for it. Even though she is known for her destruction, Kali fights against the inequities and injustices towards others. The Power of Yellow is a testimony to feminine empowerment that Kali has embodied for thousands of years.*
*Taken from Hamida Khatri's artist statement
Hamida Khati's website: http://hamidakhatri.wix.com/hami-k
Yellow Heart by Hamida Khatri
August, 2015 - May, 2016
Fathers, Brothers, Sons
Fathers, Brothers, Sons was an all-media exhibition that explored twenty-first century male identity from youth to adulthood. Eighteen artists looked beyond conventional male gender roles in contemporary society to ask questions on sex, intimacy, domesticity, race, and privilege.
Forty one pieces, ranging from sculpture, video, and photography to digital, textile, painting, and performance underscored the male experience from diverse historical contexts, and geographic regions. Artist, Tracy Kerdman’s two oil pieces, Just a Bloody Nose and Boy with Fur prompts the viewer to consider two very different experiences for young boys; one condoning violence the other, challenging gender norms. Many such questions raised by the artist’s work throw into sharp relief local notions of masculinity.
The exhibition was held at Space Camp located in the Station North Arts District, home to several culturally diverse communities. Fathers, Brothers, Sons created a space where members of these communities can come together in an open forum to exchange ideas and views on contemporary male experiences.
Website: www.fathersbrotherssons.com
Artists:
Aileen Bassis, Christopher Batten, Mike Bennion, Mike Benevenia, Gordon Fearey, Jerrell Gibbs, Alexander Hernandez, Meghan Keane, Tracy Kerdman, Paul Laoughney, Lauren R Lyde, Jeanette May, Richard Munaba, J Noland, Midori Okuyama, Alexander Pergament, Derick Smith, Justin Zachary
Work pictured on the right by Lauren R. Lyde titled When She Returns
April, 2016
Who's Killed Painting?
Kazutaka Hirota was born in 1976 in Japan. At this time Japanese society, which had been Americanized after WWII had finally become fully industrialized. As a Japanese man living in America, he felt that the Japanese were losing their sense of tradition now more than ever as a byproduct of time and the forgetting of traditional fables. After Hirota moved to America, he met artists who showed a greater interest in Japanese tradition then many Japanese people living in Japan. By way of his paintings he worked to understand these trends and preserve his own cultural values, generating works that hint at a sense of modernized Japanese folklore.
In October, 2015, Hirota created an system he called Color Knitting. Working with the color knitting system he created has been helping him to understand what it means to be a Japanese person living in this contemporary world. His artwork strives to combine images specific to traditional Japanese culture and references to tropes recognizable to the world effected by consumerism. To make his Color Knitting Paintings, Hirota creates patterns with paint by way of cross-hatching color and strips, creating patterns inspired by Japanese fabrics and baskets. For example, his color palette for this series has drawn exclusively from the colors of the toys he bought at Toys r us. However, these colors can be seen universally in all westernized societies.
The compositions for Hirota's series of system paintings are developed entirely through Chigirie, a Japanese traditional paper collage method achieved through the tarring and gluing of colored paper to form an arrangements. While the square format of his canvases are derived from the shape of origami paper. Within his paintings, he also maintain hand-painted quality and slight irregularities/fluctuations in line to allow for a sense of what the Japanese call Wabisabi, meaning the beauty of impermanence and the balance of perfection and imperfection.*
Taken from Kazutaka Hirota's artist statement and website here
February, 2016 - March, 2016
Me, My Selfie, and I
A solo exhibition for artist Jordan Kyler.
"What is a #selfie, why do we #selfie, and how do I capture a #greatselfie? These are just a few of the queries that the series Me, My Selfie, and I are trying to answer. Selfies have become a technological phenomenon of epic proportions in the 21st century, a phenomenon that I have found deep, unexplainable fascination in. One of the most interesting aspects of a selfie is how much control we have over these images. Filters, postedits, lighting, angles, hairstyles, and location are just a few of the factors that most people take into consideration when planning a selfie. For heavy selfie takers, these factors tend to obscure their original identity and question the validity of the image. We are not our #selfies. The images in this series question the validity and diminution of identity in a selfie through heavy distortion and layering. After all of the editing is all done and the image is posted to social media, we are with left images that are not ourselfies and never will be our true #selfie." - Kyler's artist statement
Kyler's website here
Installation of the show