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Kevin Arnold
My only duty was to describe reality as it had come to me—and to give the mundane its beautiful due. — John Updike
My paintings carry the weight of domestic disconnect through the unsentimental depiction of generic, mass-produced objects. The unnoticed, utilitarian things that facilitate our day-to-day existence — plain cardboard boxes, metal chairs, folding tables, vinyl office furniture — are presented a deadpan, almost Existential manner in order to question our sense of the familiar and the quality of the attention paid to our surroundings.
To say that we are inundated with an ever-growing amount of visual information is by now a cliché. However, in order to process so much information, we must develop routines to separate the consequential from the non-essential. These self-determined routines are particularly important as we transition from one space to the next and the visual “scan” becomes our tool to navigate through this constant flow of information. By painting the mundane to a certain level of realism, I try to disrupt the viewer’s habits of looking and challenge the almost mechanical process of the scan.
The things pictured in my most recent body of work are ubiquitous and are chosen because they have no intrinsic aesthetic value. These Mass-produced, workaday, seemingly “neutral” objects are designed to be used, folded up, put away, re-used until they wear out or fall apart. They stand, piled, stacked, tucked away in corners, and stored away in closets and stockrooms. Through repeated use, even these generic objects begin to develop a kind of “identity,” displaying subtle clues to specific places or particular methods of employ.
My approach has been to paint the objects at a 1:1 ratio from direct observation. The use of trompe l’oeil and the 1:1 ratio is a means of playing with the familiarity of scale and perspective while creating an intimate, almost surreal encounter for the viewer. In other words, the painting begins to function visually in the same way it functions physically. It begins to act like the thing it is.
The installation of my work is a large component in rendering meaning from the images. An oil painting of a metal folding chair, painted in a 1:1 ratio, rests on the floor as it leans against the white wall. In this way, the chair/subject (and painted objected) is removed from the context of painting and seen in the same way that the chair/object would function in an actual space. The neutral grey chair rests against a solid white ground, broken only by the downward shadow that defines the grey floor plane and the shallow space behind. There’s a visual blending of what appears to be simultaneously familiar and disconnected from physical space.
Sonya German
Most of us are vulnerable at some point in our lives. Yet we often find it hard to admit our vulnerability to ourselves, and also to others. I know I find it difficult to confide my shortcomings and confusions to myself, especially when it comes to my love/sex life. My current series, after sex, is an exploration into the failure of my romantic life. Part cathartic exercise, part public confessional, I lay bare the memories I would prefer to forget in the hopes that they resonate with the audience. It is okay that we fail, that we say stupid things, and that sometimes things just don't work out the way we would like them to. And yet, we move on.
Marsha Kirk
My work is a creative discovery that is controlled and precarious, simple yet obsessively complex. I choose familiar objects: pencils, crayons, markers, paper, and books. I examine the common use and social significance of the material; then explore means of augmentation to infuse a meticulous consequence in the finished sculptures. Often intimate and fragile, the works reflect social and psychologically revealing constructs. They consider conditions like isolation, proximal impact, and vulnerability.
Masumi Nyui
Mistrust of mediation motivates my work. By reevaluating the systems that we use to acknowledge and judge, I seek to realize and remember things
that are changed or lost in the process of mediation due to their intangibility or subtleness. By giving physicality or visibility to what is not necessarily
tangible or visual, through my work, I suggest the presence of things that cannot, and perhaps should not, be defined by words or any other means.
Sarah B. Peck
To what extent do the objects we collect, create, and prize reflect who we are and how we think? My recent work investigates the process of collecting and the notion of ownership. I explore objects collected on my own and by others through a continuously evolving personal methodology of classification and documentation. Stones represent indexical ties to places, people, and times in my life. As a reminder of temporality and the fleeting nature of time spent in my possession; some of these stones are rendered meticulously in eggshells. Many others, collected as a daily practice, are bound in thread the length of my body and photographed. In my recent video work, these threads become soft light on intimate spaces; a kind of magic realism; and an extraordinary exploration of the ‘ordinary.’ This series of videos, entitled “Threadbare” are framed in fabricated furniture facades, referencing the home in which they were filmed and the potential nature of collection as a reflection of the collector. “Threadbare” is a domestic exploration, illuminating the ever changing discovery and development of connections between the body, surrounding spaces, and familiar objects. What sorts of narratives develop around our spaces and collections? Can these stories further an understanding of ourselves and those around us?
Margy Rich
My work considers the possibility that the intervals of time and space between events contain an experience as compelling as the events themselves.
This work presents the space of the quiet interval. Represented in this show are paintings from a recent solo exhibition, On the Interval. This
project was an exploration of an empty gallery between artists’ exhibitions, over the course of a year. Through paintings and their installations, I re-
contextualized this time and space for the viewer. Also included are paintings from my current project, The Space Between Two Paintings. These works examine the liminal space between paintings, conceptually and physically, in galleries and museums.
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