SPACE, LIGHT AND DISORDER curated by Marilla Palmer
“SPACE LIGHT AND ORDER. THOSE ARE THE THINGS THAT MEN NEED JUST AS MUCH AS THEY NEED BREAD OR A PLACE TO SLEEP”
-LE CORBUSIER
On the Cover: Peter Dudek Modern Shakers, 2015 metal, wood, plas6c webbing, MDF, paint, handcolored print, chair, wooden Shaker pegs 69 x 96 x 42 in
SPACE, LIGHT AND DISORDER curated by Marilla Palmer January 7th – February 13th 2016 Opening reception January 7th, 6 – 9 pm
Caroline Cox Float, (detail) 2016 horsehair fabric, millinery material, glass magnifying lenses, hand sewn and hung with monofilament Dimensions variable
“Space light and order. Those are the things that men need just as much as they need bread or a place to sleep" Le Corbusier But disorder is the domain of the ar6st. Crea6vity comes from chaos. Ar6sts make up systems to disrupt them and rules are made to be broken. Entropy is another tool in the paint box, if there is mess we study it, in minu6ae. For the ar6st disorder is more than the un6dy household that Le Corbusier rejected and worked to obliterate, it’s an integral part of our prac6ce. What many would construe as mental disorder can be fer6le ground as well. Ar6sts descend into rabbit holes of our own imagina6on, and stay there looking for crea6ve nuggets. The ar6sts chosen for this show reference architectural interiors as well as psychological interiority. Typical home making skills are disrupted and skewed transforming how we perceive our environment. Marilla Palmer, 2015
Language and light are at the center of Bruce Pearson’s work. Texturally dense phrases are imbedded in deeply carved Styrofoam surfaces. The normal organized grid of the wriVen word is disrupted and rendered almost illegible by the overlapping layers of color, light and shadow which are painted on the deeply sculpted surface. We know the phrases are there, they are in the 6tles. But perceiving the painted words is difficult to the point of being almost hallucinogenic. As in Alice’s voyage into the rabbit hole, we’ve lost the ability to comprehend things as we usually could.
Bruce Pearson Not to interrupt your beauDful moment, 2013 oil and acrylic on stryofoam 48 x 60 in.
Bruce Pearson Soon Enough 2, 2013 oil and acrylic on stryofoam 33 x 33 in.
Dawn Clements’ subject is
domes6city drawn in loving detail with ballpoint pen, ink and watercolor. The renderings are pieced together as delicate tapestries. The finished works can be small or room sized showing a filmic scanning of her environment. The scale and perspec6ve are skewed with melancholy beauty. She draws as “a kind of visual diary of what [she] see[s], touch[es], and desire[s]. As I move between the mundane empirical spaces of my apartment and studio, and the glamorous fic6ons of movies, apparently seamless environments are disturbed through ever-shi]ing points of view.” Dawn Clements Kitchen Floor, 2010 Sennelier ink on paper 79 x 48 in.
Dawn Clements UnDtled (Skyakes), 2014 watercolor on paper 30 x 21.5 in.
Peter Dudek’s sculptures use
architectural bits and pieces both salvaged and newly fabricated. Transgressing the hierarchy of architectural styles, the “objects are spread and stacked…allowing for a back and forth conversa6on within [his] work.” The found object assemblage Modern Shakers juxtaposes Mid Century Modern elements with the Shaker concept of func6onality. The utopian aspira6ons of both are rendered non-func6onal, but capable of desire. In Dudek’s architectural cartoon series, houses dream of each other.
Peter Dudek Modern Shakers, 2015 metal, wood, plas6c webbing, MDF, paint, hand-colored print, chair, wooden Shaker pegs 69 x 96 x 42 in
Peter Dudek House Dreaming Domino, 2015 inkjet print on metal 16 x 16 in. Edi6on of 10
Peter Dudek White-out (a), 2015 paint on photograph 8 x 10 in.
White-out (b), 2015 paint on photo 10 x 8 in.
White-out (c), 2015 paint on photograph 8 x 10 in.
Sydney Licht paints and sculpts with a
specific interest in consumer culture. Whether packing peanuts or gi] boxes, the objects are transformed, calling “into ques6on is our assumed familiarity with the ordinary things we too o]en overlook.” Licht’s pain6ng and sculptural works involve the use of mundane objects from daily life. In UnDtled, 2012 she “weaves” a curtain of Styrofoam peanuts, “the man-made variety [that] frequently ends up in landfills at the end of its life cycle.”
Sydney Licht UnDtled, 2012 canvas and Styrofoam 84 x 72 in.
Sydney Licht M's and W's, 2012 mixed media 12.5 x 16 in.
Caroline Cox’s process based architectural
sculptures begin with piles of delicate materials on the floor. Using light and gravity the architectural hanging sculptures emerge “through an uncharted series of improvised construc6ons and reworkings.” In Float, Cox s6tches millinery material and glass lenses crea6ng a “visceral/ special landscape” that transfom its environment. Her work is “clumped, sewn and wound” together un6l the light interac6ve materials coalesce. “Combina6ons of the work’s cultural associa6ons and the connota6ve strength of the materials allows for a nonverbal, poe6c and ambiguously referen6al content to surface.” Caroline Cox Float, 2016 horsehair fabric, millinery material, glass magnifying lenses, hand sewn and hung with monofilament Dimensions variable
Caroline Cox DriQ, 2015 vegetable packaging mesh Dimensions variable
KK Kozik, Architectural interiors and
domes6c life are the subject of many of Kozik’s pain6ngs. The composi6ons are frontal and carefully composed in dream like tableaus. In Kozik’s pain6ng Czech we are privy to a bookcase in someone’s home. The books are piled up without shelves in a “messed up grid” that threatens to obscure the blue skied landscape seen through the window. Its disarray makes us feel voyeuris6c. An abstracted approach emp6es the books of their content. The book jackets are painted simply, without text. “I did this really randomly -- load a brush and find a few places to put the paint.” KK Kozik Czech, 2015 oil on linen 46 x 57 in.
KK Kozik Summer Sky, 2015 oil on linen 20 x 16
KK Kozik Slither, 2015 oil on linen 18 x 24 in.
Theresa HackeA‘s mixed media pain6ngs
are a “philosophical inquiry.” She creates visual problems to solve them, using chaos as a tool in her paint box. The abstracted images are “geometric and organic with a shi]ing center of gravity.” The illusionis6c space is challenged with punctures and layering of materials. Through the window of her mixed media pain6ngs on panel our kinesthe6c senses are disturbed. There is a “ver6ginous feeling as we fall into the portal of another reality.” For Theresa, as “we spiral into inner space,” that’s when the “medita6on” begins.
Theresa HackeV Dusty Memory, 2014 diatomaceous earth, gesso Flashe paint, acrylic, ink on wood panel 72 x 48 in.
Theresa HackeV 4 Corners, 2014 diatomaceous earth, gesso Flashe paint, acrylic, magic marker and ink on wood panel 8 x 10 in.
For Marilla Palmer, unruly Nature is to be domes6cated, ordered and dressed. Ac6ng as seamstress to Mother Nature, garments are 6ghtly tailored for branches. In her collaged watercolors the chao6c paVerns of bark are organized into tex6le designs for future, imagined garments. The branches are re-foliated with actual pressed leaves, owers and millinery velvet. Working within the approved pre-modernist, pre-feminist pas6mes for women such as decoupage, watercolor and sewing; disorder abounds in her studio.
Marilla Palmer It Starts at the BoVom, 2015 branches, fabric, thread Dimensions variable
Marilla Palmer Elevated, Enlightened, 2015 spores, Durabrite print, watercolor, holographic vinyl, marigolds on Arches paper 30 x 22 in.
Joshua Johnson‘s mul6 media sculptures
are at the same 6me minimalist in appearance and conceptually complex. Referencing industrial prototypes, his sculptures bring to mind the dialogue between func6onal and non-func6onal in art. Scien6fic, consumer and industrial products are combined with mineral and biological maVer such as fossils and a human skull. He considers “art to be a cogni6ve technology… art’s func6on may be located not in its material ends, but upon its ability to orient thought”
Joshua Johnson ExDncDon StaDon, 2014 trilobyte fossil, telescope, wireless mouse, leather, plexi, wood 24 x 14 x 75 in.
Joshua Johnson Ouroborus, 2012 plas6c dinner-ware, epoxy puVy, hot glue 21 x 20 x 2.5 in
Joshua Johnson Razonbilidad, 2015 human skull, acrylic, LED, wood, ligh6ng ďŹ xture 10 x 16 x 67 in.
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