Revisit artwork from former visiting faculty
Revisit: Artwork from Former Visiting Faculty Publication ©2018 This publication was produced in conjunction with Revisit: Artwork from Former Visiting Faculty, at the Van Every/Smith Galleries, Davidson College, August 20–October 5, 2018. Van Every/Smith Galleries Davidson College 315 North Main Street Davidson, North Carolina 28035-7117 davidsoncollegeartgalleries.org All rights reserved. Printed in the United States. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form without the prior written permission of the publisher. ISBN: 978-1-890573-26-3 Lia Newman, Director/Curator Allison Tolbert, Curatorial Assistant Essay: Cort Savage Editor: Chris Vitiello Design: Graham McKinney cover:
CLINTON SLEEPER, Teaching Capitalism to Nature, 2014–Ongoing, Archival print, 41 x 32.5 inches All images courtesy of the artists, unless specified
Revisit artwork from former visiting faculty
introduction It was around 1996. Professor Herb Jackson and I
were attending the College Art Association (CAA) Conference in New York City. Standing in the lobby of the midtown Hilton, we watched hosts of art professionals filtering in and out going about their conference business. We noted the clusters of young, recent graduate students loitering in the lobby, many of whom couldn’t afford to stay in the hotel during the conference or, for that matter, even register for it. They attempted to strike nonchalant poses, but it was clear they were intimidated. Finding a job in academia was tough and the odds were highly stacked against applicants. Herb and I both remarked on the good fortune we had experienced with Davidson College and expressed our empathy for the challenge these newly minted MFAs were facing with minimal support.
RAY KLEINLEIN Lemons (for Ingres), 2018, Oil on canvas, 40 x 52 inches
We shared similar conversations when we attended the CAA conference each year, sometimes
in the lobby, sometimes over breakfast or dinner. We recognized the fact that tenure-track positions typically required 3-5 years of teaching experience, but that there were few mechanisms in place to gain that experience. The most common method was adjunct teaching—a system that paid individuals minimally, often had ridiculously heavy teaching loads, usually provided no health benefits and, most importantly, did not provide those teacher/ artists with the space, time, or funding needed to facilitate making their art or participating in professional activities at a level that could lead to a more permanent position. We wondered how a non-tenure-track position could engage the more ‘humane instincts’ referenced in Davidson College’s mission statement. We had another challenge to solve in the Art Department here at Davidson. Since the opening of the Belk Visual Art Center in 1993, studio classes had been consistently overflowing and the number of majors was expanding. We needed help. The College was not ready to create a new tenure-track position in 3
the Art Department. Hiring an adjunct instructor might answer our need but ethically would not take into account the needs of the person hired. The goal was to answer our institution’s needs while also creating a model to inspire other institutions. Our imagined scenario was straightforward. Hire a recent MFA on a non-renewable, two-year contract. Provide the person pay commensurate to an incoming assistant professor. Provide them health benefits. Rather than giving them committee work, give them a gorgeous studio and the support needed to pursue their career as an artist. Finally provide them a solo exhibition at the end of their contract that included a professional brochure of the exhibition. We wanted to create the ideal launch pad, one that propelled the person into the fray of CAA with significant teaching experience, the title of Visiting Assistant Professor of Art, a recent solo exhibition, and a professional exhibition brochure to hand to prospective employers or to use when approaching galleries or exhibition venues. We were also thinking about the needs of our students. This answer would permit us to rotate through various art disciplines and introduce students to a LYDIA MUSCO wider range of media, methods, Stack C, 2014, and aesthetic philosophies. Concrete with wood base, 72 x 36 x 17.5 inches Because we do not have a 4
graduate program, these hires would model for students an early stage of professional development not otherwise present at the school. The position would, at least in the short term, bring needed diversity to the faculty. And we hoped that, as we moved through a succession of these visitors, we would simultaneously build an external network for our own graduating majors. It was a clear win-win. With the support of the entire Art Department, Jackson managed to articulate the logic to the Dean of Faculty, and the two-year Visiting Assistant Professor of Art position was born in 1997. From 1997 to 2016, eleven artists served in this role. An examination of the eclectic nature of this exhibition, Revisit, reveals the range of artist perspectives students were exposed to. Rather than seeking a consistent school of thought or artistic genre, we sought artists as passionate about teaching as they were about their own professional growth. These artists’ contributions changed our studio program to its very core. The role sparked an ongoing departmental conversation about what we wanted to accomplish and how we wanted to evolve. Revisit includes the work of ten artists who either served as Visiting Assistant Professor of Art or came to the rescue when we unexpectedly found ourselves in need of a replacement. In every instance, the energy and commitment these individuals imparted to students was exceptional in spite of the fact that they knew the
position was temporary. Likewise, each artist’s art offered significant content, skilled craft, and unique vision. Their efforts in the classroom and studio were consistently an inspiration to students and faculty alike. In 2007, we asked a former two-year Visiting Professor, McArthur Freeman, to create a proposal to bring digital media into Davidson’s Art Department. In 2011, we hired our first two year Visiting Assistant Professor fully dedicated to Digital Art, Darren Douglas Floyd. He and faculty who followed—Liss LaFleur and Clint Sleeper—helped make clear the potential intersection between Digital Art and Davidson’s commitment to building a Digital Studies Program. Finally, in 2015, the Department was given the opportunity to turn the two-year Visiting Assistant Professor of Art position into a tenure-track position dedicated to Digital Art, linking the Art Department and Davidson’s Digital Studies Program. Course offerings in Digital Art now parallel studio art course offerings in disciplines of drawing, painting, printmaking, and sculpture. With the addition of the Digital Art position, Davidson College now offers students a range of media and methods reflecting the broader scope of contemporary visual art in the digital age. The gain to the Art Department, Digital Studies Program, Davidson College, and our students has been truly exciting and profound. At the same time, there is a sense of loss as visitors leave and 5
questions remain about how we might engage our humane instincts anew. As the landscape of higher education evolves, how can Davidson College continue to create opportunities that equally benefit the institution and new professionals entering the field? How can we not only meet a departmental need but create a model of mutual dignity and ethical integrity for other institutions to consider? I’m uncertain about how to best answer these questions. However, I do know that the Department, our students, and Davidson College have grown immensely because of the contributions and skills of the artists in this exhibition, and for that they have my sincere gratitude. Cort Savage Professor of Art, Davidson College FELICIA VAN BORK How To Bury a Secret, 2014, Monotype collage mounted on board, 36 x 36 inches opposite:
LISS LAFLEUR, Firework, 2018, Blown glass, computer generated fireworks with audio, dimensions variable 6
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tonya CLAY
(American, b. 1975)
Artist Statement
My work reveals the processes of a human mind processing life through the body experience. Toward this end, the content and form of my art is layered on many levels and deals with spirituality, history, social constructs, gender, and sexuality. It is intended to seduce via vibrant and deliberate color schemes that recall dreams, and to be as mysterious. Through further consideration, this visceral experience becomes an intellectual one. The seeming disorder of shifting space, perspective, and dimension unfolds in a subtle revelation of the mathematical order of divine proportion: Phi. It is the constant amid changing perceptions. Forms change, but the compositional order represents the changeless, the universal, God.
EXHIBITION CHECKLIST: Moon Seed, ךהך, 2018, Acrylic, fabric, paper, ink, polymer resin, 12.5 x 12 x 1.5 inches Clean Sing, כהח, 2018, Acrylic, fabric, paper, ink, polymer resin, 12.5 x 12 x 1.5 inches Harvey, כהח, 2017, Acrylic, fabric, paper, ink, leaves, polymer resin, 12.5 x 12 x 1.5 inches Irma, סאל, 2018, Acrylic, fabric, paper, ink, leaves, polymer resin, 12.5 x 12 x 1.5 inches Untitled (Passage), אני, 2018, Acrylic, fabric, paper, ink, leaves, polymer resin, 12.5 x 12 x 1.5 inches Twenty-One Flowers for Ganesh, 2016, Acrylic, fabric, polymer clay on canvas and panel, 64 x 65 x 8 inches
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An intense healing energy is created with the physical objects. This energetic presence extends to the viewer who is called to have a physical, psychological, and emotional experience that speaks to coping, healing, and spiritual awakening. Viewers are implored to question familiar perceptual existence, to look beyond the surface, to become aware.
Biography
Clay was born in Champaign, Illinois and earned a BFA in Painting with honors from the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign. She was later awarded a three-year scholarship to the Graduate School of State University of New York, Stony Brook from where she earned her MFA with awards. Clay began her professional career as manager of a successful gallery in the West Chelsea Fine Arts Building in New York City. After September 11, 2001, Clay spent the rest of that year traveling in Brazil where she was able to work in association with local Brazilian artists and galleries. She then returned to her family tradition, and began teaching art at the college level, first at the Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida and then at Davidson College between 2006-2008 as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Art. At Davidson, she was awarded a Faculty Study and Research Grant in 2007 to investigate the changing attitudes of post-Soviets since the end of the USSR. While in Russia, Clay conducted individual and group discussions with Russian citizens and viewed important contemporary Russian art. Since 2011, Clay has owned her own gallery, Tonya Clay Fine Art, in Bradenton, Florida. She exhibits her work internationally and teaches studio art at the University of Tampa.
TONYA CLAY Twenty-One Flowers for Ganesh, 2016
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debra FISHER
(American, b. 1954)
Artist Statement
I work slowly and intuitively. Maybe that’s why printmaking has become so all encompassing for the past 40-some years. I have always incorporated material such as photographs, stamps, and wooden appendages into my wall installations, books, and prints, and used other media including plaster, thread, copper, gold leaf, and gesso. My intaglio print requires a lot of preliminary drawing along with photography. I draw directly on Shena plywood using Tom Huck’s woodcut technique. I’ve recently been printing on cloth. I draw upon my immediate surroundings and personal environment. A Colorado landscape will show up in a North Carolina still-life with a melagro from Mexico City. Different timelines in the same work. Since a liver transplant in 2006, my work has often focused on mortality, emotional change, pain, family history, deja vu, otherworldly events, change, growth, death, life, beauty, people, children, laughter, and political cynicism.
EXHIBITION CHECKLIST: The Phlebotomist: Burning the Midnight Oil with Cassandra and Elrey, 2017, Woodcut, handcolored unique print, watercolor, color pencil, gold leaf rubber stamp, library shelf, 34.5 x 38.75 x 1.875 inches Timeline, 2016–2017, Woodcut, shena plywood, rubber stamp, handcoloring, prismacolor pencils, gold leaf, 26.75 x 57.625 x 1.875 inches Daddy 1 – Daddy 2, 2018, Drawing and etching, embroidery, pillowcase, coffee, applique, stamping and photographs, 16.75 x 22.625 x 1.875 inches Cry Baby, 2018, Color intaglio, 17.5 x 15.5 x 1.875 inches
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Influences include Joseph Cornell, whose work I can remember seeing for the first time in a New York gallery—the tiniest of spaces, perfect for these small thoughts. Kiki Smith’s prints on thin rice paper have been inspirational along with her animal images. Finally, my mentor and best print friend ever, Rosemarie T. Bernardi, has been my mentor and source of inspiration for many years, offering ideas, support, and a constant exchange, both through teaching and personal art production.
Biography
Fisher was born in Coatesville, Pennsylvania and grew up in Claymont, Delaware. She earned her BFA in printmaking from the University of Delaware and her MFA in printmaking from Ohio State University. Fisher spent eight years at Denison University, two years as the first Visiting Assistant Professor of Art at Davidson College, and one year at Metropolitan State College, Denver, Colorado. She has worked for more than twenty-four years at State University College at Brockport, New York. Through the Ohio Arts Council, Fisher had the opportunity to travel to Dresden, Germany and work in a government-run print shop. Other travels, to Mexico City and the Southwest in particular, along with family experiences and personal surroundings have remained influential in Fisher’s work. Since 2006, life and work has changed greatly for Fisher, beginning with a diagnosis of end-state liver disease. After receiving a transplant, Fisher had a staph infection and nearly lost her life on more than one occasion. Four months in the hospital resulted in a long recovery and issues with chronic pain, fatigue, arthritis, and fibromyalgia. She currently resides in upstate NY with her husband and two dogs but plans to retire to their home in the Smokey Mountains in 2019.
DEBRA FISHER Cry Baby, 2018
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darren douglas FLOYD
(American, b. 1972)
Artist Statement
I have always been a slow artist. I make things which I never show. I sit on things which I should send out. I move on to the next project before the current one is finished. And then I got sick, which made me even slower. The animations and zines have been piling up. The works in this exhibition include some of them. I switched from a camera to a 3D scanner as my primary image-gathering tool to make pictures that I can look at on every side. This made me into
an animator, reluctantly. I avoid the 12 principles of animation because they aren’t principles. They are aesthetic choices that have dominated and colonized our imaginations. I was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer at the age of 43. The doctors were surprised because it’s an old man’s cancer. It was so unexpected that the doctor didn’t recognize the tumor as cancerous, he just kept calling it weird. In order to survive cancer, you have to fight. As it turns out, my will to live isn’t that strong. My art career would have to get a lot better for this to be worth it.
CancerZine, 2017–Ongoing, Color laser prints, 18 zines
Cancer always comes back. The bigger trick is surviving the return. Supposedly, getting a dog helps. So does exercise and becoming a vegan. I’m doing what I can.
Next It was Sugar Wafers, 2017, 3D scan with animation, no sound, :30 loop
Biography
EXHIBITION CHECKLIST:
I Know How This Happens, 2017, 2D weaving loop animation, no sound, :10 loop Transrectal Transurethral, 2017, 3D key frame animation, no sound, :10 loop Prostate Specific Antigen, 2017, 3D model with animation, no sound, :40 loop Radiation Mangles, 2017, 2.5D animation, no sound, :30 loop Tears Have Volume, 2017, 3D scan with particle animation, no sound, :17 loop Tender Nipples, 2017, 3D scan with animation, no sound, :20 loop I Am Transformed, 2017, 3D morph animation, no sound, :30 loop
Floyd was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan and earned his BA in Women’s Studies from the College of Wooster in 1994 and an MFA in Film and Media Arts from Temple University in 2001. Floyd is an experimentalist with a diverse studio practice that combines animation, digital video, and zines. His work has been exhibited at the AC Institute, CANADA, Video Dumbo, and Gallery 138 in New York City and screened in many group shows and film festivals. Floyd has been accepted to several prestigious artist residencies including Yaddo, I-Park, and the Millay Colony for the Arts. CancerGram, his ongoing Instagram diary based on having stage 4 cancer, is an experimental storytelling practice that works through social media. Floyd is currently a daily creative streamer at twitch.tv/professorflizzo.
DARREN DOUGLAS FLOYD Death Vision, 2017
Death Vision, 2017, 3D blend shapes animation, no sound, :15 loop
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mcarthur FREEMAN, II
(American, b. 1974)
Artist Statement
Features of my recent works include plump gestural shapes layered with skins, flaps, orifices, sacs, and appendages. The works have grown out of my reflections on the historical monsterization and exoticization of black bodies. The results are transfigured anatomically inspired forms that explore hybridity and identity. Their shiny bulbous forms, which oscillate between abstraction and figuration, evolve from my intuitive process of finding forms through both drawing and sculptural studies. In a pseudoscientific way, I combine abstract patterns, human anatomy, and shapes found in nature to create a diverse range of specimen-like forms. Spliced
EXHIBITION CHECKLIST: Balloon Bump, 2013, Black resin with steel base, 13 x 5.3 x 5.5 inches Pine App, 2014, Bronze, 13 x 4 x 4 inches Strange Figurations #3, 2017, Black resin with steel base, 12.5 x 8 x 5 inches Strange Figurations #7, 2017, Black resin with steel base, 13 x 5 x 5 inches Three Heads, 2014, Bronze, 16 x 6 x 4 inches Strange Figurations #4, 2017, Black resin with steel base, 10 x 3.5 x 3.5 inches Strange Figurations #22, 2017, Black resin with steel base, 12.5 x 4.5 x 4 inches Strange Figurations #6, 2017, Black resin with steel base, 12.5 x 4.5 x 5 inches
together from bits and pieces of multiple sources, their surreal shapes are familiar but no longer recognizable. As hybrid forms, they are as much about the loss of identity as they are about the concoction of new ones. They manifest as curious mutations and strange figurations, which are at once beautiful, grotesque, sensual, and humorous. My works combine three overlapping cutting-edge technologies: digital sculpting, 3D scanning, and digital fabrication. Working with polygons that are manipulated onscreen, I push, pull, carve, and mold virtual forms as if working with digital clay. The objects are then 3D printed and fabricated in other materials, such as resin or bronze. It is a process that involves both invention and discovery. From scribbles to data, and data to material, I relish the ability to find forms and materialize them in the physical world.
Biography
Freeman is a visual artist and designer whose recent works combine three interrelated emerging technologies: digital sculpting, 3D scanning, and 3D printing. Freeman earned his BFA in Drawing and Painting from the University of Florida and his MFA from Cornell University, with a concentration in Painting. He also holds a Master of Art and Design from North Carolina State University in Animation and New Media. Freeman’s work has been published in Nka Journal of Contemporary African Art and has been exhibited nationally in both group and solo shows. He has presented talks at SIGGRAPH Asia and more recently at The National Council on Education for Ceramic Arts (NCECA). Freeman is the recipient of the prestigious McKnight Junior Faculty Fellowship and is currently an Associate Professor of Video, Animation, and Digital Arts at the University of South Florida.
MCARTHUR FREEMAN, II Strange Figurations #7, 2017 Strange Figurations #3, 2017
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ray KLEINLEIN
(American, b. 1969)
Artist Statement
Representational still life painting is part of a longstanding tradition. As a contemporary artist who chooses to work within an established style and genre, my challenge is to create work which is original, current, and personal—work which celebrates tradition while simultaneously transcending the sense of nostalgia attributed to it. The formal language I employ is a synthesis of traditional and contemporary aesthetics, particularly those associated with geometric abstraction and minimalism. Some paintings contain wry references to particular modern painters (a painting of striped shirts is a nod to Bridget Riley and a creased shopping bag recalls Mark Rothko, for example). While from a distance or reproduced in images my paintings may seem illusionistic, the technique denies neither the physical texture of the paint nor the flat surface of the canvas. In this way, my paintings integrate traditional illusionism and contemporary formalism. They are convincing representations of actual objects as well as abstract arrangements of light, shape, and color. Though the objects are initially chosen for their abstract visual qualities, decontextualized, and re-presented in a conceptual space, no object is
EXHIBITION CHECKLIST: Lemons (for Ingres), 2018, Oil on canvas, 40 x 52 inches Foil Wrapper, 2014, Oil on canvas, 40 x 40 inches Pink and Blue (Vodka), 2012, Oil on canvas, 20 x 24 inches Black Shoes, 2018, Oil on canvas, 19 x 22 inches Silver Gift, 2018, Oil on canvas, 20 x 20 inches Silver, 2015, Oil on canvas, 10 x 10 inches 16
neutral. As material fragments of human life, they become signifiers for culture, class, identity, desire, gender, and the body. Since the subjects are taken from the visual landscape of my everyday life, they sometimes suggest autobiographical narratives. Ultimately, my paintings celebrate the simple act of looking at the overlooked and the pleasures derived from seeing ordinary things in an extraordinary way. As these affirmations, the paintings enthusiastically embrace culture and the material world while suggesting a life-affirming optimism, reverence, humor, and an underlying spirituality.
Biography
Kleinlein studied at the Ohio State University and the Columbus College of Art and Design and earned his master’s degree in painting and art history at Ohio University. He had his first one-man gallery show while still in graduate school. Since then he’s exhibited extensively in one-person and group shows in galleries and museums throughout the United States, as well as at art fairs including Art Miami, Expo Chicago, and the Seattle Art Fair. Kleinlein has won numerous awards and prizes including the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Professional Fellowships (twice) and a prize in the Miami University National Young Painters Competition. Kleinlein’s work has been published in numerous publications including New American Paintings, Southern Living, The Charlotte Observer, and The Columbus Dispatch, among others. Kleinlein’s work is in the collections of The Canton Museum of Fine Art, The Zanesville Museum of Art, The Southern Ohio Museum, and Davidson College, as well as hundreds of corporate and private collections throughout the world. Kleinlein is represented by the Paul Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco, CA; Parker Gallery, Sea Island, GA; the Keny Gallery, Columbus, OH; and Cumberland Gallery, Nashville, TN. In addition to teaching at Davidson College, Kleinlein has also taught at Hampden-Sydney College, Longwood University, and Middle Tennessee State University. Kleinlein lives with his wife and two children near Nashville, TN.
RAY KLEINLEIN Foil Wrapper, 2014 Silver Gift, 2018
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liss LAFLEUR
(American, b. 1987)
Artist Statement
My work questions current political, socio-cultural, and gender norms, with a particular emphasis on exploring the relationship between technology, identity, and future feminism. Gelatin is a substance I return to often. It can be traced to the space race, the construct of the homemaker, ammunition, and specific moments in American history. Firework is a computer-generated series of firecrackers paired with an audio recording of a personal narrative. Explosive bursts make legible the queer outline of my current life, which America would rather see destroyed, erased, or kept silent. The glass gelatin sculptures installed with this work were produced by blowing hot glass directly into antique Jell-O molds, replacing animal by-products with the female breath.
Biography
LaFleur is a contemporary artist whose work explores feminism, matrilineality, and queer identity. She earned a BFA from University of North Texas, and an MFA in Media Art as a Digital Arts Fellow from Emerson College. Her work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally at venues including the TATE Modern, Cannes Court MĂŠtrage, the Reykjavik Art Museum, and CICA Gallery. Her recent work, You Belong to Me was a finalist for both the prestigious Lumen Prize and the Aesthetica Art Prize. She currently lives in Denton and Austin, and is an Assistant Professor and the Program Director of New Media Art at the University of North Texas.
EXHIBITION CHECKLIST: Firework, 2018, Blown glass, computer generated fireworks with audio, dimensions variable Hand Tools, 2018, Blown glass, dimensions variable
LISS LAFLEUR Hand Tools, 2018
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lydia MUSCO
(American, b. 1978)
Artist Statement
I learned to work with my hands from my woodworker father. I learned to look at nature from my mother who wrote poems and walked rural roads. I learned to feel space by studying dance and helping to build houses. Although my work is influenced by urban spaces and environments, it is equally fed by a connection to the rural, wooded landscapes I explored while growing up. Along with ideas of architecture and constructed space, certain fundamental elements of nature have remained within my visual and object-making vocabulary, such as sedimentary layers and the work of gravity and time. This current body of work began as a question about how to build a form from the ground up in one continuous action—stacking, layering, and letting an object grow. This led me to think about what those actions relate to, such as the building of words with alphabets, the layers of stories within memories, and records of time found in nature and built structures.
Biography
Musco earned her BA from Bennington College and her MFA from Boston University. As a graduate student, Musco developed methods of casting concrete in thin, stackable layers and was awarded a Joan Mitchell Foundation MFA Grant for the resulting body of work. She also studied stonecarving in Italy and has participated in symposia and residencies in Norway, South Korea, and China. Her work has been widely exhibited both in galleries as well as in outdoor venues across the United States. She has been honored with numerous prestigious awards including two Pollock-Krasner Foundation grants, a Clark Hulings Fund for Visual Artists grant, and an Edward F. Albee Fellowship, among others. Musco lives and works in Royalston, Massachusetts.
While the details of what I build change and evolve, the underlying constant is an exploration of the roles and effects of objects and spaces within the world and within the language of art.
EXHIBITION CHECKLIST: Stack C, 2014, Concrete with wood base, 72 x 36 x 17.5 inches Boxing Lines 2, 2013, Cast bronze and concrete, 20 x 10 x 5 inches
LYDIA MUSCO Organizing Echoes with Ash, 2015
DJ-20 Four, 2015, Handmade paper and concrete, 7.5 x 2.75 x 1.5 inches
Boxing Lines 2, 2013
Organizing Echoes with Ash, 2015, Ceramic, 32 x 20 x 10 inches
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nathaniel ROGERS ’02
(American, b. 1980)
Artist Statement
My paintings’ visual elements are inspired by personal experiences within the contexts of American suburban culture, global politics, and narrative symbology from historical mythology and oral tradition. The situations methodically staged in my pieces have components deliberately placed to add levity and humor, while a darker underbelly lurks. Comedy is a masking mechanism, mimicking the ways in which postmodern man so often turns to distraction, denial, or disbelief in order to cope with, or to temporarily avoid, the harsh realities of life. Individual masquerade is another signal of character that alludes to disjunctive societal responses and the marriage of literal/metaphoric denial. Man assumes identity—whether it be through dress, a social media persona, or as a video game warrior. The collision of the real world and the virtual world is eminent. Man is constantly finding ways to create new surface identities, through which the problems of life can be ignored
EXHIBITION CHECKLIST: Take It With Me When I Go, 2016, Oil on panel, 20 x 16 inches Despite Sacrifices, He Was Haunted By Past Success, 2017, Oil on panel, 9 x 12 inches; From the collection of David King and Sarah Curry 2017, 2018, Oil on panel, 20 x 4 inches The King, 2018, Oil on panel, 12 x 8 inches Clowns, 2016, Graphite, 14 x 9 inches Slapstick, 2017, Graphite, 14 x 9 inches Fatherhood, 2015, Graphite, 20 x 25 inches
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temporarily. This distraction is an attempt to create some form of solace and is ultimately foolhardy—sometimes to the point of being farcical. These particular works are all self-portraits. I find it most easy to cast myself in the role of the fool or the tragic hero because I can most clearly see my own mishaps and foibles, especially as they parallel many of our greater societal issues. The final major facet of my work is its small size, which functions in two ways. First, there is an interactive quality to small-scale work. A viewer sees the work from afar but must come close to decipher the image. Once near, the viewer is hooked by both the narrative and the level of detail. Second, it draws attention to the difference between image and object. Most artwork is first viewed as a digital image. By making my paintings small, yet containing images that appear as though they would be large, I set up an expectation of a grand scale that is defied when the objects are actually viewed. Just as virtual and real identity can clash, there is a disjunction between the way my paintings seem virtually and the way they are in the physical world. Ultimately, it is important to keep the preciousness of the physical alive as we shift our attention more and more into the digital world.
Biography
Rogers was born in Charlottesville, Virginia and attended Davidson College where he received BA in Art in 2002 before earning an MFA in painting from the Hoffberger School of Painting at the Maryland Institute College of Art. His work has been featured in New American Paintings and received critical acclaim in journals and periodicals such as The Washington Post, Washingtonian Magazine, and The Philadelphia City Paper. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and his work can be found in both private and public collections throughout the U.S. Rogers currently lives and works in Charlotte, North Carolina.
NATHANIEL ROGERS Despite Sacrifices, He Was Haunted By Past Success, 2017
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clinton SLEEPER
(American, b. 1986)
Artist Statement
Within the ever-present negotiations between the predominant political economy and the natural world, I play the role of a capitalist sympathizer and educator in my ongoing work, Teaching Capitalism to Nature. In this act of overidentification, fundamental economic books are read aloud to the landscape chapter by chapter. Stills and video follow a reading of the seminal Wealth of Nations as Adam Smith attempts to lay out the foundations of what will become modern capitalism. The final iteration of the work negotiates a punchline of futility. As fruitless as the gesture may seem, could anything be so foolish as imagining capitalists who care for the environment?
On Stability: Flourishes and Spills and Falls and Throws is an ongoing investigation into the space where language overlaps with image, overlaps with technology, and references our bodies. Footage of active camera motion and gesture is passed through the YouTube “stabilize” filter. As the footage is uploaded and downloaded by way of a Python script, the YouTube algorithm distorts and contorts pixel and color data in an effort to balance the lens, to make the footage less human. Gradually the machine will destroy the images in the name of stability.
Biography
My work engages with recent technologies and the humorous/tragic end of capitalism. At times foolishly optimistic and at once tediously dramatic, the resulting performances, videos, and objects attempt to highlight a fleeting poetic moment. These works negotiate new and out-of-date digital tools, history and pop culture, and fundamentally ask political questions that are coupled with philosophical positions. In addition to works released independently, I work frequently on a myriad of collaborative projects including interactive installations, large-scale instruments, coded forms, and performances.
EXHIBITION CHECKLIST: Teaching Capitalism to Nature, 2014–Ongoing, Archival print, 41 x 32.5 inches On Stability: Flourishes and Spills and Falls and Throws, 2016–Ongoing, Digital video, Python code, Youtube algorithm, HD video, 1920 x 1080
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Sleeper is an educator and artist working in Tallahassee, Florida. He earned his MFA from Simon Fraser University. His installations, books, and videos have shown in festivals and galleries internationally including South Korea, Malaysia, United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Ireland; and throughout the United States including exhibitions in Georgia, Utah, Kansas, Washington, Virginia, Louisiana, and Pennsylvania. Recent work has been produced as the result of Artist-in-Residence awards at Signal Culture and in Iceland at The Fish Factory and Gamli Skoli. In addition to works released independently, Sleeper works on a myriad of collaborative projects including interactive installations, large-scale instruments, coded forms, and performances. Sleeper teaches at Florida State University. CLINTON SLEEPER Teaching Capitalism to Nature, 2014–Ongoing
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felicia VAN BORK
(Canadian-American, b. 1962)
Artist Statement
I create collages with torn and cut pieces of my monotype prints. There are over 150 works in my How To series of collages. My imagery presents an allegory for the artist’s path through today’s complicated social environment. I make my monotype prints on an etching press, looking to make the most unlikely combinations of marks and colors. I love to be surprised by my prints and when I lift a print away from an inked plate, what I expected to be ugly can come out to be surprisingly beautiful. Likewise, what is genuinely ugly can turn out to be evocative in combination with other prints. To test the theory that killing one’s darlings opens doors to fresh creative insights, I tear up my prints. I shuffle the fragments together on my studio floor so I can search for unexpected conjunctions. At any given time, there are thousands of pieces of hundreds of prints on the floor. When I find an exciting combination—usually one that evokes a sense of place—my
collage process begins. I work to elaborate upon and give clarity to my initial impression. What emerges is a symbolic narrative with an allusive title. In this series, each picture is of a populated landscape and has a “How To” title (referring to our society’s love of bootstrap independence). Discovering the title of a collage is part of my process, and many possible titles suggest themselves as I work. In the collages, the protagonists, which tend to be abstract and in motion, often demonstrate the action described by the titles. The How To collages, though essentially two-dimensional, have a physical presence that expresses the dynamism of the compositions. Once I have designed a collage, I complete it by gluing the pieces of printed paper to a braced panel. I wear nonstick “fingertips” as I work because the archival adhesives I use are so sticky. Because I treasure the tactile qualities of the finished surface, I prefer not to put my collages behind glass. Instead, I use multiple coats of anti-UV varnish.
Biography EXHIBITION CHECKLIST: How To Bury a Secret, 2014, Monotype collage mounted on board, 36 x 36 inches How To Stand Up, 2016, Monotype collage mounted on board, 48 x 48 inches How To Hold November, 2016, Monotype collage mounted on board, 36 x 36 inches How To Bridge an Ocean, 2015, Monotype collage mounted on board, 36 x 36 inches How To Beckon, 2015, Monotype collage mounted on board, 36 x 36 inches All images courtesy of the artist and Jerald Melberg Gallery 26
Van Bork completed her undergraduate studies at the Ontario College of Art and Design, and earned her MFA at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Her work has been widely exhibited and she has been honored with numerous residencies and fellowships including month-long residencies at the American Academy in Rome (2017) and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (2018), among others. In April 2018, van Bork was the featured artist at Central Piedmont Community College’s weeklong arts festival, Sensoria, which included a solo exhibition, public lectures, and a mural project. Her work is in numerous private collections as well as the permanent collection of The Mint Museum, Charlotte, North Carolina. Van Bork currently manages the printmaking facility at the McColl Center for Art + Innovation and teaches one course per semester at Central Piedmont Community College. She is represented by Jerald Melberg Gallery.
FELICIA VAN BORK How To Bridge an Ocean, 2015
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MCARTHUR FREEMAN, II Strange Figurations #3, detail, 2017, Black resin with steel base, 12.5 x 8 x 5 inches
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