Chaffey College and the Wignall Museum of Contemporary Art proudly present Student Invitational 2014, the 37th annual juried exhibition featuring Chaffey College student artists. In this rigorous program, the selected artists work closely with faculty, the museum curators, and other art professionals to create a new body of work, culminating in a professional quality group exhibition at the Wignall Museum of Contemporary Art.
Billy Barron Linda Cota Sara Crapes Rob DeMeritt Jason Hunter-Harris Krista Mathews Onyx Rodriguez Erasmo Tapia Eric Tenorio
BILLY BARRON
Billy Barron, Untitled, 2014, mixed media: wire, wire mesh, foam, papier-mâché, 7x8x4 inches.
Through mixed media figurative sculptures, I am creating a series of vignettes that explore identity, childhood, family, and fleeting memories as psychological portraits. These works are suspended in a moment of tension where balance, imbalance, scale, and motion are used to convey feelings of shame, anxiety and isolation. While found objects reference the socioeconomic status of a child at play, a boy with a box on his head and a figure regurgitating another figure signify the circumstances of life that transform one’s identity. Scale becomes a metaphor for how a child might perceive the world within the context of his or her own circumstance, as a series of stacked milk crates hover over the child. As much as these works represent the struggle of reconciling the past, they also signify transformation and liberation as I reflect on my own childhood.
LINDA COTA
Linda Cota, Orange, 2014, archival pigment print, 20 x 30 inches.
I am inspired by the power of nature and its timeless beauty, visual rhythm and dancing light. My work focuses on the enduring strength of a woman as she parallels a landscape that is in constant flux. Her strength is expressed as she unfastens herself from a deep-rooted culture that is signified by the vines that bind her. A woman's wisdom is gathered one pebble at a time as she endures the pressure of the environment around her. A pregnant woman embodies creativity, change, and dreams that are slumbering and on the brink of a great awakening. This body of work explores passion, courage, and love through the unity of body, mind and spirit. It presents woman as a visionary amidst the ever-changing landscape.
SARA CRAPES
Sara Crapes, Untitled #4, 2014, archival pigment print, 20x30 inches.
Through minimal lighting I carve these once recognizable objects into unfamiliar forms and shapes. Each subject is lit and cropped revealing the form’s brushstroke surface and coiled steel that is emphasized by scale and weight. The large-scale prints call attention to an object that is widely considered common or ordinary, similar to a still life painting in chiaroscuro. The relationship between light and space and the non-objective forms challenge the viewer’s perception.
ROB DeMERITT
Rob DeMeritt, Untitled, 2014, archival pigment print, 27x40 inches
If the marks we leave are not permanent enough to surpass our existence, we stand little chance of being remembered. When I photograph settings stained with tragedies, life lost is memorialized and the stories of these places take on new meaning. Each photograph recognizes the value of life and its impact on place.
JASON HUNTER-HARRIS
Jason Hunter Harris, Carly, 2014, watercolor & india ink on watercolor paper, 14x11 inches
During spring of 2013, I began working on a series of portraits of people in my life. The illustrations explore uncertainty, loss, family, and a sense of connection. I grew a greater bond to particular individuals as I developed these portraits. Their posture and facial expressions describe their level of comfort as we discuss the personal and humdrum aspects of our daily life.
KRISTA MATHEWS
Krista Mathews, Acrophobia (Fear of Heights), 2014, mixed media: patterned paper, thread, string and embellishments, 24x20 inches
I dreamt that I was walking for miles in search of something that could make me shudder. Fear, it’s such a simple word, and yet it has the ability to stop hearts. Fear can leave you paralyzed or cause many sleepless nights as you toss and turn. I see nightmares of many phobias and begin to create from these ideas in my mind. My hands fashion dreams and my fingers parade across each and every seam. I cut silhouettes from frail paper kissed with scissor lips. Letters and detail are stitched with the fine edge of a needle. I fasten embellishments, oh so gently. Secrets appear with the mechanized pull of a tab and lift of a flap. I create bright chaos wrapped in the blanket of a child’s lost dreams. The more I fabricate, the more I am brought in and cannot get out.
ONYX RODRIGUEZ
Onyx Rodriguez, Every Word Handwritten: Guarded, 2014, gelatin silver fiber print, 16x16 inches.
Every Word Handwritten is the story of self. The environment in which I have lived my entire life was surrounded by broken relationships, darkness and isolation. Not realizing I had such promise and opportunity, the light signified a beacon of hope. Within the dark dwelling place I created for myself, the subjects became the inspiration of how I discovered I am not alone. There is still that sliver of existence of who I am and how I am still here‌living.
ERASMO TAPIA
Erasmo Tapia, Nahuatl, 2014, typeface, dimensions variable.
I have been manipulating type into abstract shapes for a long time. As a kid I thought about how choosing certain shapes made a letter and how letters made an alphabet. Later I became interested in graffiti and started drawing letters in that style, big with vibrant colors. The letters reached the point of being illegible because of how abstract they became. Only other people who were writing graffiti could understand and see the letters. While taking design classes at Chaffey, I learned more about typography and how it is utilized, including how to create typefaces for design and layout. Recently, I became interested in the creation of characters for a language and the process of how letterforms are developed. My project, for the Student Invitational, is my attempt to understand a small part of how written language was created and designed. Each of the original Mayan pictographs I used as inspiration for this work incorporated symbols that signify a deity, an aspect of nature, and an animal. I have used them to create a “typeface” that is situated between the Aztec/Mayan pictographs and legible letterforms. I think of these works as a hybrid of the Mayan hieroglyphs and our phonetic alphabet system. I found that there were many repeating shapes in the hieroglyphs and I have chosen specific shapes from various ones to develop this typeface. No one “letter” is based on a specific hieroglyph and certain shapes were repeated and used in different ways in my letters and compositions. Each of these compositions spells the name of one of the main deities of Aztec and Mayan mythology.
ERIC TENORIO
Eric Tenorio, Untitled, 2014, archival pigment print, 20x30 inches.
I have always had a love for fashion and the theatrics of color, composition, movement and performance. I crave the drama that masculinity, femininity, and homosexuality bring in a world that is filled with social norms, dos and don’ts. It is the moment when many gay men have complete freedom to be who they are without judgment. My body, face, and materials are used to convey pure confidence and fierceness. Each image is an extension of myself and is charged with emotion, control, and sexuality. This is my freedom.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS CHAFFEY COLLEGE GOVERNING BOARD Lee C. McDougal, President Gary L. George, Vice President Katie Roberts, Clerk Kathleen Brugger, Immediate Past President Paul J. Gomez, Member SUPERTINTENDENT/PRESIDENT Henry Shannon, Ph.D. ASSOCIATE SUPERINTENDENT, INSTRUCTION & STUDENT SERVICES Sherrie Guerrero, Ed.D. DEAN, VISUAL & PERFORMING ARTS Michael M. Dinielli, M.A. DIRECTOR/CURATOR, WIGNALL MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART Rebecca Trawick ASSISTANT CURATOR Roman Stollenwerk PRINTING Chaffey College Print Shop
MISSION AND COMMITMENT Chaffey College improves lives within the diverse communities it serves through equal access to quality occupational, transfer, general education, and foundation programs in a learning-centered environment where student success is highly valued, supported, and assessed.
WIGNALL MUSEUM MISSION STATEMENT The Wignall Museum of Contemporary Art presents exhibitions, education, and community programming to our diverse audiences in order to foster critical thinking and to encourage innovation and investigation through contemporary art. The Museum advances the mission of Chaffey College by contributing to the intellectual and cultural life of the college community and offering equal access to quality programming for the diverse communities of the Inland Empire.
ABOUT US The Wignall Museum of Contemporary Art serves as a learning lab for investigating and contemplating contemporary visual culture, featuring temporary exhibitions of innovative contemporary art throughout the year. Exhibitions and programming are organized with our students in mind in order to augment their academic experience by complementing the college’s curricula and broadening the understanding of contemporary art. Our exhibitions allow visitors to see and experience a variety of contemporary artistic practices that examine timely and relevant topics. The Wignall is an important resource for students, faculty, and staff that can act as a catalyst for a student’s own creative investigations or enhance classroom experience with direct engagement with art. For many visitors, exhibitions at the Wignall Museum of Contemporary Art may provide an exciting first encounter with the visual arts. The Museum strives to transform the art museum experience into something unexpected, extraordinary and engaging. We invite you to visit us and to explore!
A NOTE ABOUT OUR EXHIBITIONS & PROGRAMMING The Wignall Museum is an important part of the educational programs and mission of Chaffey College. Some of the artwork in our exhibitions and publications may contain mature content. The views and opinions expressed in this publication and exhibition are those of the authors and artists and do not reflect the opinions or policy of Chaffey College. This was printed on the occasion of the exhibition, Student Invitational 2014, April 14 – May 15, 2014 Wignall Museum of Contemporary Art, Chaffey College 5885 Haven Avenue Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91737 www.chaffey.edu/wignall
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