PROJECT 18: NATURALL

ZEPHYR GALLERY

PROJECT

18

June 2 - August 19, 2017

Checklist

Leticia R. Bajuyo Exurban: Interest Only, 2017 Bronze, steel, paint, acrylic, artifical grass and soap 6” x 5” x 4” (Located in gallery restroom.)

Exurban: Little Tree Valley, 2015 Unscented Little Tree air fresheners, adhesive, and frame 24” x 48” x 6” Exurban: Preserved Blue Skies Canned, 2015 Plaster, wood, artificial grass, mason jar, and paint 42” x 48” x 36” Exurban: Preserved Blue Skies Cubed, 2017 Plaster, wood, artificial grass, acrylic, and paint 42” x 48” x 36” Exurban: Preserved Blue Skies Sliced, 2017 Wood, artificial grass, glass, paper, and paint 42” x 48” x 36” Exurban: Turf Roll, 2017 Artificial grass, wood, paint, steel, and miniature house 42” x 48” x 55” Exurban: Yard Cubes, 2015 Unscented Little Tree air fresheners, wood, and metal 2’ x 2’ x 2’ Ezra Kellerman New Zeniths, 2017 Wood, bone, plastic, fabric, paint, motor, electronics, thread, and adhesive Dimensions variable Once They Reached Our Perimeter, 2017 Wood, fabric, metal, and paint 8’ x 5’ x 6’ Pathos of Lone Wolf and the Siege, 2017 Wood, plastic, fabric, feathers, electronics, and light 5’ x 5’ x 5’ Claire Larkin Pope

Composted, 2012-2016 Compost, graphite, dandelion, and watercolor on recycled paper 6’ x 8’ Source, 2016 Guinea feathers, gingko leaves, moss, paper, latex, LED light, metal, and thistle down 48” x 24” x 36”

Kosmos, 2017 Silicone, paper, wood, weeds, fishing lines, weights 96” x 34” x 24” The Vacation, 2017 Resin, foraged natural objects, and light box 3 ¾” x 12 ½” x 16 ½” Rachel Singel Giant Seed Pods, 2017 Intaglio on handmade cotton paper 20” x 27 ½” Hemlock Tree, 2017 Intaglio on handmade cotton paper 14” x 11” Kale, 2017 Intaglio on handmade gampi paper 16 ½” x 22 ½” Lilies, 2017 Intaglio on handmade gampi paper 11” x 14” Lily Leaves, 2017 Intaglio on handmade linen paper 20 ½” x 22 ½” Milkweed, 2017 Intaglio on handmade gampi paper 22” x 25” Nest, 2017 Intaglio on handmade pineapple paper 25 ½” x 22” Pumpkin seeds, 2015 Intaglio on handmade gampi paper 14” x 11” River Rocks, 2017 Intaglio on handmade gampi paper 23 ½” x 26 ½” Seed Explosion, 2017 Intaglio on handmade cotton paper 16” x 17 ½” Spanish Garden, 2017 Intaglio on handmade kaypok paper 15 ½” x 16” Stones, 2017 Intaglio on handmade cotton paper 24” x 18” Venetian Shell, 2016 Intaglio on handmade cotton paper 14” x 11” Waterfall, 2017 Intaglio on handmade gampi paper 22 ¼” x 20”

As an obsolete spelling of “natural,” the term “naturall” relates to many of the concepts addressed by the artists in this exhibition. The ebb and flow of existence as ideas, language, ways of life, economic systems, and living beings become activated or obsolete is a part of nature. It is also a part of society, as change and innovation force us to evaluate ways of living and working, impacting our attachment to existing traditions and the creation of new ones. Most often, the potential of obsolescence, when it is recognized, is met with fear and inspires a desire to control. Humans frequently go to extreme lengths to avoid the obsolescence of our ways of life, especially when individual economic and personal comfort are potentially at risk. However, we simultaneously turn a blind eye to the detrimental impact of our actions, the obsolescence they cause, and their ripple effect across all of nature.

The tension between nature and societal innovation is explored in the works of Claire Larkin Pope, in which she expresses the idea of “ecstatic quietude” – finding peace in nature within a world that bombards us with technology. She creates drawings and sculptural works using materials culled from the farm on which she lives and other sites, in combination with commercially produced materials such as silicone and artificial light sources. She writes: “I see my work as a personal reconciliation between the conflict of a consumerist industrial society evolving into a post human ideology and the sanctity of the natural environment.” Her artistic practice of gathering and preserving materials has become an almost ritualistic part of her life, inspiring personal emotional reactions that are incorporated into her works. “I observe intricacies of the microcosmic and macrocosmic aspects of nature such as varying patterns of veins within the flesh of a leaf or the stillness of a pine cone as it rests under a tree waiting to carry a seed to start new life. I then translate these observations into a form, which conveys the emotion through shape, rhythm, variety, and pattern. Light and ethereality are also central to my creations.”

Inspired by her upbringing on a Virginia farm, Rachel Singel is driven to understand the ground she inhabits and respond to the infinite complexity she finds in nature. She examines the natural structures of the places she occupies and, as a printmaker, is compelled to interpret the lines, shapes, and patterns within those forms. Also of critical importance to her are the hollows and fissures within those structures, as she often finds the most potential in openings created by points of stress. By creating handmade papers, she places the natural world in the very structure upon which she lays her images, citing an opportunity to “work with the characteristics of natural materials to soften and mold them into different forms and alternate purposes.” Over the past four summers she has travelled to Venice, Italy—a place of immense environmental stress. She has been deeply impacted not only by the city’s precarious future, but also by its changing cultures and communities—one that gathered in ancient times to accomplish the enormous feat of building the city, one that in modernity contributed to its fragility, and one that is now gathering in an effort to save it.

Leticia R. Bajuyo explores the relationship between consumption, desire, and nature, specifically addressing our drive to create a version of nature with which we are comfortable—one that is contained and controlled. She writes that her Exurban series “focuses on the line between nature and subdivision at the edge of a community… a line that encompasses visible control of nature and the ways nature is experienced; such as larger individual yards, bigger playgrounds, fewer sidewalks, more garages.” This tension is manifest in the oddity of places like Christmas tree farms, as well as the functional aesthetic of bales of hay. While Bajuyo is inspired by the sculptural qualities of these human manipulations of nature, she seeks to draw our attention to the dangers of over-manipulation and over-consumption for the sake of status and personal comfort. “As the landscape grows with the by-products of capitalistic conspicuous consumption and the threat of being buried in plastic increases, the pressure of being caught between being in control and being controlled heightens.” These works illustrate how our values are expressed through what we choose to preserve or sacrifice—unaltered natural space, communities, architecture, convenience, memories, relationships, or possessions.

The ideas of preservation and obsolescence relate intimately to issues of time and tradition. Society weighs traditions of the past against innovations of today, creating a constant state of discovery and re-discovery of knowledge. Ezra Kellerman explores this search for knowledge and the evolution of our existence as a part of the natural environment. Utilizing salvaged natural materials alongside man-made materials, light sources, and energy, he seeks to illustrate our need for “primitive solutions to future problems” and the role of humans as scavengers in search of those solutions. The confluence of various inspirations ranging from history, technology, space exploration, and the natural world, coalesce in his works, which address the tension between human actions on nature and the corresponding environmental reaction. Time is not only subject but also medium in his works as they ask an investment of us to fully participate, at times requiring us to literally take a seat at the center of the issue. His references to humanity as a part of nature range from subtle to overt, illustrating our conflicting roles as both cause and casualty.

-Karen Gillenwater, 2017

Leticia R. Bajuyo, Exurban: Yard Cubes (detail), 2015 Unscented Little Tree air fresheners, wood, and metal, 2’ x 2’ x 2’

Ezra Kellerman, Once They Reached Our Perimeter (detail), 2017 Wood, fabric, metal, and paint 8’ x 5’ x 6’

Claire Larkin Pope, Composted, 2012-2016 Compost, graphite, dandelion, and watercolor on recycled paper 6’ x 8’

Artist Biographies Leticia R. Bajuyo (b. 1976 Paducah, Kentucky) Recent solo exhibitions of Leticia R. Bajuyo’s artworks include Living Arts in Tulsa, Oklahoma; The New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art in New Harmony, Indiana; and Women & Their Work Gallery in Austin, Texas.

Recent international exhibitions include FRAME OF MIND 2016 in Mindanao, Philippines and 2015 IV International From Waste to Art Exhibition in Baku, Azerbaijan. Bajuyo’s recent large-scale public art installations include the Nashville International Airport, Tennessee; the Tony Hillerman Library, Albuquerque, New Mexico; the Indiana State Museum, Indianapolis; and Lyon Square, Grand Rapids, Michigan. Bajuyo received her M.F.A. (2001) from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and her B.F.A. (1998) from the University of Notre Dame. Bajuyo is Professor of Art at Hanover College, a member of the Board of Directors for the National Performance Network and Visual Arts Network, and a member of the Speed Art Museum Board of Governors.

Ezra Kellerman (b. 1981 Louisville, Kentucky) Ezra Kellerman enjoys making a variety of things. He received his Bachelor’s in 2004 from the University of Kentucky, and a Master of Fine Arts from Louisiana State University in 2008. Kellerman has exhibited in solo and group shows across the U.S. and in England. He currently lives and makes art in Louisville, KY, where he also enjoys the position of Associate Professor in the Interdisciplinary Sculpture Department at the Kentucky College of Art and Design + Spalding University. Kellerman is also the creator and producer of the annual, Louisville-based art event Instant Installation Invitational. And, he has most recently finished a collaboration in the spring of 2017 with the Louisville Ballet, where he constructed unique artwork for their original production Human Abstract.

Claire Larkin Pope (b. 1981 Lexington, Kentucky) Claire Larkin Pope has a background in fine art, curating, art history, horticulture, and agriculture. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art from Berry College. In 2008, she graduated magna cum laude with a Master of Arts in Art History from the University of Kentucky. She is currently pursuing her MFA in Studio Art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with an anticipated graduation date of July 31, 2017. She will begin her appointment as Head Art Professor at Lenoir-Rhyne University in August of 2017. She has shown her artwork regionally, nationally, and internationally.

Rachel Singel (b. 1987 Charlottesville, Virginia) Rachel Singel is an Assistant Professor at the University of Louisville. She received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Virginia in 2009 and a Master of Fine Arts in Printmaking from the University of Iowa in 2013. Singel has participated in residencies at the Penland School of Crafts, the Venice Printmaking Studio, and Scuola Internazionale di Grafica.

Curator Biography Karen Gillenwater (b. 1975 New Albany, Indiana) Karen Gillenwater is a curator and museum educator with nineteen years professional experience working in a diverse array of museums. Since February 2015, she has held the position of Museum Manager at 21c Museum Hotel Louisville. Previously, she served as Curator at the Carnegie Center for Art & History in New Albany, Indiana, where she also managed the New Albany Public Art Project. Gillenwater was formerly Director of Art Galleries and Curator of Collections at Georgetown College in Georgetown, Kentucky, where she also served as Adjunct Professor of art history; Curatorial Administrative Coordinator at the Speed Art Museum; and Adult Programs Coordinator at the Denver Art Museum in Denver, Colorado. She holds a Master of Arts in art history with a concentration in museum studies from the University of Denver and a Bachelor of Arts in art history from the University of Evansville.

Zephyr Gallery Artist Partners

Artist Board

Patrick Donley Ken Hayden Peggy Sue Howard Chris Radtke

Matt Meers Robert Mitchell Joel Pinkerton Reba Rye

PROJECT 18: NATURALL Karen Gillenwater Jessica Oberdick Robert Mitchell Chris Radtke Peggy Sue Howard Patrick Donley

Curator Project Manager Graphic Design Exhibition Co-Coordinator Exhibition Co-Coordinator Exhibition Preparator Image Credit

Cover Image: Rachel Singel, Nest, 2017 Intaglio on handmade pineapple paper 25 ½” x 22”

The mission of Zephyr Gallery is to serve as a platform to incubate, advocate, and facilitate innovative ideas in art and artistic practices in the region. In 2014, Zephyr launched an ongoing Project series with curated proposal-based exhibitions as well as collaborations with universities, colleges, and cultural institutions.

Project 18: NATURALL is the eighteenth exhibition in this series.

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G A L L E R Y 610 East Market Street | Louisville, KY 40202 www.zephyrgallery.org | Thursday–Saturday, 11–6