Spring Break Art Show and First Meeting

Thursday I had the pleasure of meeting with my new mentor Sharon Butler for the first time. She had some really fantastic ideas about my future work/thesis project. My original idea was to create a doppelganger room/painting, a room created with furniture and wallpaper from my childhood home and from this create a painting of the installation which would hang on the wall of the installation. Thus forming dual realities of painting and installation similar to dual realities of past and present which occur in the space of a childhood home re-entered by an adult.

Sharon suggested this might not be enough and encouraged me to push further. This installation may now necessitate the building of a room as well as the use of video and sound. On the train ride home my brain went wild, and I have since reimagined the project in detail.

In addition to discussing my past, current and future work Sharon suggested I check out the Spring Break Art Fair running now through March 8^th. It was a truly fantastic experience. Trudging through the snow I came upon the massive building and entered a world of youth energy and ingenuity. It was fairly quiet when I got there likely due to the weather, however this afforded me the opportunity to talk to many of the curators. 

Sharon asked that I go through the fair and select 10 works to photograph while thinking in terms of curating my own show or about work that I would have made had I thought of it. Below are the images:

Christine Sciulli 

A magical installation involving projected light and sculpted white netting hanging from the ceiling. The viewer was able to maneuver through the cloud like installation guided by circles of light reflecting off the netted surface. Sciulli’s is a truly immersive and otherworldly installation. 

The Varsity The Dead People’s Dead Flowers, by Danish artist Anne Mowank, curated by Cassandra M Johnson

A trail of tiny floor bound white sculptures lead the viewer to a room full of hanging cyanoprints of flowers. The flowers simultaneous uniformity and diversity create an unsettling feeling. At once empirically beautiful and quietly disturbing. One almost feels as if they have walked into a stalkers photo lab, and has seen hundreds of images of themself. The misty ghost-like images are created from dead and disgarded flowers and plants found in the garbage or even graveyards. Mowank’s reference to death and rebirth impart this installation with a mystic and mysterious affect. 

Daria Irincheeva, “Empty Knowledge” Curated by Kris Chatterson and Vince Contarino

What If books were void? A simple yet provoking question asked by artist Daria Irincheeva, in her installation “Empty Knowledge”. Several shelves are filled with what appear to be vintage books. Upon closer inspection the books are empty. Each oil painted canvas details a book which the viewer imagines exists in some distant and fantastic library. The thought of books without knowledge challenges the ideas of academia as well as consumerism. An obvious phrase comes to mind but with a twist; don’t judge a book by its cover, it may not be a book at all.

 

Will Rahilly Curated by Alva CalyMayor

Past a thick black curtain hung rigid strips in which light was projected. The stripes vacillated between a rainbow of colors and white light in motion. At times appearing as raindrops and others as falling cubes. This mesmerizing installation of light and sound was captivating and immersive. 

Mirielle Jefferson Curated by Natasha Becker 

Across the hall from a carnivelexque explosion of work, hung the meditative work of Mirielle Jefferson.  Quietly demure and exactingly sophisticated, Jefferson uses acrylic paint to reference collage. Precisely painted fragments of familiar images and bright white paint wrap around, lay and veer off her uniformly eggshell canvases. Jefferson’s precision and simplicity reference not only collage, but minimalism and a fragmented realism.

Fall on Your Sword, “Greed is Good” Sarah Bereza

Akin to the idea of a magic mirror or the talking head in the Wizard of OZ, this installation is complete with lights, projection and sound creates curiosity in the viewer. As the man in the orb drones on, the semi empty wine bottles continue to orbit, creating a period of reflection and contemplation on the part of the viewer. 

Dan Conway, “huh?’ Curated by Leah Dixon 

Two works struck me in Speed Rack, An Exhibition of the Beverly’s 2015 Staff, Colin Tom’s “Blocks” and Dan Conway’s “huh?”. Conway’s use of the backlit silhouette immediately caught my attention. Readily visible is the profile of a stereotypical witch or crone. However, as I looked further I wondered if it was similar to the image/illusion of the duck and the rabbit, everyone seeing one or the other, only to be coaxed into believing that there could possibly be another image present. Perhaps it is the negative space that holds the value - simplicity or complexity, either answer is possible.

Colin Tom, “Blocks” Curated by Leah Dixon

Initially drawn in by the fleshy pinks of the walls, I became entranced by Tom’s cartoon images of domestic and sexualized objects. Mingled among this semi-grid of concrete blocks, bananas, chairs and sandwiches are malformed humanoid characters and body parts often in suggestive positions but strikingly missing genitalia. I admire Tom’s flat style of painting as well as his choice of a narrow color pallet. The sexuality and humor of this work is obvious yet engaging.

Grace Villamil

A driving instrumental sound track added to the mysterious ambiance surrounding Grace Villamil's installation. Created out of thermal Mylar blankets, Villamil's larger than life entities prompt viewers to inspect the two sculptures from all angles. Finally it begs the question, "can I go inside?" A small opening at the front of the lager sculpture allowed viewers to squeeze inside. These sculptures play on thoughts of internal, external as well as ideas of admittance and rejection. 

Dirby Curated by Ambre Kelly + Andrew Gori 

A room that could be strait out of an episode of American Horror or Oddities, the artist known as Dirby created a space of intrusion. Dirby’s public space was made to feel private. The viewer felt as if they did not belong, as if they were peeking in on another person’s room or space. The overwhelming array of doll heads and hanging curiosities make for a uniquely unnerving installation. 

Spring Break was a fantastic showing of new work. The pieces I have chosen to share here represent work that I immediately connected with in some way. The majority of these works are in the form of installation, many involving light, sound and projections as well as the creation of a space. I feel these installations will push me to involve similar elements in my own work going forward.