Artist
at Monmouth University Center for the Arts Pollak Gallery
running from June 17 to August 14 , 2021.
It is a fascinating show, showing the emotive, expressive and visceral qualities of denim as a material, and its rich potential and capacity to communicate a range of human experiences, ideas, passions and concepts.
I am honored to be showing two works from my “Reading Color” series which are artists’ books featuring denim as the primary material:
Reading Color Reading Color I, 8.75 x 13.25 x 6.25″, mixed media/artists’ book (denim, acrylic paint, board, hemp cord)
Reading Color VI, 7.5 x 17 x 8″, mixed media/artists’ book (denim, acrylic paint, metal, hemp cord, board, paper)
“Denim, with all its symbols and dualities, is a common item of clothing that unites many around the globe. Dad Jeans, skinny jeans, low riders, bell bottoms, boot leg, wide leg, no leg, 501s, 504s, button fly, stretch jeans, the American dress code writ large across centuries. With so many styles available and ways to accessorize/manipulate the fabric, denim has historically allowed for a freedom of expression representing both individuality and shifts in cultural movements. Denim comes in a wide range of blues and other colors, washes, fades and textures making it a perfect, but not obvious, medium to create fine artwork. Join us now, for a re-imagining of the meaning of denim. Denim that was discarded can open up a new way of looking, a startling way of seeing past the everyday. What we have abandoned, will be presented again, re-purposed from the lives we lived, to moments we experience together “forever in blue jeans.”
Monmouth University’s Center for the Art is exhibiting the work of artists who use recycled denim in new and creative ways in paintings, sculpture, collages, small constructions and wall hangings, etc. from June 17 – August 14 , 2021 in the Pollak Gallery. Works shown use denim as the principal medium of the piece and the fabric are reconstructed from its original form in some way. “
“How does materiality represent who we are? Does the material you use dictate who you are as a maker? How does medium speak to who you are as an individual?”
In the exhibition Material Identity, 27 artists and makers from 3 countries and 16 states explore the substance of material, paying special attention to their place in the world, either from a focus inward, or how they identify in society at large. This international exhibition was juried by Jiseon Lee Isbara, Otis College of Art and Design, and Jessica Kooiman Parker, Boulder Dairy Art Center.
I was thrilled to be part of the exhibition “TRANSITION“, presented by Tarfest 2020, produced by Launch LA, and juried by the wonderful Holly Jerger, curator for Craft Contemporary.
Tour the show with Founder/Executive Director of Launch LA James Panozzo here.
I showed “Torrent and Tangle: Keep your House in Order“, 2019, 10.5 x 25 x 18”, made of book board, hemp cord, ribbon, lace, mulberry paper, acrylic paint, and neutral PH adhesive.
The piece was created in a bottomless box format,
with two accordion folded joins, or back corners,
and two “front doors” hinged with cloth and surfaced with strips of ribbon, that can be opened,
or kept closed,
with any amount of the hanging internal strings kept in, or emerging, flowing or falling out of the structure,
depending on how the those designing the show wish it to appear.
Hemp cords knotted on one end were threaded through awl-punched holes on three sides,
after the inside surfaces were lined with lace,
tumbling down in a torrent into a tangled heap onto the surface where the piece is placed.
How will we get this all sorted out?
Nobody really knows, but this much is clear, we are in this together. Endemic of contemporary life, torrent and tangle is taken to the extreme by the current pandemic. We will get through this. We have to.
“How does materiality represent who we are? Does the material you use dictate who you are as a maker? How does medium speak to who you are as an individual?”
I am honored to participate in the show “Material Identity”
In the exhibition Material Identity, 27 artists and makers from 3 countries and 16 states explore the substance of material, paying special attention to their place in the world, either from a focus inward, or how they identify in society at large. This international exhibition was juried by Jiseon Lee Isbara, Otis College of Art and Design, and Jessica Kooiman Parker, Boulder Dairy Art Center.