First Skin

First Skin is a hand-stitched self-portrait sculpted and sewn from polyester organza. It is a somewhat grotesque representation fabricated from an undesirable material, with primitively sewn fingers, toes, knees, breasts and hanging threads that are unkempt and unresolved. The body is hollow, presenting as ethereal, even wispy, and yet it reveals surprising details in the shadows cast onto the wall.

Postured and vulnerable, these projections that smooth over blemishes, reveal bulges and delineate wrinkles, articulate certain unnamed truths that illustrate a compelling emergence of spirit, growth and change. 

It is currently exhibiting at Dorchester Art Project in the show Altarations: A Selection of Shrines. My shrine, First Skin, represents my ritual of process and craft in the devotion of art, history, identity, time and place. In taking needlearts away from lapwork and bring it into large scale dimensional space First Skin represents my expressions both freely and confidently and as integral to who I am. I'm honored to be a part of Altarations and have the opportunity to launch this new work in a show about devotion and personal story.

FIRST SKIN, 79x24x8 in. w/hanger,
polyester organza, thread, wood hanger, 2018
Photo: Will Howcroft

These eclectic shrines are receiving lots of attention and justifiably so. Dorchester Art Project is a funky second floor space in Fields Corner "... providing a unique space for Boston based emerging artists, in the midst of the city’s largest and most dynamic neighborhood". 

The enthusiasm of the organizers is contagious and I'm so excited to be a part of this creative energy. The closing reception is August 26 from 1 to 4 pm. I plan on attending and am looking forward to meeting everyone... please join us to see this culmination of truly divine experiences.

Read the review by WBUR Artery here.

ALTARATIONS: A Selection of Shrines
Dorchester Art ProjectsJuly 21 - August 26, 2018
Closing Reception: August 26, 1-4 pm
Dance Party: August 26, 4 pm
Gallery Hours: Sat-Sundays 12-6 pm

Practice Closes Today

This is a simple entry without much text but many many photos. Check out earlier posts about that outline the theme and the artists and storytellers.  It's been an absolute delight working with everyone involved with this show. Caleb, Julie, Stephanie, Amanda, Hannah and Zsuzsi, the Nave, Massmouth, the visitors. I have enjoyed every second of it. Thanks everyone!

I'm sitting for the last shift at the Nave Gallery Annex tonight 6-8 pm. We're having a pizza party... come join us for one last look before it comes down!

Participants at Massmouth's story slam workshop

Hannah explaining her work at the Artists Talk

Zsuzsi talking about her video and process

Amanda Nelsen - Practice

Amanda Nelsen is a bookmaker who dwells in a depository of paper fed by profligate advertisements, the modern day nuisance of recurring junk mail and the loading of the mailbox with banal information. Juxtaposing a historic structure such as a book form, with the contemporary terrestrial materials of weekly circulars, she locates the colors, texts and textures within credit card offers and coupon books and converts them into time-honored book forms. By following the traditions and conventions of a treasured form, she challenges the standardized fallow use of paper and printing resources.

From Amanda:
My art practice involves collecting, culling, editing, and assembling. In order to gather and bind paper my hands must fold, score, and jog; my knife must cut; my awl must punch; and my needle and thread must dance in a pattern--in, out, and around; in, out, and around. This repetition requires attention in each step and mindfulness of the building up of materials--the growing of the piece. The manner in which an idea grows and the point at which a piece is complete depend on the materials involved. Through this repetitive work with the materials, the rhythms in print become the marks of other creations.

Amanda  is currently the Program Director at Rare Book School in Charlottesville, Virginia. She moved to Virginia from Cambridge, MA in 2010 where she taught courses at the Art Institute of Boston and New England School of Art and Design as well as bookbinding workshops through North Bennet School in Boston; worked at Quercus Press in Waltham; completed an Artist-in-Residence project at Wellesley College; and maintained a studio in Somerville. Amanda is a Studio Art/Art Education graduate of St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN and received her MFA in Visual Arts from the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University. In 2007, she earned a certificate in Bookbinding from the North Bennet Street School and was a 2008 Joan Mitchell Foundation MFA Grant Recipient. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, most recently at the Corcoran School of Art and Design in Washington, DC.

PRACTICE

 Nave Gallery Annex

March 12 - April 5, 2014

reception: Wednesday March 12, 6-8 pm

artist talk: Friday March 21, 7 pm

story slam: Monday March 31, 7 pm

Click here and here to learn more about Practice.

I will be introducing each of the six invited artists of Practice over the next couple of weeks leading up to the opening on March 12. For more info read about Caleb, Stephanie, Hannah, Zsuzsi and Julie.

Julie Kumar - Practice

 

 For Mnemonic/Periodic, Julie created two hundred sculptures in a month and then locked her studio door. After four days, she tried to remember as many of those sculptures as she could, keeping track of her recollection with sketches and annotations. When she had exhausted her memory, she returned and installed the sculptures in a grid on the floor according to the order in which they were recalled. The forgotten sculptures were in another part of the room. She noticed that the relationship between the fury of creation and the torture of remembering was lost in the field she had created, reducing something ineffable to a mathematical and statistical visualization. This absurdist gesture is a playful, intricate microcosm of her artistic practice, which requires self-imposed rules in order to surprise and challenge preconceived notions.

A poster of the Periodic Table along with a sampling of these sculptures will be on exhibit in Practice at the Nave Gallery Annex this March/April. They are compelling explorations of form, material and space.

Julie Kamlesh Kumar was born in Anchorage, Alaska. She received her BA in Honors Visual Art from Brown University in 2007, where she was awarded the Anne Belsky Moranis Award for Excellence in Art. She has been an Artist in Residence at the Oregon College of Art and was one of six chosen by an international jury to be an Emerging Artist in Residence at the Pilchuck Glass School. In 2013 she graduated with an MFA in Sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design, where she was supported by the prestigious Presidential Scholarship and a juried Graduate Studies Grant. She has shown in numerous locations nationally, from the Rhode Island School of Design Museum to the Warwick Museum of Art. In November 2013 she was featured in Artscope magazine for her work in the show The Order of the Universe at Wheaton College in Massachusetts.

Kumar lives and works in Brooklyn. She is currently and Artist in Residence at SOHO20 Gallery in Chelsea, and is planning her solo show at This Friday or Next Friday Gallery, There are No People.

PRACTICE

 Nave Gallery Annex

March 12 - April 5, 2014

reception: Wednesday March 12, 6-8 pm

artist talk: Friday March 21, 7 pm

story slam: Monday March 31, 7 pm

Click here and here to learn more about Practice.

I will be introducing each of the six invited artists of Practice over the next couple of weeks leading up to the opening on March 12. Visit earlier posts about Caleb, Zsuzsanna, Stephanie and Hannah.

Hannah Verlin - Practice

Handwritten text features prominently in Hannah Verlin's art as both repetitive texture and content. Some writing is original, but most is transcribed from historic texts, traditional songs, and collected data. Although the writing is nearly illegible, it imbues the art with the significance of the source material and the compulsive energy of the writing process. The very act of writing by hand transforms what were just words into a kind of prayer and remembrance, to create an intimate connection with what was once remote. It is a way of expressing complex ideas simply, forming expressionless data into something meaningful and beautiful.

Hannah was born outside of Philadelphia in 1983. In 2005 she received a BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts (SMFA). Her recent solo exhibitions include, Far Away Up Close (Montserrat College of Art, 2012) and Fates & Furies: America (Boston Sculptors Gallery, 2012). Her temporary public artworks include Letters to Medford (Medford MA, 2013), Thoughts Are Free (Medfield MA, 2012) and Love Letters (Davis Square Bike Path, 2012). In 2014 she will be creating installations for a National Parks trail system in New Bedford, MA and for the Brooks Estate in Medford MA.

As a featured artist in Practice at the Nave Gallery Annex this March/April, Hannah will be exhibiting works from her time spent as a visiting scholar at the New Bedford Whaling Museum in 2013.

PRACTICE

 Nave Gallery Annex

March 12 - April 5, 2014

reception: Wednesday March 12, 6-8 pm

artist talk: Friday March 21, 7 pm

story slam: Monday March 31, 7 pm

Click here and here to learn more about Practice.

I will be introducing each of the six invited artists of Practice over the next couple of weeks leading up to the opening on March 12. Read earlier posts about Caleb Cole, Zsuzsanna Szegedi and Stephanie Metz.

Stephanie Metz - Practice

Dedicated Meat Source

Stephanie Metz is an artist who explores the idea of seemingly opposing qualities coexisting within one object. Her sculpting material of choice is wool, which she compacts into nearly solid freestanding forms through a precise and laborious process known as needle felting.  The medium is crucial to the content: felted wool can appear both hard and soft, fragile and robust, natural and manmade. Felted wool is often viewed through the lens of its traditional and historical uses in the realms of domesticity, craft, and industry; in Stephanie’s hands it is loaded with potential for physical manipulation and conceptual redefinition.

Stephanie received her BFA from the University of Oregon and now lives and works in San Jose, California. She was a 2009 featured artist in “Bay Area Currents” at ProArts Gallery, Oakland, and has exhibited at Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco and the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art. Her numerous group exhibitions include Creatures: From Bigfoot to the Yeti Crab at the Sun Valley Center for the Arts in Idaho, Formex Stockholm 2008, in Stockholm, Sweden, and Transmission:Experience at the Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore Gallery, Singapore. Metz was honored with two Center for Cultural Innovation Grants in 2011 and 2009. She has taught at Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina and Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Tennessee.

PRACTICE

 Nave Gallery Annex

March 12 - April 5, 2014

reception: Wednesday March 12, 6-8 pm

artist talk: Friday March 21, 7 pm

story slam: Monday March 31, 7 pm

Click here and here to learn more about Practice.

I will be introducing each of the six invited artists of Practice over the next couple of weeks leading up to the opening on March 12. Click here and here to read about Caleb Cole and Zsuzsanna Szegedi.

Zsuzsanna Szegedi - Practice

Zsuzsanna is a Hungarian born artist, working in multiple mediums, combining painting, video, photography and installation. Her previous exhibits include Absent | Present at Montserrat College of Art in Beverly, MA and Trace with Me at the Dumbo Arts Festival in Brooklyn NY. She is currently a visiting artist at Wellesley College.

From Zsuzsanna:
The works are part audience performance, part video and part hand-drawn imagery. I investigate contradictions within the creative process, the idea of “complete”, temporariness, mistakes and our performative relation to it all. The deconstructions – performed by the audience – become a reversed creation placing the attention on process instead of the product. By allowing the limits of the art to be pushed further than the “finish”, the status of “complete” becomes arbitrary.

Practice is exhibiting one of Zsuzsi's videos as well as one of her live drawings.

Her dynamic approach, questions about her process, and the making of art will be discussed even further at the artists talk on Friday, March 21 at 7 pm.

PRACTICE

 Nave Gallery Annex

March 12 - April 5, 2014

reception: Wednesday March 12, 6-8 pm

artist talk: Friday March 21, 7 pm

story slam: Monday March 31, 7 pm

Click here and here to learn more about Practice.

I will be introducing each of the six invited artists of Practice over the next couple of weeks leading up to the opening on March 12. Click here to read about Caleb Cole.

Caleb Cole - Practice

Born in Indianapolis (1981), Caleb Cole is a former altar server, scout, and 4-H Grand Champion in Gift Wrapping. His mother instilled in him a love of garage sales and thrift stores, where he developed a fascination with the junk that people leave behind. Cole is a 2013 Hearst 8x10 Biennial Winner, 2013 and 2010 Magenta Foundation Flash Forward Winner, 2011 St. Botolph Club Foundation Emerging Artist Award winner, 2011 Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship Finalist, 2009 Artadia Award winner, and a 2009 Photolucida Critical Mass finalist. He has exhibited at a variety of national venues, including the deCordova Museum of Art (Lincoln, MA), David Winton Bell Gallery at Brown University (Providence, RI), and Jenkins Johnson Gallery (NYC), among others. Cole was also featured in Boston Magazine (HOME) as an emerging photographer who is "shaking up New England's visual arts scene." He is represented locally by Gallery Kayafas.

As one of the featured artists of Practice, Caleb will be exhibiting works from his series Other Peoples Clothes as well as several of his Dolls.  The images in Other People’s Clothes reflect his curiosity about stepping into the shoes of other people and their lives. He meticulously constructs scenes with clothing, objects and locations that best convey an individual's personal moment in time and place. 

The Dolls series is about using a children's toy as a blank canvas. They are made in the image of himself and project ideas about gender, sexuality and identity. He will be sharing several of these sculptures in Practice.

PRACTICE

 Nave Gallery Annex

March 12 - April 5, 2014

reception: Wednesday March 12, 6-8 pm

artist talk: Friday March 21, 7 pm

story slam: Monday March 31, 7 pm

Click here and here to learn more about Practice.

I will be introducing each of the six invited artists of Practice over the next couple of weeks leading up to the opening on March 12.

Mouthing off

We are super honored to be hosting massmouth at the Nave Gallery Annex during my show Practice. massmouth is a nonprofit organization who promotes the timeless art of storytelling through social media, education and live performance. They conduct story slams throughout the Massachusetts community with competitions that culminate in a semi-final awards event in the spring.

A story slam is a competition based on the art of storytelling. Think of American Idol with narrative. Each event has a specific theme and participants' names are pulled from a hat. The stories are personal experiences that are presented without notes within the timespan of 5 minutes and then judged base on performance and content.

There is an art to storytelling. A system of organizing thoughts, words and presentation to convey a complete idea. It requires thought and practice to be able to focus and get it across. massmouth offers workshops and opportunities to help people to perfect their storytelling.

On Monday evening, March 31, a few signature members of massmouth, including the cofounder Norah Dooley, will perform their stories on the show's theme, Practice. Next, they will provide a fun and friendly how-to session on the art and craft of the story. Then the audience will be encouraged to try their hand at one of their own.

This is not a competitive event but an opportunity to see some amazing local talent, experience great entertainment, learn about the craft and try it out for yourself. There will be food and drink and all who share their story will receive a to fun gift for their efforts too.

Norah Dooley is an accomplished storyteller, author and educator. She has been presenting workshops and stories for people of all ages throughout New England and also in New York, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas and Phoenix.

There is a suggested freewill donation of $5.00 to attend. All proceeds will go to StoriesLive®, one of the many storytelling programs that Norah and massmouth is involved with. In its fourth year, the StoresLive® program has introduced over 5,000 high school students from 15 Massachusetts high school to the art of 21st century storytelling and awarded over $17,000 in scholarship prizes.

This night has all the ingredients of a wonderful time and we hope to see you there.

massmouth Story Slam: Monday, March 31 at 7 pm 
Practice: art influenced by craft
exhibition dates: March 12 - April 5
reception: March 12, 6-8 pm
Nave Gallery Annex
Davis Square Somerville