What’s up - news and updates 2017

ConFab 2017:  Nashville, Tennessee
October 6, 2017

MID-SOUTH SCULPTURE ALLIANCE
MSA is an affiliate organization of the International Sculpture Center (ISC). Its membership is open to anyone, anywhere with an interest in and commitment to the field of sculpture - including sculptors, art educators, patrons, collectors, galleries, suppliers, architects, developers, journalists, critics, historians, curators and museums.

I am looking forward to attending the upcoming Mid-South Sculpture Alliance conference and participating on the Emerging Artist Panel. For this panel, ConFab keynote speaker John Powers will sit down with Ariel Lavery Professor of Sculptor at Watkins College, Leticia Bajuyo artist and educator, and Brian Jobe artist and co-founder of Locate Arts to answer questions and discuss how to get your work seen and transition from student to professional artist.  

Pop Goes the Weasel, 2017
Franconia Sculpture Park, Minnesota
2017 Open Studio Fellowship and Residency
Materials: Chain-link fencing, chain, steel, hardware, and paint.
Dimensions: 6ft 6in H x 12ft W x 12 ft D

A brief statement about Pop Goes the Weasel, 2017:

In my artwork, I utilize recognizable and seemingly neutral commonplace objects that invite audiences to name, compare, and participate in theatrical re-arbitrations of value.  Reminiscent of a Jack-in-the-box toy, the turnstile in the center appears to be winding up the chains and thus adding tension to the fence.  The fence, in turn, attempts to fulfill its role in maintaining boundaries and restricting movement; but the impasse between fence and turnstile results in a distorted stasis that suggests the unsustainability of the tense situation.

By using chain-link fencing, the audience is placed outside this small yard and can witness the effect of the turnstile on the fence.  Can a Jack-in-the-box go backwards?  Can the box be removed? How can this tug-of-war be resolved?

Crank, crank, crank
Turn, turn, turn
Just a little more
Watch and discern.

Franconia Sculpture Park
Residency Dates: September 27th - October 2nd, 2017. It was an honor to be one of the 2017 Open Studio Fellows at Franconia Sculpture Park and to get to be a part of the community while on site building a new sculpture for the park.  As described on their website:

Franconia’s Artist Residency programs offer opportunities for artists to live, create, and exhibit three-dimensional
artwork all in one location. It is a unique opportunity for emerging and mid-career artists to
accomplish BIG VISIONS, experience ARTISTIC GROWTH, and establish LIFELONG CONNECTIONS.

Franconia’s residency programs support up to 40 artists each year. The sculpture park and artists’ residence
is located on 43-acres in the scenic St. Croix River Valley, just 45 miles northeast of Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN, USA.

For more information about Franconia's fellowships and deadlines, visit http://www.franconia.org/ArtistOpportunities.html

Event Horizon and In-Finity
ATHICA: Athens Institute for Contemporary Art, Athens, Georgia
and
Piedmont College, Demorest, Georgia
August 5 – September 10, 2017

These concurrent solo exhibitions at ATHICA and Piedmont College will be the nineteenth and twentieth installations in an ongoing project in which I repurpose CDs and DVDs to create large-scale sculptures. Woven together, the old discs form complex vortices and shapes.

At ATHICA, Event Horizon includes two theremin.  In the Smith-Williams Gallery at Piedmont College, In-Finity has one theremin.  The theremins provide interactive sound elements. Invented in 1919 by Russian physicist Leon Theremin, the electronic music instrument has shifted back and forth between obscurity and novelty in the past ninety-seven years.

These solo shows in Georgia were named BURNAWAY's Best In Show, August 19, 2017 

Jewish Community Center, Patio Gallery, Louisville, KY
ENID - Generations of Women Sculptors
Exhibition Dates: August 20th - September 19th
Opening Reception on August 20th from 4-6 pm

I am honored to be a member of this organization and I am looking forward to being part of this group exhibition.  

ENID formed in 1998 and has collectively shown in the region since that time. Their ages range from 33-95 with members having different levels and various degrees; from self-taught sculptors- to those with graduate degrees, from those who have remained steadfast to sculpture - to those who have ventured into other mediums. The common thread is their support for each other as artists.

PROJECT 18: NATURALL
Zephyr Gallery, Louisville, Kentucky
June 2- August 19, 2017
Opening Reception: Friday June 2 | 6-9 pm
Artist + Curator Talks: Thursday June 29 | 6-7 pm and Friday August 18 | 6-7 pm

Thank you to Karen Gillenwater for curating and including my artwork in Project 18: Naturall.  I look forward to this four-person exhibition with Ezra Kellerman, Claire Pope, and Rachel Singel this summer at Zephyr Gallery in Louisville, Kentucky.

Zephyr Gallery is a multidisciplinary exhibition space located in the East Market Street Business District of downtown Louisville, Kentucky. 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.

Summer 2017
Great Meadows Foundation, Louisville, Kentucky
I am honored to be a recipient of a Great Meadows Foundation Artist Professional Development Grant.  Thanks to the financial support and generosity of Al Shands and the Great Meadows Foundation in Louisville, Kentucky, I am looking forward to this special professional development opportunity and to being able travel to the 57th Venice Biennale 2017 and Documenta 14! 

PYRO Art Gallery, Louisville presents:
ENID - Generations of Women Sculptors
Exhibition Dates: April 13th – May 27th
Opening Reception on Friday, April 14th from 6-9 pm

I am honored to be a member of this organization and I am looking forward to being part of this group exhibition.

PYRO Art Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of ENID, Generations of Women Sculptors, a group exhibition featuring the artwork of the Louisville, Kentucky-based collective of female sculptors. The name is taken from the first recognized female sculptor from Louisville, Enid Yandell.

ENID formed in 1998 and has collectively shown in the region since that time. Their ages range from 33-95 with members having different levels and various degrees; from self-taught sculptors- to those with graduate degrees, from those who have remained steadfast to sculpture - to those who have ventured into other mediums. The common thread is their support for each other as artists.

Eighteen members of ENID will be featured in this exhibition including: Leticia Bajuyo, Gayle Cerlan, Caren Cunningham, Jeanne Dueber, Linda Erzinger, Ewing Fahey, Sarah Frederick, Fran Kratzok, Valerie Sullivan Fuchs, Mary Dennis Kannapell, Paula Keppie, Shawn Marshall, Suzanne Mitchell, Joyce Ogden, Jacque Parsley, Emily Schuhmann, Gloria Wachtel, and Melinda Walters.

Enid Yandell (1869-1924) represents a timeless tale of strength and persistence against the odds. Her success as a professional sculptor at the turn of the twentieth century is particularly impressive on many levels. Despite her gender, Yandell achieved great recognition through major projects and commissions in cities like Chicago and Paris and ultimately was accepted into the National Sculpture Society. Her brazen attitude and bold professional approach is perhaps best captured in her creation of Pallas Athena, a 30-foot-tall plaster sculpture of the Greek goddess that was presented in the Parthenon reconstruction for the Nashville Biennial in 1897. Although this piece has since been destroyed, her legacy lives on locally through two iconic Louisville sculptures: Hogan's Fountain and the portrait of Daniel Boone. Her story, both interesting and inspiring, should be a staple of art and local history.

21C Museum Hotel, Louisville, Kentucky
Sunday, April 2nd, 2017 at 6pm

21C Museum Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky will be holding an Information Session about ArtPrize and the Pitch Night grant program.

As the winner of the 2016 Pitch Night held at 21c Louisville, I will presenting about my experience and share tips for artists interested in presenting their work at ArtPrize and applying for Pitch Night.  

For 2017, there will be six Pitch Night cities.

National Conference on Contemporary Cast Iron Art and Practices (NCCCIAP), Birmingham, Alabama
April 5-8, 2017

For the upcoming Iron Conference, I am honored to get to be one of the presenters for 20 X 20 PRESENTATIONS during the conference.  The title of my talk will be: Pieces of the Pie.

The conference theme is:  In Iron We Rust

When you walk onto the grounds at Sloss Furnaces, you immediately feel the looming weight of history towering overhead. Upon closer inspection though, you’ll see those massive and intimidating structures of our industrial past have decayed. Their age and obsolescence is ever-present in beautiful monochromatic streaks. With iron, rust is the physical display of transformation. It often evokes the negative – a weakening through deterioration. However, this verdict relies on a determination of worth. Such judgment inherently values the new, the unchanged, the pristine over that which might be worn, battered, calloused - without considering the merit of storied experience. Every two years we gather at Sloss for good reason.

Lift
Nashville International Airport, Nashville, Tennessee
Concourse C
March 2017 - January 2018

Donated CD and DVD discs, Monofilament, Cable ties, Aluminum, Stainless steel cable, and hardware.

Titled Lift, this installation has been designed for the skylights at the Nashville International Airport.  Inspired by landfills and black holes, the form will be similar to looking across a flat bed of water with a whirlpool drawing all the surrounding water into itself; however, the emphasis of this sculpture would be a vortex that is pulling all the memory discs upward like a black hole in space. 

"Art Reaches New Heights at the Nashville Airport," Nashville Arts Magazine, May 2017

February 10, 2017
Mexic-Arte Museum, Austin, Texas

Random Bits of Unknown Significance will be on display during the 2017 Mix 'n' Mash exhibition.  Thank you to the Mexic-Arte Museum and especially Sylvia Orozco for the invitation to be a part of this special event.