2018

r e b e c c a n o r t o n

The Private World of a Fold

Perception’s structural characteristic, Maurice Merleau-Ponty tells us, is spontaneous organization combined with the history of processes that condition perception. Indeterminancy and the gestalt of perceptual experience—which involves sensing over knowing— grounds an encounter of the lived body with its surrounding (the body within the “phenomenal field”). Knowledge confounds these moments, placing false faith in thinking it has access to “the real world” by projecting an invariant “in itself” to the world which it can know through science and reflection. This attempt to resolve the indeterminate features of perceptual experience reduces perception to a a series of “confused appearances.” It is in these confused appearances that we gain access to the worlds of others, and leave our own. We are guilty of reducing indeterminacy, and symbolically defining encounters, into determinate truths so that we may share an experience.

With this, the private lives of others are taken as our own, but at the cost of an ability to immerse being in its participation within the phenomenal field which, as a result of empiricism, has now taken greater strides away from the ability to access the depth of personal experiences.We impose an organization onto the world, seeing the world through the projection of properties that support our perspective of it. To return to the phenomenal field I must reflect upon a body active within it. This work is meant to communicate relationships of a figure and ground that does just that. In my work the body is gendered, I present a feminine body exploring the landscape and shaping it in terms of how it thinks through, and in and within, landscapes. She is the spatial template that has been directing my practice, and it is in terms of this figure in a field that a geometrization of sensations, and the inner and outer constructions of spatial relationships, have been considered in visual works of art. This form ungrounds the classic model by which a body defines the field that I see vertically, making the field I experience vertical. But she has no up, forward, or specifically determined direction of motion. Rather, her specific object emerges from the intersection of a generic, indeterminate trajectory of transformations and it’s encounters with particular environments. Making the work involved doubting what is up, frontal, right and left in the piece being displayed, and what could be the materials that best articulate a feminine form in this phenomenological situation. My compulsive engagement with what originated in a preparatory paper fold is itself questionable—am I describing some thing, or am I waiting for it to describe itself to me? Has our relationship come to life in a meaningful way, worth sharing with others? And can this sincerely produced, artificial artifact actually open the space of experience whereby another may, if only briefly, experience, if intended, the gestalt of perceptual experience?

November 9th, 2018--January 5th, 2019

opening reception: November 9th, 2018 // 6-10p

n o a h h o w a r d & d a r r i n m i l l i n e r

The Good American

The Good American is a two-person exhibition consisting of an immersive installation by Noah Howard and digital c-prints by Darrin Milliner. Together the works create a nationally specific visual representation of American consumerism, marketing language, and a hopeful and anarchic argument against both of the aforementioned subjects. Both artists, working from diametrically opposed environments and material, construct a visual ephemera that discusses frustrations with their experiences as consumers of media and capitalist narratives, as well as frustrations as Americans— Noah Howard tackling his biological history as a white man geographically located within the American South, and Darrin Milliner’s frustration with media portrayals and socio-cultural expectations demanded of an individual living within a capitalist society.

Read Jessica Oberdick’s (June 2019 curator of “Resident”) review in Ruckus, here.

September 14th, 2018--November 3rd, 2018

opening reception: September 14th, 2018 // 6-10p

a m e l i a b r i g g s

THE MEMORY CLOSET

Amelia Briggs is a visual artist, gallerist and educator currently based in Nashville, TN. Her work has been exhibited extensively and is included in numerous private and public collections. Briggs has been the focus of several publications and podcasts, which most recently include Native Magazine, WeHome, Maake Magazine, Mineral House Media, Nashville Arts Magazine, and Peachy Keen Podcast.

Borrowing from our surroundings, we compose a self, bit-by-bit— emulating that which moves us. Beginning in childhood, we animate toys in order to give ourselves what we desire most, forming bonds with objects. 

Known for her “inflatables,” Amelia Briggs reimagines the particular colors of plastics, toys, shapes and patterns from her youth, creating bloated forms that hang on the wall like characters or relics. Throughout her process, Briggs is constantly searching for a jolt of familiarity, one that treads a line between comfort and provocation, reality and dream. 

Each generation shares many of the same visuals and details from adolescence, however everyone brings a unique understanding and history to that nostalgia. The bulbous and colorful paintings that Briggs creates do not spell out a specific narrative; instead they reimagine a shared language – hopefully offering a springboard of recognition and possibility. 

Read Kevin Warth’s (April 2019 curator of “Liminal Form”) review in Ruckus, here.

July 13th, 2018--September 8th, 2018

opening reception: 1.12.18 // 6-10p

a l y s o n  d a v i e s  &  p e z  j o n e s

ALL THAT I AM IS GRATEFUL

ALL THAT I AM IS GRATEFUL was a two-person exhibition including artists Pez Jones (Jeffersonville, Indiana) and Alyson Davies (Alberta, Canada) that looked at naturalist versus human-made approaches at visualizing non-denominational spirituality within their everyday experience with the world. Jones and Davies utilize imagery from their immediate surroundings (the majestic mountains of Alberta, architectural facades, running shoes, plant life), highly saturated color palettes, and intentionally gawky or awkward line work that simulates a sense of unease that’s consistent with being too aware of the body you inhabit. GRATEFUL is an installation of murals by Jones and paintings by Davies. Through subtle variance in these approaches to painting, we hope to challenge how we look at painting or how we can project variance of meaning within the altered approach to the same act—similar to the artists’ varying approaches to the same goal in finding spirituality in the everyday.

Alyson Davies was raised on the traditional lands of the Cree, Dene, Stoney—Nakota Sioux, Saulteaux, and Ojibwe people on the Treaty 6 territory, currently known as central Alberta. She was brought up in a farming based community, where she was given range over fields of canola and through prairie forests. She received her BFA from the University of Alberta in 2014, is the Founder of the artist collective Tennis Club, an active member of the artist-run printshop SNAP, and has exhibited throughout Canada and the United States. She has been published in arts review as well as poetry publications. She is also is an arts and Western-Canadian history educator. She spends summers chasing daylight hours in hiking boots, rock shoes, a cycle’s saddle or from the belly of a canoe. In the winter she curses the weather but still straps on various footwear. 

Pez Jones is a multidisciplinary, female artist currently living in Jeffersonville, Indiana. She was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia and spent some of her younger years in Mexico City. She uses art as a form of therapy as it has assisted her during some challenging periods during her teens, as it does now as a young wife and mother. These tiny murals represent a utopia of love and playfulness. They are a minuscule glimpse of tenderness and are meant to bring forth the importance of staying “soft” despite the complexities of the world. They are here to remind us that humans can be grounded in the simple act of gratitude and that being kind is a sign of strength, not weakness. There is an emphasis on the color pink—a soft and delicate color, (the sweet side of red, representing harmony and inner peace). Pink stones like the rose quartz, are believed to bring about serenity and soften frustration. It is a crystal of unconditional love. I hope that these tiny murals stimulate sweet, playful feelings, and that they somewhat nourish your heart and reawaken your spiritual attainment to the divine source that is within us all.

11th may 2018--6th july, 2018

opening reception: 1.12.18 // 6-10p

gallery hours: saturdays 10-1p and by appointment

t e a m  b

Model Unit

Model Unit is a full scale representation of a young professional urban loft apartment in a gentrifying neighborhood. While a minimalist and modern aesthetic is fashionable, the amount of consumer goods targeted toward this aesthetic and readily found in its idealized apartment feels counter to such a philosophy. This aesthetic is perpetuated by social medias like Pinterest and Instagram and is then used by developers to renovate with the cheapest possible materials while applying a superficial, trendy appearance to turn the highest profit. Marketing imagery and ‘model units’ are staged and filled with stock entourage to imply a certain lifestyle, and thus, a desired tenant. In this way, architects as visualizers of un-built work are complicit with gentrification - projecting imagery that appeals to specific socio-cultural consumers.

John Stoughton, Quinn Kummer, and David Corns founded Team B Architecture & Design in the spring of 2016. Anna Kerr joined in 2017, completing the current roster. The four have worked together previously since 2011, completing multiple award-winning projects at various scales and typologies.

In 2016, Team B curated REJECTED: Architectural Drawings and their Stories with nearly 100 drawings on display from over 40 national and international architects. Their own work has been exhibited at The Unsolicited Sideshow at the Chicago Architecture Biennial, Brazee Street Studios and Ledge Gallery. Members of Team B have participated as invited critics at various universities including the University of Cincinnati, Ohio State University, Bowling Green State University, University of Detroit Mercy, and Syracuse and have taught studios at UC and Lawrence Technical University. Their work has been published in Room 1000 and will be featured in the upcoming edition of PLAT Journal.

9th march, 2018--5th may, 2018

opening reception: 3.9.18 // 6-10p

gallery hours: saturdays 10-1p and by appointment

n i n a  k e r s e y 

always feeling as if their mind moved much too quickly to keep up with

Nina Kersey utilizes self referential mythology, punk, and alternative iconographies to discuss their experience with numerous identity related topics including, but not limited to, gender identity, sexuality, and contemporary feminist narratives. Their imagery invites meditation and consideration of the deep transience and introspection that can occur within an individual experiencing a manic depressive episode— a sense of confusion, delusion, and awkward amazement and delight. Kersey feels as if their mind moves much too quickly to keep up with and has thoughts cluster into several different entities; each having their own train of thought, needs, and set of desires. These entities tend to disagree with each-other a grueling majority of the time—but occasionally when circumstances are just right—their voices harmonize. That is when art is made; it's a small window of time, but only then is their true self present. It's assumed the artist’s motive is to confront several controversial topics, whether it be gender identity, sexuality, mental illnesses, or feminine struggles / empowerment— and all of those assumptions are accurate. Accumulatively these works, though not necessarily intended to be shown together, discuss the artist’s confrontation with their self and their emotions, which are too often dismissed or suppressed. It's a cry for attention and in a way, the only way they ever feel heard. The goal ultimate goal for Kersey is to be heard without having to verbalize anything.

12th january, 2018--3rd March, 2018

opening reception: 1.12.18 // 6-10p

gallery hours: saturdays 10-1p and by appointment