Sunday, January 18, 2015

Essential Impermanence

There are countless ways my studio practice is influenced, working with galleries to exhibit work is one of them.  In some cases I am participating as an artist, some as an installer and in this case as a curator.  Experiencing the logistics of a show presents a very different perspective from creating work.  The broader my understanding of the art world becomes, the more focused it allows my studio practice to stay.  When I am organizing a show, it often begins as a theme I am interested in using artwork to moderate a discussion around.

January is a reflective time of year for many people.  It is that brief point in time where we wrestle with reconciling the year that lies behind us with the year that lies before us.  This makes it the perfect time of year for a show about where things intersect; about that moment where formlessness meets form, where manmade structures interrupt nature and where exactly the spark of artistic creation is truly experienced.

While on the surface, the works in this show are very different – Kishita’s mixed media work being very bright and graphic in nature, and Losada's oil paintings being much more subdued and mysterious – I have always felt there was genuine potential for dialogue between them and that on a conceptual level they were both exploring some very similar ideas.  It was exciting to have an opportunity to curate an exhibit where the works of these two artists could resonate with each other and serve as a catalyst for discussion with the audience when I posed the question: At what point is the transient nature of creation truly experienced?  The work featured in this exhibit generates a vibrant dialogue, which explores this very question.  Losada’s oil on panel works explore the transformation of space at the moment that formlessness meets form.  Kishita’s mixed media work focuses on the intersection of seemingly disparate elements at the moment they unite.  Each artist responds to the fluid significance inherent in these particular instances of profound mutability.

Among the site specific works created by each artist for this exhibit is Pine River, an installation by Michele Kishita composed of 8,000 paint stir sticks.  Each stick has been meticulously hand dipped and wrapped in Japanese, Indian, and Italian paper.  At its completion, it will have taken 8 months with two studio assistants, one to dip and one to wrap and nearly 40 bottles of glue and 15 quarts of paint.  It will also include wooden dowels of various lengths that will be painted and wrapped.  These dowels will represent the waterfall that ultimately creates Pine River.  Aesthetically, Kishita finds herself attracted to the raw, utilitarian appearance of the stir sticks and their juxtaposition to the delicate gilded papers, especially since both are made of wood.


If you are in the Windsor area in the next month, please take the time to visit this show at the Windsor Art Center.  


Essential Impermanence:  The Work of Debra Losada and Michele Kishita

Jan 17-Feb 28, 2015

Artist Talks Saturdays 1-2pm

Debra Losada 1/24/15  moved to 2/14/15 due to snow