April 26 - May 19, 2013
FO/MENT
Graduate Students in VCU Arts department of Craft/Materials Studies
Main, Helena Davis, Frable and smallspace Galleries
Style weekly's preview: "FO/MENT" at Artspace Gallery http://www.styleweekly.com/richmond/foment-at-artspace-gallery/Content?oid=1878365
Opening Reception for the Artists
Fourth Friday, April 26, 2013
7:00-10:00 pm
Free and Open to the Public
Artspace is pleased to present the works of seven first year MFA candidates in the vcuarts Craft / Material Studies program in an exhibition that spans almost all of our gallery space. The exhibition is entitled "FO/MENT" and opens on Fourth Friday, April 26, 2013 from 7-10pm and continues through May 19, 2013. The grad students in the show are: Abram Deslauriers, Erika Diamond, Marisa Finos, Brian Fleetwood, Julie Malen, Jared Smith, and Andrea Vail.
Abram Deslauriers focuses on glassworking. His background is interdisciplinary, and he says that he "started working with glass as a means to manipulate a surface for projection and found the material an alluring challenge." He describes his work as using "surreal video and fractal reflections that converge into the liminal state of the waking dream."
Erika Diamond creates work that she describes as "objects whose forms recall their contents or record an action." She says: "Giving permanent form to ephemeral moments, my work addresses human interaction and remembrance through the commemoration and preservation of the traces we leave behind� I am concerned with mapping, forming, and defining of ephemeral�spaces."
Marisa Finos says that she "seeks to link and draw new connections between the body and the mind. I try to articulate how and where we exist when we let go of control of our own bodies. It is in these moments where one�s mind can seem the most animated and alive. To sleep, dream, float, fly, fall, decay, disappear, disconnect, transcend, and transition; to be lost in a space of uncertainty and recollection� I draw on these phrases and ideas to explore the moments between the conscious and unconscious."
Brian Fleetwood creates jewelry, with "abstract components of biological structures, creating new, fictive anatomies." He says that science � particularly evolutionary biology and ecology and the "art practices of my people, the Muscogee�who have been carving wood, shell, and working metal since antiquity�have greatly informed my work. This work appears to grow directly from the wearer, suggesting a kind of symbiosis or parasitism. Ultimately I intend to raise questions about the hard lines that we draw between things in nature�including ourselves�and our place in biological, cultural, and personal systems."
Julie Malen creates "large-scale sculptural scenarios that push for deeper meaning through scenes acted out by animal characters. These allegorical installations are a place for the viewer to reflect on their own cultural habits, and on destructive excesses within the culture of modern life. In my research I look into paintings of historical cultures to create an awareness of how modern concerns have existed across eras. The work reflects on the irony and tragedy of the human condition in our constant search for comfort, power, and pleasure."
Jared Cru Smith from Indianapolis, says that he recently began "to think about where I have come from, where I am now, and the paths I have taken in order to get here. On my journey there has been endless rows of crops in the Midwest, vast mountain ranges covered in tree top canopies in West Virginia and Virginia, and winding rivers and architectural landmarks in between. These rural landscapes have been a strong contrast to the urban cityscapes that I have lived in of Indianapolis and now Richmond. In the notion of landscape and place, I am using the natural form of trees, map imagery, and architectural structures to fabricate functional objects such as cast concrete logs, constructed stumps and map locators. Through the creation and use of these forms I am constructing my own landscapes depicting my travels and the locations where I have lived."
Andrea Vail manipulates found textiles and reclaimed objects, exploring both mundane and extraordinary characteristics of these objects. Usually common and often discarded, she describes these objects as becoming symbolic relics of our society�s cultural debris. Her most recent investigation is focused on�landscape, literally and metaphorically. She says: "This speaks most specifically of decorative patterns on household goods; a simulacrum of nature. Bed linens painted with flowers, mass-produced prints of watercolored pastures and glassware molded with ornamental plants."
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