Guest Curator | Curious Nature
Guest Curator: Curious Nature, 2018 Alumni Triennial Exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art in Portland, ME, August 3 - September 15, 2018, ICA at MECA
Curious Nature
2018 Alumni Triennial Exhibition
The Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art
Portland, ME
August 3 - September 15, 2018
Curious Nature brings together a diverse group of artists who draw inspiration from the natural world. Employing various mediums, from painting to sculpture, photography, and installation, their works are rooted in the act of looking closer.
The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness. - John Muir
These artists explore our relationship with the natural world through investigating the structure of reality, daily rhythms, beauty, texture, and emergent patterns. Focusing their attention on places and processes that are often overlooked, they illuminate the various forces affecting ecosystems and the environment that surrounds us. Their perspectives range from the micro and macro, revealing new views of familiar terrain. In an attempt to capture that which is in a state of constant transformation, they record their surroundings, yielding works that inspire our own sense of awe, inviting us to both celebrate nature and protect it. - Guest Curator, Shannon Rankin ’97.
Rankin’s selections include fifteen artists exhibiting diverse works that range from painting, printmaking and photography, to sculpture, ceramics, metalwork and installation. Artists include: Annika Early MFA ’16 (Portland, ME), Kristin Fitzpatrick (West Kennebunk, ME), Danielle Gerber ’12 (Portland, ME), Alisha Gould MFA ’10 (Kennebunk, ME), Kayla Goulden ’13 (Portland, ME), Lenka Konopasek MFA ’01 (Salt Lake City, UT), Mark Marchesi ’99 (Portland, ME), Tessa Green O'Brien MFA ’16 (South Portland, ME), Isabelle O'Donnell ’17 (Portland, ME), Catherine Quattrociocchi ’17 (Portland, ME), Sam Richardson ’15 (Portland, ME), Celeste Roberge ’79 (South Portland, ME), Bryan Stryeski MFA ’01 (Brooklyn, NY and Avon, CT), Sarah Camille Wilson ’07 (Burlington, VT) and Charley Young MFA ’14 (Halifax, NS).
Images courtesy of the Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art. Photography by Kyle Dubay
Review | The Rib
Water is Everything at Drive-By Projects, November 18, 2017-January 16, 2018, Review by Mallory A. Ruymann for The Rib
Water is Everything
Drive-By Projects
November 18, 2017-January 16, 2018
Review by Mallory A. Ruymann for The Rib
Water is Everything unpacks the physical, historical, and socio-political shape of water with paintings by Judith Belzer and Cheryl Molnar, and works on paper by Joseph Smolinski and Shannon Rankin.
Molnar's contribution, Cliffside, depicts a house balancing on the edge of a cliff, a structure which Molnar delicately incised into the painting’s wood support. Though not explicitly rendered, erosion and other landscape elements (represented by dense clusters of painted paper) associated with our rapidly changing coastlines hint at the presence of water. Belzer’s small untitled oil-on-canvases (from the Half Empty Half Full series) portray the Hoover and Glen Canyon dams. The breakdown of the renewable water cycle means that these dams will soon become obsolete, though their physical forms will persist. Belzer paints the dams in an abstract style that de-emphasizes their present function in favor of their form, presaging their unproductive--but stylized--future role as monuments. The future also concerns Smolinski, whose phosphorescent-like Open Water drawings capture the uncertainty of what climate change may do to bodies of water. Rankin’s Earth Embroideries preserve satellite images of arctic landscapes in the medium of thread on paper, counteracting the ongoing transformation wrought on those landscapes by slowly melting glaciers. A cluster of branded water bottles stands on a plinth at the front window of the exhibition. Not credited to any particular artist, the cooperative sourcing of these vessels offers a potential salve to water’s precarious state. By working collectively around shared goals, we can perhaps determine the destiny of water.
- Mallory A. Ruymann
Exhibition | Water is Everything
Exhibition: Water is Everything at Drive-by Projects in Watertown, MA, November 18, 2017 - January 16, 2018
Water is Everything
Drive-by Projects
Watertown, MA
November 18, 2017 - January 16, 2018
Opening reception: Saturday, November 18, 3-5pm
Hours: Thursday 12 - 4 pm or by appointment 617.835.8255
Water is Everything, an exhibition of paintings by Judith Belzer and Cheryl Molnar, and works on paper by Joseph Smolinski and Shannon Rankin.
WATER IS EVERYTHING
DRIVE-BY PROJECTS
NOVEMBER 18, 2017 - JANUARY 16, 2018
JUDITH BELZER
CHERYL MOLNAR
SHANNON RANKIN
JOSEPH SMOLINSKI
BY MALLORY A. RUYMANN
REACTION > WATERTOWN, MASSACHUSETTS
JANUARY 25, 2018
Water is Everything unpacks the physical, historical, and socio-political shape of water with paintings by Judith Belzer and Cheryl Molnar, and works on paper by Joseph Smolinski and Shannon Rankin.
Molnar's contribution, Cliffside, depicts a house balancing on the edge of a cliff, a structure which Molnar delicately incised into the painting’s wood support. Though not explicitly rendered, erosion and other landscape elements (represented by dense clusters of painted paper) associated with our rapidly changing coastlines hint at the presence of water. Belzer’s small untitled oil-on-canvases (from the Half Empty Half Full series) portray the Hoover and Glen Canyon dams. The breakdown of the renewable water cycle means that these dams will soon become obsolete, though their physical forms will persist. Belzer paints the dams in an abstract style that de-emphasizes their present function in favor of their form, presaging their unproductive--but stylized--future role as monuments. The future also concerns Smolinski, whose phosphorescent-like Open Water drawings capture the uncertainty of what climate change may do to bodies of water. Rankin’s Earth Embroideriespreserve satellite images of arctic landscapes in the medium of thread on paper, counteracting the ongoing transformation wrought on those landscapes by slowly melting glaciers.
A cluster of branded water bottles stands on a plinth at the front window of the exhibition. Not credited to any particular artist, the cooperative sourcing of these vessels offers a potential salve to water’s precarious state. By working collectively around shared goals, we can perhaps determine the destiny of water.
Drive-By Projects
Located at 81 Spring Street in Watertown, MA, Drive-By is a small, innovative space committed to exhibiting provocative work in its storefront windows and small gallery.
Founded by Beth Kantrowitz (Allston Skirt Gallery) and Kathleen O'Hara (OHT Gallery), Drive-By is open Thursdays 12-4 and by appointment, though you can always drive by our windows to view the current exhibition.
drive-byprojects.com
Mallory A. Ruymann is an educator, curator, and art historian based in Boston.
Background image:
Shannon Rankin, Earth Emroidery (Glacial Furrows), 2016, hand stitched thread on paper, 7 x 7"
Exhibition | Materiality
Exhibition: Materiality: The Matter of Matter at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, November 11, 2017 - February 11, 2018
Materiality: The Matter of Matter
Center for Maine Contemporary Art
November 11, 2017 - February 11, 2018
You begin with the possibilities of the material. –Robert Rauschenberg
The question of how and why an artist uses materials has long been a topic of consideration in art history. Today, many artists are looking to this question and seeking to find a balance between what they use to make work and the concepts behind them. Providing agency to the materials themselves, artists are looking at materials as a means of communication, whether they are expanding on traditional media and narratives or utilizing everyday objects to construct new forms. Exploring these concerns in their work, the artists included in the exhibition, all with ties to Maine, are also considering why they choose to work with certain matter in our current material culture and social climate, and the role that these materials play within it.