"Por Oaxaca" opens Satuday, May 24, at Insitute Library

The Institute Library
847 Chapel St., New Haven, (203) 562-5045
Por Oaxaca
May 24—June 21, 2014.
Reception: Sat., May 24, Noon—2 p.m.

Press release from Catalina Barroso-Luque

Por Oaxaca is the end stage of the Postal Art Project organized and curated by the Mexican artist, Catalina Barroso-Luque, who sent a seemingly straightforward photograph taken in Oaxaca, Mexico to a selection of local and international artists in China, Mexico, England and Connecticut and asked them to respond.

The show features works by Phil Lique, Kevin Van Aelst, Isabelle Gressel, Ivan Mendez Vela, Panachai Chaijaratat, Maria Lara Whelpley, Susan McCaslin, Martin Roberts, Justin Rodier, and Sophie Aston.

Artwork by Phil Lique

The responses received were unexpected and varied. The apparent diversity of works stemming from the same image brings out issues of cultural tourism, analog vs. digital technology, image-media mediation over our engagement with reality, cultural aesthetics, and the prevalence of a western hegemony over contemporary artistic production.

Also on view, in the Main Reading Room, is a display of Postales Mestizas, by Catalina Barroso-Luque. The artist has fashioned these small-scale works out of collaged, collected post-cards and other found images, and her own discarded photo-prints. They are an intuitive recycling of the artist's physical and mental imagery that aims to bring into question the boundaries between personal and collective memory.

Three shows open Thursday evening at Real Art Ways

Real Art Ways
56 Arbor St., Hartford, (860) 232-1006
Johannes DeYoung: Ego Loser
Steffani Jemison: Such is Your Luck
Phil Lique and Laura Marsh: Half Off
Ego Loser and Such Is Your Luck on view Apr.19—Jun. 17, 2012; Half Off on view Apr. 19—Jul. 8, 2012.
Opening reception during Creative Cocktail Hour: Thurs., Apr. 19, 6—8 p.m. Admission is $10/$5 Real Art Ways members.

Press release

Real Art Ways opens three exhibitions Thurs., Apr. 19, during Creative Cocktail Hour.

• Ego Loser, by Johannes DeYoung, explores shifting identities in a series of short videos.

• Such is Your Luck, by Steffani Jemison, investigates how luck, faith and accidents impact moments that matter and make up a person's life.

• Half Off, an exhibition curated by John O'Donnell of work by Phil Lique and Laura Marsh. Half Off examines experiences and products of American consumer culture through sculpture, works on paper, video and documented performance.


Johannes DeYoung's videos are essentially portraits. The characters in his videos occupy dream spaces that reflect, distort and magnify reality. Ego Loser features composite animations of talking heads that spout affirmations, esoteric advice, spam, and legalese from online sources. Humor is an entry point in the work: absurd narratives expand to confront failure and mortality. The final results are images and sounds that teeter between humorous and grotesque.

Steffani Jemison's Such Is Your Luck is concerned with the ways that we make sense of the matter of our lives——the values and the raw materials; the episodes, the contingencies, and the accidents.


Several pieces in Such Is Your Luck are part of a larger body of work that uses an inspirational text, "If I Could," as the starting point for interventions. This body of work began, in 2009, when Jemison read an article in the Chicago Sun Times about the brutal beating and murder of Derrion Albert. The family struggled to understand how their honor roll student's life could have ended in such violence. His grandfather said Derrion spent most of his evenings studying. He had copied a poem called "Affirmations for Living" and posted it where he could view it while doing homework. Each phrase begins, "If I could…," and the final line triumphantly concludes, "If I could…and I can…so I WILL!" The Chicago Sun Times reported that he was a victim of random violence; he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Laura Marsh and Phil Lique share a similar focus: to critique misguided American inclinations. Half Off treads the line between patriotic nostalgia and dissonance. The artists overtly employ icons such as sneakers, twenty-dollar bills, the American flag and decorative patterns to reference consumer illusions and product promises. A blind celebration of the American way informs their work as notions of discounts and deals are positioned in relation to ideals and identity.


"When looking at Laura and Phil's work I was immediately struck by the perfect balance of profundity and superficiality. Subtlety is not the aim; dissonance is rarely subtle," comments John O'Donnell, Visual Art Manager at Real Art Ways.


An opening reception will be held on Thurs., April 19, from 6—8 p.m. as part of Creative Cocktail Hour, Real Art Ways' monthly third Thursday gathering. Creative Cocktail Hour is from 6—10 p.m.; admission is $10/$5 Real Art Ways members.

Ego Loser, by Johannes DeYoung and Such is Your Luck, by Steffani Jemison, will be on view through Sunday, June 17, 2012. Half Off, by Phil Lique and Laura Marsh will be on view through Sunday, July 8, 2012.

Greeting of the Artists at A-Space Gallery this Friday, Nov. 18

A-Space at West Cove Studios
30 Elm St., West Haven, (203) 627-8030
Two for One: Recent Work by Laura Marsh and Phil Lique
Nov. 17—Dec. 10, 2011
Greeting of the Artists: Fri., Nov. 18, 6—8 p.m.

Press release

A two-person show featuring recent work by Laura Marsh and Phil Lique opens this Friday (tomorrow) at A-Space Gallery at West Cove Studios in West Haven. They don’t have “receptions” at A-Space but they do have “Greetings of the Artists” and if you go to that, you may find yourself thinking you are at an opening reception. But you aren’t.

Bridgeport Arts and Cultural Council "Paper or Plastic?" show opens Thursday evening

The BACC Gallery in the Historic Arcade Mall
1001-12 Main St., Bridgeport, (203) 552-4154
Paper or Plastic?
Mar. 3—Apr. 8, 2011.
Opening reception, Thurs. Mar. 3, 5—7 p.m.

Press release

When we purchase something it is usually inspired by some combination of need and desire. The ratio between the two shifts depending on our relationship to the object or service. When we buy toilet paper, the needle leans toward need, when we buy a dress the action might be primarily linked to desire. Purchasing a car might fall somewhere in between, perhaps balancing the practical needs of a family car with our yearning for a lifestyle promised in a car company’s ad campaigns.

The artists in Paper or Plastic?, curated for the Bridgeport Arts and Cultural Council by Terri C. Smith and Eileen Walsh, are in tune with the range of activities and motivations surrounding consumer culture. Their works appropriate, reference, and harness materials, branding strategies, symbols, and themes found in the market. Artists in the exhibition include: William Corprew (Web), Mark DeRosa, Diane DiMassa (Web), Jahmane, Richard Killeaney, Marcella Kovac, Philip Lique, Alan Neider, Rita Valley and Kevin Van Aelst (Web).

Everything from a historic figure to an ecosystem can be branded. With Jahmane’s "MLBK JR" and "Malcolm Exxon," images of historic figures (who are often appropriated to brand political causes, campaigns, etc.) are combined with the logos and slogans of Burger King and Exxon, reading “Malcolm Exxon” and “Martin Luther Burger King.” As a graphic designer, Marcella Kovac rebrands found artworks with stenciled letters. In the shoreline community of Connecticut, seaside paintings abound as a reaffirmation of that region’s environmental appeal. With Kovac’s piece, the word “Porn” is spray painted on a reproduced seascape painting. Through this juxtaposition the human desire to capture, possess and objectify beauty—whether the female figure or a picturesque landscape—is highlighted.

Sensitivity to the metaphorical and formal power of materials also weaves its way into Paper or Plastic?. In Rita Valley’s beaded credit cards, a seamstresses craft meets purchasing power – a durable plastic rectangle meant to be swiped, stored and swiped again becomes a fragile tapestry. With the title "Fur: Coat," artist Philip Lique cites a soft luxury item made from animals. Lique’s coat, however, is made out of the synthetic material of mass-produced insulation. It is not luxurious (in texture or look) or rare, creating a tension between naming and the formal qualities of the object itself. Richard Killeaney’s pillows are made of recycled men’s tweed suits. With these household comfort/design objects, public (work) and private (home) are joined through reattribution.

With Paper or Plastic? the signs and symbols of consumer culture are torqued, critiqued, appropriated, and recontextualized, providing new lenses through which to see the everyday activities of consumption. Of course, art is also a consumer product, as are art institutions and exhibitions, making it impossible to fully separate these artworks or this exhibition from the very systems it addresses.

There will be an opening reception for this show on Thurs., Mar. 3, from 5—7 p.m.

Thursday night openings at Artspace

Artspace
50 Orange St, New Haven, (203) 772-2709
Phil Lique: Traces of Things That Are Alive and Dead
Fritz Horstman: Guerrilla Trees
Elaine Kaufmann: International Design
Conspectus I: New Work from the Flatfile Collection
Cecile Chong: Unspoken Word
Peter Konsterlie: Medical Systems
Feb. 25—Mar. 20, 2010
Public Opening: Thurs., Feb. 25, 6—8 p.m.

Press release

Artspace announces four new solo exhibitions with works by both Connecticut and Brooklyn-based artists. Fritz Horstman, Elaine Kaufmann, Cecile Chong, and Peter Konsterlie explore ecological concerns, issues of sustainability, and the relationship of the human form to nature, tradition, and mortality. Artist Phil Lique's exhibition, Traces of Things That Are Alive and Dead, previously opened in January and continues to cast a flame over Gallery 1 with a large-scale performative sculpture and five equally assertive paintings.

Phil Lique's collaged paintings of bears, sharks, and deer juxtaposed with laptops and SUVs speak to a generation of artists concerned with the way the Internet and Google affect our everyday lives. Lique's performance, "Evidence of Competitive Natures," took place at Artspace this past January and is featured in our artist directory (http://artspacenh.org/artists/PLique).

Part sculpture and part performance, Fritz Horstman's Guerrilla Trees is an interactive, urban planning project that invites visitors to take an elm sapling from Gallery 2 and plant it in the city as an environmentally proactive gesture.

Visitors are invited to Gallery 3 to view Elaine Kaufmann's International Design, a series of arresting pencil drawings that connect the fantasies of first-world affluence with the production of third-world poverty (see image).

In conjunction with these five solo exhibitions, Artspace presents Conspectus I, a group exhibition of Flatfile drawings, paintings, and photographs in Gallery 4. The exhibition showcases the diverse techniques and approaches of 40 Flatfile Collection artists working in diverse mediums and subject matter that range from small-scale drawings to large-scale photographs. This group exhibition represents the first of many of Artspace's upcoming Flatfile exhibitions.

Cecile Chong's Unspoken Word series recalls the fantastical foreign worlds frequently found in children's books in her intricately designed painting assemblages in Gallery 5. Chong's pictorial vignettes speak to notions of cultural identity and assimilation in the age of globalization.

Peter Konsterlie's Medical Systems series in Gallery 7 juxtaposes the technical precision used in anatomical drawing with the emotional content of color.

These exhibitions are on view from Feb. 25—Mar. 20, 2010. Please join us for the public reception on Thursday, February 25, from 6—8 p.m.

Multiple shows open at Artspace Thursday evening

Artspace
50 Orange St, New Haven, (203) 772-2709
Phil Lique: Traces of Things That Are Alive and Dead
Susan Meyer: Together
Anna Daegele
Kim Salerno: White Sea
John Judge: Story Lines
Wes Heiss: Under Contract
Jan. 14—Feb. 20, 2010
Public Opening: Thurs., Jan. 14, 6—8 p.m.

Press release

Artspace announces six new solo exhibitions for 2010. Beginning Jan. 14, the galleries will be filled sculpture, painting, drawing, and site-specific installations produced by artists from New Haven, Massachusetts, Colorado, and Pennsylvania. These exhibitions are on view Jan. 14—Feb. 20, 2010. A public reception with artists' talks will be held on Thursday, Jan. 14, 6—8 p.m. Additional public programming is forthcoming.

Engaging in the ongoing debate about the nature and production of contemporary art within and beyond our geographical borders, Artspace is also participating in the 2010 DeCordova Biennial, organized by the museum's contemporary curator Dina Deitsch.

Located in Lincoln, Massachusetts, The DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park will showcase the work of seventeen artists from New England, including those of New Haven-based artists and Artspace alums, Christopher Mir (Web) and Phil Lique. The works on view reflect a broad range of current practices ranging from painting to social intervention, and the exhibition is the result of conversations between artists and curators from multiple art venues across New England, including Artspace.

Functioning as both an independent site and alternative space for the Biennial, Artspace will present a solo exhibition of New Haven artist Phil Lique in Gallery 1, whose work reflects the broader themes presented in the show. In his solo exhibition in Gallery 1 at Artspace, Traces of Things That Are Alive and Dead, Phil Lique binds his sculptural and paintings practices together, producing an aggressive body of work that comments on consumption and excess, and the nature of warfare and political apathy.

Notions of failed utopias and environmental and cultural decay are also expressed in the works on view in galleries 2-7. Utilizing geometric forms, hardware, and synthetic materials, Susan Meyer (CO) (Web) creates a sci-fi inspired installation with lurid abstract sculptures in Gallery 2.

Exploring the beauty of decay, New Haven-based painter Anna Daegele (Web) extends her painting surface to lids, tins, and environmental materials such as dirt, lint, and debris from everyday use and activity. Her work will be on view in Gallery 3.

Through elegantly cut-paper constructions, Rhode Island-based artist Kim Salerno (Web) will install a series of sculptures in Gallery 4 that mimic sea creatures and other biological forms that border on extinction.

In Gallery 5, Massachusetts-based painter John Judge (Web) presents a series of new drawings that capture voyeuristic, despondent, and curious moments between groups of people inhabiting the same public and private spaces.

Reacting to the gallery's raw and industrial architecture, Pennsylvania-based sculptor Wes Heiss (Web) works with the ventilation system in Gallery 7 to create a new site-specific installation that only becomes fully activated when a viewer enters a space.