BCA Fall Exhibitions 2020 Gallery Guide

Unprecedented?, BCA Center installation view, 2020

GA LLERY GU IDE

OVERVIEW Unprecedented? explores the psychological, social, and cultural impact of the extraordinary events of 2020 defined by the ongoing global pandemic and intensifying demand for racial justice that is reshaping our world. Featuring work by nine Vermont and New England artists, Unprecedented? calls upon us to examine our divergent responses to each artist’s work within the context of recent events and the shared, expressive framework of grief, hope, anger, containment, uncertainty, and release.

As a word, “unprecedented� has trended with ferocious speed via every media outlet, social feed, and op-ed to describe the global pandemic and growing demonstrations for racial justice. While as a society we have found ourselves illprepared for these events, it seems questionable that these circumstances are either unprecedented or unpredictable. Rather, at this critical moment we must reflect, question, and reframe our understanding of these historic times through the lens of visual art.

Due to the unusual circumstances and challenges posed by the pandemic, BCA closed shows early; and canceled, rescheduled, or indefinitely postponed upcoming exhibits and programs amidst the daily uncertainty. Following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, protests, demonstrations, and civil unrest emerged nationally from Portland to New York, Louisville to Burlington.

These were critical moments in our society. And, emerging from this period was an important opportunity to create a community-response exhibition that addressed the tumultuous events, as well as our experiences of them, through contemporary art.

Becci Davis, In the Shadow of Dixie (detail)

Typically it would take one to two years to organize a group exhibition such as Unprecedented?. We were fortunate to work with an incredible group of artists who responded to our theme within a few months resulting in a meaningful, relevant – and hopefully resonant – exhibit for our community. Many of the works featured in Unprecedented? were commissioned specifically for this show, which features a breadth of media including ceramics, photography and video, sculpture, drawing, and installation.

For Unprecedented?, it was important to expand the perspectives of artists and curator by including additional voices from the Vermont community. Five community leaders were invited to contribute text that responded to key emotional and psychological states conveyed by an artist’s work. Each text thoughtfully reflects on a work of art, and connects its expressive framework to their personal experience of these past few months.

I’d like to thank our Unprecedented? artists: Jeremy Ayers, Becci Davis, Lillie Harris, Akiko Jackson, Brielle Rovito, Eve and Steve Schaub, Dan Siegel, and Sarah Camille Wilson for their participation in the exhibition. Additionally, I am grateful for the thoughtful text contributions from Dr. Elizabeth Goldstein, Tyeastia Green, Carmen Jackson, Milton Rosa-Ortiz, and Dr. Tamara Waraschinski.

The beauty, power, and resilience of the work featured in Unprecedented? serves to remind us of art’s essential role in addressing the issues of our time – through reflection, empathy, dialogue, and a rich diversity of expression.

- Heather Ferrell, Curator and Director of Exhibitions

Becci Davis In the Shadow of Dixie, 2018-ongoing multimedia Installation: single-channel video of intervention documentation, monitor, archival pigment prints, original interpretive signage, display case with offset-printed postcards, video stills, facsimile of a February 23, 1803 issue of Louisville Gazette and Republican Trumpet, facsimiles of antique tourist postcards, and facsimiles of handwritten postcards from intervention 84" x 174" x 24", video: 9:58 minute loop Price Available Upon Request

EveNSteve A Wonderful Plague, 2020 video: 22 minute loop

The Home of My Choice, 2020 video: 39 minute loop NFS

EveNSteve A Wonderful Plague, 2020 In Camera Collage on Film pigment on Japanese Kinwashi paper with hand-written text 6 panels, unique one of one 144" x 75.5" (overall size), 21.5" x 75.5" (panel) Price Available Upon Request

EveNSteve The Home of My Choice, 2020 In Camera Collage on Film pigment on hand-made Amate paper with hand-written text 9 Panels, unique one of one 181.5" x 47.5" (overall size), 17.5" x 47.5" (panel) Price Available Upon Request

Lillie Harris March to Now, 2020 prismacolor pastel digitally inked and colored with PhotoShop printed on Fuji glossy paper 48" x 64" $600

Akiko Jackson neckbones, 2019 cast resin 15' x 36" x 36" NFS

Akiko Jackson sometimes I recall our hair grows after death, 2019

sculptural drawing: synthetic hair, sheep hair, fasteners 168" x 72" x 2" Title quote from Dreaming of Hair by Li-Young Lee NFS

Sarah Camille Wilson (far left) Waiting, Series of Five, 2020 stoneware 12-14" x 5" dia. $500 each

Dan Siegel (left) Series of Five, 2020 (from left to right)

Jar for screaming at the past The present Or into the future Jar for leftover bits of Ikea furniture That you don’t want to throw out They might come in handy someday Jar that can be used as a vase When you accidentally break the lid Jar for a questionably fermented kimchi A different shape would have been better Jar for your last breaths You are a new person now 9.5 – 10" x 4.5" dia. glazed stoneware $250 each

Brielle Rovito (upper right) Matriarch Internalizing, Series of Five, 2020 slip-cast porcelain 11" x 4.5" dia. $425 each

Jeremy Ayers (lower right) Striped Urn, Series of Five, 2020 resist-glazed stoneware 9" x 7" dia. $300 each

Artist Biographies Jeremy Ayers (b.1974, Burlington, VT) strives to make functional pottery that celebrates the joy of eating and drinking and creates a special relationship between the owner and the object. Ayers holds a BA in Fine Arts from The Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston. He is the owner of Jeremy Ayers Pottery, and 18 Elm in Waterbury. His work has been shown locally, and nationally, and is in collections internationally. His work has been featured in Ceramics Monthly, Bon Appetit, Sight Unseen and Design Sponge. He has exhibited at The Clay Studio, Philadelphia; The Bell Gallery, Providence; and the Society of Arts and Crafts, Boston. He resides in Waterbury, Vermont.

Becci Davis (b. 1978, Fort Benning, Georgia) is an interdisciplinary whose works explores the relationship between history, monument, and the relationship between the African American experience and performance art. Davis holds a BFA from Columbus State University, Georgia and an MFA from Lesley University, Massachusetts. Her works have been exhibited at the Photographic Museum of Humanity, Hera Gallery in Rhode Island; the Granoff Center at Brown University, Rhode Island; and the Vermont Center for Photography, Brattleboro. She was the recipient of the 2019 City of Providence Department of Art, Culture, and Tourism Project Fund Grant; the 2018 RISD Museum Artist Fellowship; and the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts Fellowship in New Genres. Davis was Co-curator of Unpolished Legacies in Providence and Guest Curator of Will Work for Revolution at RISD Museum, Rhode Island. She resides with her family in Wakefield, Rhode Island.

EveNSteve is the creative team of artist Stephen M. Schaub (b. 1970, Toledo, OH) and author Eve O. Schaub (b. 1970, Boston, MA). In 2019 they formed EveNSteve and began collaborating on a series of artworks that combine photographic imagery and handwritten text. Stephen Schaub is a Marine Corps Veteran who served in Operation Desert Shield/ Desert Storm and a recipient of the Navy Achievement Medal, who went on to earn his BFA from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 1996. His photography explores fragmented states of memory and the passage of time, created through specialized incamera and darkroom processes, and printed on rare and handmade papers from around the world. Schaub’s work has been shown both regionally and internationally including exhibitions at the Kent Museum, the Bennington Museum; X Edition, Singapore and Espace Bergger, Paris; the San Francisco and Palm Springs Art Fairs; and Kolaj Fest, New Orleans.

Eve Schaub received her BA and BFA from Cornell University in 1993, and an MFA from Rochester Institute of Technology in 1997. Her memoir, Year of No Sugar, was published in 2014 and has been translated into Chinese, Hebrew and Spanish, followed by her second book Year of No Clutter in 2017. She has been a guest on the Dr. Oz Show and FOX and Friends, and has appeared in numerous print and online outlets. Currently she is at work on a third memoir, Year of No Garbage. EveNSteve has been awarded grants from the Vermont Arts Council and the Vermont Community Foundation. They live in Pawlet, Vermont with their family.

Lillie J. Harris (b. 1992, Maryland) is a cartoonist and illustrator originally from Prince George’s County, Maryland. Their comics often feature a black and white palette reminiscent of film noir and often include elements of horror. They are currently attending the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, and their work has been featured in publications such as The New Yorker and D.C.’s Magic Bullet, and at the Vermont Folklife Center, Middlebury. Harris resides in Montpelier, Vermont.

Akiko Jackson (b. Kahuku, HI) is a sculptor who holds an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University, School of the Arts, Richmond and an MA from California State University, Los Angeles. Jackson’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including the Wing Luke Museum of Asian Pacific American Experience, Seattle; the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, Virginia Beach; the American Museum of Ceramic Art, Los Angeles; the 4th World Ceramic Biennale Korea (CEBIKO) in Icheon Republic of Korea; and the Australian International Ceramics Triennale in Sydney. She has been awarded residencies and fellowships at the Lawrence Arts Center, Kansas and Pottery Northwest, Seattle; and was a Louise Bourgeois Endowed Fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. Akiko Jackson resides in Provincetown, Massachusetts.

Brielle Macbeth Rovito (b. 1990, River Falls, WI) is a sculptor from Baldwin, Wisconsin whose plaster and porcelain sculptures evoke curiosity and playfulness and invite the viewer to contemplate the present moment. Rovito holds a BA in Fine and Studio Arts from Northwestern College, Iowa. She is the co-founder and manager of The Form Collective and creator of Dust and Form in Burlington, Vermont. Her sculptures, often doubling as objects with practical function, have been in collaborations with Tata Harper, Domino, Better Homes and Gardens, and BOON_ROOM, Paris. She currently resides in Burlington, Vermont.

Dan Siegel (b. 1979, Manhasset, NY) specializes in wheel-thrown or hand build stoneware. Siegel begins by translating his ideas to paper and then into three-dimensional clay objects, exploring form, line, and surface. His works can be found at Thirty-Odd and August First, both in Burlington, Vermont. His studio is located in the Old North End, Burlington.

Sarah Camille Wilson (b. 1985, Durham, NC) has a BFA from Maine College of Art and an MFA from Syracuse University. For the past 15 years, she has taught ceramics classes in both university and community settings, and maintains an active studio practice. Sarah’s work in clay has taken her to China, India and around the US as both an artist in residence and a teacher, and she loves exploring new clays in new places. While most of her work begins on the wheel, it is through drawing and surface that she truly expresses the ideas in her work. She lives in Burlington, Vermont.

Contributor Biographies BCA is especially appreciative to our community members who contributed reflective text in response to the artwork in Unprecedented?

Tyeastia Green is the Director of Racial Equity, Inclusion and Belonging for the City of Burlington. Green received her Bachelor’s in Information Technology from Kaplan University, Chicago and completed her MPA in Public Affairs-Antiracism/Racial Social Justice and Public Policy from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. Prior to her role with the City of Burlington, Green worked with the City of Bloomington. While working for the City of Bloomington she developed racial equity programs, including the Start Seeing Color campaign, which brings visibility to race.

Green’s work focuses on inclusion, and specifically, on working toward normalizing ‘others’ through engagement, facilitation, and education.

Tyeastia Green currently resides in Vermont.

Dr. Elizabeth Goldstein is a Clinical Psychologist who specializes in anxiety, depression, and trauma psychotherapy, consultation, and supervision with Mansfield Psychotherapy Associates. Dr. Goldstein received her doctorate from the University of Maine. She completed her postdoctoral studies in disaster mental health and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at the National Center for PTSD, with subsequent positions as staff psychologist at the White River Junction Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center and the Colchester Community-based Outpatient Clinic, including Director of PTSD Services, and Director of Mental Health Services at Colchester CBOC. Dr. Goldstein has served as adjunct faculty at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth in New Hampshire, the University of Vermont, Burlington, and Antioch New England University in Keene, New Hampshire. She is Chair of the Vermont Association for Psychoanalytic Studies Applied Psychoanalysis Committee. She resides in Burlington, VT. Carmen Jackson states “Life’s adventures and challenges directed me and my husband, Dixon, to the Northeast Kingdom in the early 1970’s. An early midlife retirement resulted in our making a home and a way of life that sustains in mind, body and soul to this day.” Jackson currently serves as the President, Board of Trustees, for the Old Stone House Museum, in Brownington, Vermont, where on September 23, 2020 she helped lead the museum’s celebration of the 225th anniversary of Alexander Twilight’s birth—a date to be celebrated annually as Alexander Twilight Day in Vermont.

Milton Rosa-Ortiz (b. 1967, San Juan, Puerto Rico) is a sculptor and installation artist whose work uses matter and space to create visual allegories and capture the psyche. Rosa studied at the Technical University of Budapest, Hungary in 1989, and in 1992 at Centro Studi Santa Chiara Castiglion Fiorentino, Italy. In 1993 he obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from Kansas State University, Manhattan. In 1998, Rosa-Ortiz attended Anderson Ranch Arts Center (ARAC) in Snowmass Village, Colorado. In 2012, he received a Bachelor’s degree in nursing from UNYDownstate Medical Center; Brooklyn, NY and currently works as a Staff II RN, Miller 5, Oncology, UVM Medical Center. Rosa-Ortiz is a practicing artist. He has exhibited his work at numerous venues in the United States and abroad including the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico in San Juan, Puerto Rico; the Cornell DeWitt Gallery in New York City; Baldwin Gallery in Aspen, Colorado; Wave Hill Arts Center in Bronx, New York; Galerie Favardin & de Veneuil in Paris, France, and the Museo de Arte Acarigua-Araure, Venezuela. Milton Rosa-Ortiz resides in Burlington, Vermont.

Dr. Tamara Waraschinski grew up in Germany and then moved to Australia, where she received her PhD in Sociology from the University of Adelaide in 2018. Dr. Waraschinski’s work experience in aged care, as a palliative care volunteer, as well as her personal background, has informed her life-long curiosity of how we construct our social world. A social theorist and death scholar, she is particularly interested in capitalism’s effects on perceptions of mortality. Dr. Waraschinski is the Co-Founder and Director of The Collective of Radical Death Studies, an international professional organization that produces and disseminates scholarship by and about death scholars, students, death practitioners of color and from marginalized communities.

She is also the Company Manager of JAG Productions, a non-profit community theater organization in White River Junction, Vermont, which produces classic and contemporary African American productions.

Participating Artists Jeremy Ayers, Becci Davis, Lillie Harris, Akiko Jackson, Brielle Rovito, EveNSteve (Eve and Steve Schaub), Dan Siegel, and Sarah Camille Wilson Community Contributors Tyeastia Green, Elizabeth Goldstein, Carmen Jackson, Milton Rosa-Ortiz, and Tamara Waraschinski

Unprecedented? is presented as part of 2020 Vision: Reflecting on a World-Changing Year, a statewide exhibition initiative of the Vermont Curators Group.

Burlington City Arts is supported by the New England Foundation for the Arts through the New England Arts Resilience Fund, part of the United States Regional Arts Resilience Fund, an initiative of the U.S. Regional Arts Organizations and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, with major funding from the federal CARES Act from the National Endowment for the Arts.

2020 EXHIBITION YEAR PRESENTED BY

BCA Exhibitions are funded in part by a grant from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Vermont Arts Council.

BURLINGTON CITY ARTS 135 CHURCH STREET, BURLINGTON, VERMONT, 05401 BURLINGTONCITYARTS.ORG