Mary Laube - Casting Shadows

Mary Laube C as t ing Shad ow s

Mary Laube C as t ing Shad ow s

Stan State Ar t Space, California State University, Stanislaus

Knit Yourself a Body, acrylic on panel, 12” x 12”, 2018

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D ir e c tor ’s For ewor d

Mary Laube - Casting Shadows, is a small representation of her wonderful collection of work. Painting is one of the department’s most important areas of student leaning. The ability to view paintings of this caliber is paramount for our students, if they wish to become accomplished painters. Laube is an exceptional artist for our students to study and we are fortunate to have her exhibit here at CSUS. The University Art Gallery’s programing supports faculty teaching, and many of the exhibitions come to the galleries because of the recommendation of one of CSUS faculty. This exhibition was recommended by my colleague, David Olivant. When describing Laube’s work, he wrote, “The shape of the format is often equivalent to the shape of the represented object. Playful attitude to illusion and references to Cubist interest in prefabricated surface textures. Subtle subversion of conventional viewpoints so that while the work appears at first glance to be polite, almost decorous, it is actually undermining our traditional responses.”

Given this high recommendation, we simply could not miss the opportunity for our students to view this artist’s work.

I am very excited to be able to exhibit Laube’s work for others to enjoy. I would like to thank the many colleagues that have been instrumental in presenting this exhibition; Mary Laube for the chance of exhibiting her outstanding work, David Olivant for recommending Laube’s exhibition, Ian Etter for the insightful writing about Laube’s work, the College of the Arts, California State University, Stanislaus for the catalog design and Parks Printing for the printing this catalog. Much gratitude is also extended to the Instructionally Related Activates Program of California State University, Stanislaus, as well as anonymous donors for the funding of the exhibition and catalogue. Their support is greatly appreciated.

Dean De Cocker, Gallery Director California State University, Stanislaus

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Perfume, acrylic on panel, 12” x 9.5”, 2018

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M ar y Lau be

Casting Shadows A phosphorescent jewel gives off its glow and color in the dark and loses its beauty in the light of day. Were it not for the shadows, there would be no beauty.

— Jun’ichiro Tanizaki, In Praise of Shadows (1933) Historical metaphors for memory often refer to objects of containment. Storage units, filing cabinets, or even computer hard drives provide us an object-oriented anchor for grasping the elusiveness of memory. While memory is considered available, ordered, or inscribed, it is also quite slippery as it interacts with other components of our subjective experiences. Memory is a form of surrogacy where ideology, personal mythology, and collectively-built archetypes shape a complex and ever changing present. At the same time, the presence of memory depends on the absence of its origin. It is contingent on the passing of lived experience. While painting loss often feels like an impossible undertaking, the attempt to represent it is at the heart of my work.

For me, painting is a vehicle for contemplating the experience of memory. Clothing, boxes, braids of hair, textiles and tables are treated as portraits—vessels for the inscription of memory or surrogates for absent bodies. The objects I paint come from various sources including museum collections, personal artifacts and other objects related to the broader act of memorialization. Things that are worn or touched have an irreplaceable potency. They represent the inherent relationship between material culture and memory making. Physically inert, they become animated: performing as stand-ins for the human figure, uncannily hovering between the living and the non-living world. Shadow-like, these portraits point to the liminal space between memory and its origin.

Shadows are simultaneously predictable and ghostly. They are observable phenomena yet, are nothing but the absence of light. Like the low visibility of twilight, my paintings invite different modes of seeing.The paintings appear flattened yet physically retain a tactile and layered surface. Shadows cast by thick applications of paint sit beside illusions of shadow fabricated by gradations of color. Gold and umber pigments are smeared and crudely kneaded together, yet from a distance register as a tromp l’oeil wood veneer. Surface deviations that are buried beneath the outer skin of paint interrupt the rationale of the image, verifying its artificiality. The interaction between the visual image and the material reality of paint reflects a kind of transference between concrete and ethereal worlds, functioning as a metaphor for the entanglement of memory, imagination, and lived experience. Like Jun’ichiro Tanizaki’s jewel that requires a shadow to glow, painting is a dynamic medium that sustains difference.

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Shadow Box, acrylic on panel, 14” x 11”, 2018

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G lint

by Ian Etter

“These works merge personal iconography with collectively built archetypes to depict a mythologized reality comprised of both mundane experiences and mysterious rituals. Born from the everyday, these quiet paintings, while small in size, invoke monumental and other-worldly dimensions.”

-Mary Laube Working remotely with minimal supplies, Mary Laube began a series of watercolor sketches and collages during a residency in Wales in the summer of 2017. The attic studio, housed within a 200-year-old building, as well as the surrounding village served as a reservoir for Laube’s research. Architecture, weathered furnishings, imagery culled from bookshelves, and long strolls through nearby graveyards and gardens found representation within her works. These studies were brought back home to her studio in Knoxville, Tennessee where she began painting through a process of drawing, masking, and layering. The resultant images are flattened cutouts that lack the specificity of their mixed origins.

Tombstones become radiators, gardens inhabit interiors and the legs of a table entrap. Through the honing of form, familiar household objects resist a simple interpretation and speak of memory, loss, and the ethereal.

Executed prior to Laube’s time in Wales, the works comprising Glint investigate the theme of transformation. In Cormere, Laube only includes what is essential: A stoic radiator hovers above the floorboards and wall, fixed with a matching pair of rectangular vents. The viewer’s gaze circles a matrix of lines forming a mesh-like structure, without breaking past the picture plane. Absence of spatial depth keeps us on the painting’s surface. Embedded within the static, compressed perspective is a latent energy, capable of coalescing into three dimensions, like the closed pages of child’s pop-up book. The skewed viewpoint of Jacob’s Ladder is only notable in the horizontal wooden rungs: both wall and floor are reduced to fields of color and only hint towards an interior. Assuming the vantage point of a toddler, we are contained by the merging of the ladder’s component parts and shadows, preventing our gaze from moving beyond the object in any direction. Caught within the painting, we retrace the same paths, as though confined within an old memory or recurring dream.

The confrontational use of perspective and simplification of forms unify Laube’s oeuvre, prying the imagery from its commonplace surroundings and elevating it to a mystical play of light and color. The works are tactile, but somehow escape the gravity of the objects represented therein. We are trapped within the stark embellishment of form.The patterning of a paper window blind or legs of a table become retaining bars. Claustrophobic cropping, as seen in Narrow Gauge, withholds interpretable information, catching us in short laps of repetition.

Only in Stilled Clatter are we allowed respite. Past the familiar confines of a wooden structure and its shadow, a field of light emanates. What beckons us beyond this indiscernible space? An afterglow? Vestiges of a distant recollection? Or some tantalizingly distant, intangible place? *Originally published in Glint (2018), an artist book published and designed by Extended Play with support from Locate Arts, Seedspace, and the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation.

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Queen Min’s Hair, acrylic on panel, 9” x 12”, 2018

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Stuck Like a Mollusk to a Rock, acrylic on panel, 11.75” x 12”, 2018

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Hanbok, acrylic on panel, 12” x 9.5”, 2018

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Cascade, acrylic on panel, 12” x 9.5”, 2018

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Last Skin, acrylic on panel, 12” x 9.5”, 2017

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Narrow Gauge, acrylic on panel, 15.25” x 12”, 2017–18

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My Lunar Plexus, acrylic on panel, 12” x 12”, 2018

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Fermata, acrylic on panel, 12” x 12”, 2018

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The Wall Opened Noiselessly Before Me, acrylic on panel, 12” x 12”, 2018

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Seen and Gone, acrylic on panel, 17.5” x 12”, 2018

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Poncho, acrylic on panel, 12” x 12”, 2018

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Urn, acrylic on panel, 12” x 12”, 2018

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Cormere, acrylic on panel, 24” x 24”, 2016

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Jacob’s Ladder, acrylic on panel, 24” x 24”, 2017

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Pomp, acrylic on panel, 24” x 24”, 2016

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Throne, acrylic on panel, 24” x 24”, 2015

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Under the Milky Light of the Moon, acrylic and color pencil on paper, 22” x 30”, 2019

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She Wrapped Herself in the Horses Hide, acrylic and color pencil on paper, 22� x 30�, 2019

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Silk Worm Spun, acrylic and color pencil on paper, 22” x 30”, 2019

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Fed from the Mulberry Tree, acrylic and color pencil on paper, 22” x 30”, 2019

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M a r y L au b e

www.marylaube.com

EDUCATION M.F.A. The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, 2012 M.A. The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, 2011 B.F.A. Illinois State University, Normal, IL, 2009 ONE AND TWO-PERSON EXHIBITIONS 2018 Shout Chorus, Warp Whistle Project, Caplan Center for the Performing Arts, University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA

The Navigator, Warp Whistle Project, Caplan Center for the Performing Arts, University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA 2017 Flowers, Warp Whistle Project, Sculpture Gallery, University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA 2016 Off-Kilter/In Time, with April Bachtel; curated by The Fuel and Lumber Company Coop Gallery, Nashville, TN

Paper Planes, Whitdel Arts, Detroit, MI 2014 Roses and Rue, Old Brick, Iowa City, IA

Olio, Jan Brandt Gallery, Bloomington, IL 2013 Flight Into Egypt, curated by Mary F. Coats, The Times Club, Iowa City, IA,

Altars, Center for the Fine Arts, Knox College, Galesburg, IL 2012 Nothing Touched Can Die, with Danielle Kimzey; curated by Meredith Lynn Nemeth Art Center, Park Rapids, MN

Like a Snow-hill in the Air, Public Space One, Iowa City, IA SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2018 Rhythm and Rush, juried by Catherine Haggarty, Ground Floor Gallery, Nashville, TN

Frontiers, curated by Ian Etter, Spring Break Art Show, New York, NY

Nocturnal Suns, Warp Whistle Project, UT Downtown Gallery, The University of Tennessee Knoxville, Knoxville, TN 2017 The Flat File: Year Five, Tiger Strikes Asteroid New York, Brooklyn, NY

Great Lakes Drawing Biennial, juried by Claire Gilman, University Gallery, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, MI

Piecing it Together, curated by Georgia Erger, Hawn Gallery, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 2016 Signaling to the Cipher towards a Segway, Curated by David Jesse Penridge, Field Projects, New York, NY

Cherry Bounce, Curated by Callie Hietala and Eric Drummond Smith, William King Museum of Art, Abingdon, VA

Yellow Book, Warp Whistle Project, Czong Institute of Contemporary Art, Gimpo, South Korea (En)Gendered (In)Equity: The Gallery Tally Poster Project, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA

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2015 Next Big Thing, Museum of New Art, Troy, MI

Post Facto Future, Public Space One, Iowa City, IA

Biennial Faculty Exhibition, Cress Gallery, The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Chattanooga, TN

Hatchback 9, juried by Chido Johnson, Hatch Art, Hamtramck, MI

Observations and Collections, juried by Jenifer Kent, Clara Hatton Gallery, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO

Sensory Overload, Warp Whistle Project, Whitdel Arts, Detroit, MI 2014 Iowa Women’s Art Exhibition, Iowa State Capitol, Des Moines, IA

Reverb II, curated by Kenneth Hall and Mille Guldbeck, Fine Arts Center Galleries, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH

9/50 Summit, Atlanta Contemporary Art Center and Good Weather, Atlanta, GA Party Lines, Smart Clothes Gallery, New York, NY

Whimsy, Icon Gallery, curated by Ken Dubin, Fairfield, IA

Print and Multiples Fair, Open Space and Lease Agreement, Baltimore, MD

Winding on and through the lands, University Galleries, Illinois State University, Normal, IL,

35/17, Phyllis Weston, Cincinnati, OH*

Magenta, Warp Whistle Project, Niehoff Urban Design Center, Cincinnati, OH

Pixxxel, Warp Whistle Project, group exhibition, Boom Gallery, Cincinnati, OH

The Gallery Tally Poster Project,For Your Art Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 2013 Reverb: Recent Abstraction in Painting, curated by Kenneth Hall, The University of Northern Iowa Gallery of Art, Cedar Falls, IA

Incognito, group exhibition, Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, CA 2012 When I Was Your Age, The Times Club, Iowa City, IA

Warm, curated by Adam Farcus and Allison Yasukawa, Lease Agreement, Baltimore, MD

Lost and Found, Jan Brandt Gallery, Bloomington, IL

Bred and Fed, curated by Mary Grace Wright Shoot the Lobster (Martos Gallery) and BS Gallery Iowa City, IA

Dream Continuum, curated by Gina and Dustin Orlando, Circuit 12, Dallas, TX

R.E.S.P.E.C.T., curated by Susan White, Peter Paul Luce Gallery, Mount Vernon, IA 2010 Shift in Perception, Visual Arts Center, Sioux Falls, SD

Five Hundred and Thirty-One, curated by Douglas Degges, Marshall Arts, Memphis, TN 2009 Grinnell Artist Residency Exhibition, Art Factory, Grinnell, IA

IL National Museum of Women in the Arts 6th Annual Awards Exhibition, Gage Gallery, Roosevelt University, Chicago, IL *The Warp Whistle Project (Mary Laube + Paul Schuette) GRANTS / AWARDS / RESIDENCIES 2018 Kurka Award, University of Tennessee, Knoxville TN

Individual Award, Sustainable Arts Foundation, San Francisco, CA 2017 2nd Prize Award, Great Lakes Drawing Biennial, selected by Claire Gilman

Residency, Stiwdeo Maelor, Corris, Wales 2015 Fellowship/Residency, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Amherst, VA 2014 Residency, Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT

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2013 2011 2009

Project Grant, Iowa Arts Council, Des Moines, IA Fellowship/Residency, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Amherst, VA Mini-Grant, Iowa Arts Council, Des Moines, IA IL National Museum of Women in the Arts Annual Award Recipient, Chicago, IL Marshall Dulaney Pitcher Award, Illinois State University, Normal, IL Residency, Grin City Collective, Grinnell, IA

CITATIONS King, David. Rhythm and Rush. Nashville: Extended Play, 2018 Schuette, Paul (The Warp Whistle Project), “Noon Concert,” WWFM The Classical Network.

West Windsor, NJ: 89.7 WWFM, April 5, 2018.

King, David, Ian Etter, and Mary Laube. Glint. Nashville: Extended Play, 2018 “Studio Visit: Mary Laube,” Locate Arts, November 16, 2017 https://locatearts.org/the-focus/2017/studio-visit-mary-laube.

Georgia Erger. Piecing it Together. Dallas: Hawn Gallery, 2017 New York Flat File 2018. New York: Tiger Strikes Asteroid, 2017 Art Yellow Book 2, ed. Leejin Kim, 60. Gimpo: CICA Press, 2016 Sarah Sargent. “Mary Laube and Paul Schuette’s Collaborative Sound Paintings.” VCCA, July 23, 2015. http://vcca.blogspot.com/2015/07/mary-laube-and-paul-schuettes.html.

Jesse David Penridge. “Show #31: Signaling to ^ the Cipher ^ Towards a Segway.” Field Projects, May 5, 2015. http://www.fieldprojectsgallery.com/show-31 “BSDA Artist Interview: Mary Laube.” Interview by Kate Singleton. Art Hound, December 9, 2014 https://arthound.com/2014/12/bsda-artist-interview-mary-laube/ James Mcanally. “The 9/50 Summit at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center.” Temporary Art Review, July 8, 2014 http://temporaryartreview.com/the-950-summit-at-the-atlanta-contemporary-art-center/.

“Mary Laube.” Interview by David Linneweh. Studio Break, April 17, 2014. Audio, 45:14 http://studiobreak.com/mary-laube/.

Brian Prugh. “Mary Laube at the Times Club in Prairie Lights.” Iowa City Arts Review, January 11, 2014 https://issuu.com/brianprugh/docs/icar_v2-2 Mary F. Coats. The Flight Into Egypt. Iowa City: Times Club Editions, 2013 Kenneth Hall. REVERB: Recent Abstraction in Painting. Cedar Falls: The UNI Gallery of Art, 2013.

Adriane Little. “Absence.” Gallery Temenos, October 2012 New American Paintings 101, ed. Steven T. Zevitas, 94-7. Boston: The Open Studios Press, 2012.

“Like a Snow-hill in the Air.” Interview by John Englebrecht. Public Space One, You Tube, February 14, 2012. Video, 14:51 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMxjQjtQgiA Studio Visit Magazine vol 14, 116. Boston: The Open Studios Press, 2011 Juxtapoz. “Practical Joy by Mary Laube.” January 8, 2012 Andrew Bartels. “Mary Laube.” The Monarch Review, October 4, 2011 http://www.themonarchreview.org/mary-laube/ New American Paintings 87, ed. Steven T. Zevitas, 60-3. Boston: The Open Studios Press, 2010

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PUBLICATIONS AS AUTHOR “Museum Misalignments.” Kapsula Magazine, March 2015 “Resignation II.” Periphery, 2014.

Blurred Boundaries: Sue Hettmanspberger, Iowa City: Times Club Editions, 2013 When I Was Your Age. Iowa City: Times Club Editions, 2012 New Day: Michael Wille. Iowa City: Times Club Editions, 2012.

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES 2019 Juror, Bump, University of North Carolina Asheville, Asheville, NC 2016 Visiting Artist, Kent State University, Kent, OH 2015 Fanoon Visiting Artist, Virginia Commonwealth University Qatar, Doha, Qatar 2014 Visiting Artist, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, MI

Visiting Artist, Mount Mercy University, Cedar Rapids, IA 2013 Visiting Critic, The University of Iowa (Sue Hettmanspberger), Iowa City, IA

Visiting Artist, Knox College, Galesburg, IL 2012 Gallery talk, Nemeth Art Center, Park Rapids, MN

Visiting Artist, The University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA

Visiting Critic, The University of Iowa (Matt Bollinger), Iowa City, IA 2010 Gallery Talk, Washington Pavilion: Visual Arts Center, Sioux Falls, SD ACADEMIC POSITIONS 2017– Assistant Professor, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 2017 Adjunct Instructor, Lake Erie College, Painesville, OH 2015–16 Lecturer, The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Chattanooga, TN 2013–14 Adjunct Assistant Professor, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA

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Ackn ow le dge m en ts California State University, Stanislaus

Dr. Ellen Junn, President

Dr. Kimberly Greer, Provost/Vice President of Academic Affairs

Dr. James A. Tuedio, Dean, College of the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

Depar tment of Ar t

Dr. Carmen Robbin, Chair, Professor

Dean De Cocker, Professor

Martin Azevedo, Assistant Professor

Tricia Cooper, Lecturer

James Deitz, Lecturer

Daniel Edwards, Associate Professor

Jessica Gomula-Kruzic, Professor

Daniel Heskamp, Lecturer

Chad Hunter, Lecturer

David Olivant, Professor

Patrica Eshagh, Lecturer

Ellen Roehne, Lecturer

Dr. Staci Scheiwiller, Associate Professor

Susan Stephenson, Assistant Professor

Jake Weigel, Assistant Professor

Meg Broderick, Administrative Support Assistant II

Andrew Cain, Instructional Technician I

Jon Kithcart, Equipment Technician II

Stan State Ar t Space

Dean De Cocker, Director

Megan Hennes, Gallery Assistant

School of the Ar ts

Brad Peatross, Graphic Specialist II

Special Thanks Special thanks to California State University, Stanislaus for the invitation, the University of Tennessee Knoxville for

their continued support, and to my family, Jon and Jacob for their love and encouragement.

Mary Laube - Casting Shadows March 4–30, 2019 | Stan State Art Space, California State University, Stanislaus | 226 N. First St., Turlock, CA 95380 300 copies printed. Copyright © 2019 California State University, Stanislaus • ISBN: 978-1-940753-41-6 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written permission of the publisher.

This exhibition and catalog have been funded by Associated Students Instructionally Related Activities, California State University, Stanislaus.

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