untitled 2.0 a gallery at the corner of 6th & g street, grants pass, oregon
untitled 2.0
[disambiguation] impolite conversation archaeology & acquisitions
untitled 2.0
a gallery at the corner of 6th & g street
119 se 6th street, grants pass, or 97526 dewayne thomas lumpkin 541.761.9978 untitled2gallery.com copyright Š 2017 untitled 2.0 all rights reserved. no portion of this work may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission of the publisher this catalogue is published in conjunction with the untitled 2.0 exhibitions: archaeology & acquisitions {november 4-29, 2016}, disambiguation {october 6-29, 2017} & impolite conversation {november 3-26, 2017} the exhibitions and catalogue represent artwork by: paul james cunningham, tom glassman, claudia cilloniz marchini, allen smith, paul silas trapp, bee bantug, stephanie lee, sue hadden, jessica flottum, kelly forbush, HURT, duane megyesi, untitled 2.0 collective all installation images were photographed by nikita lee and duane megyesi. some images were generously provided by individual artists and are used by permission for purposes of this catalogue and its digital version exclusively. printed by pixartprinting usa incorporated 275 wyman street - waltham ma 02451 855.932.7498 pixartprinting.com technical support provided by audrey isbell - ava virtual assistance 1867 williams hwy - suite #207 - grants pass, or 97527 541.244.2606 avapowerup.com catalogue design by duane megyesi on behalf of untitled 2.0 119 se 6th street, grants pass, or 97526 541.761.9978 untitled2gallery.com
artists reveal their intent by clearing ambiguity at the outset of a creative venture. they establish a cause to align their actions and goals. eventually, they develop a construct by which success can be evaluated. {a}
without clarity of purpose, endeavors are doomed to a false sense of illusory success.
{b}
the id [our mind’s primitive core] instinctively labors beyond a threshold of mediocrity.
{c}
galleries provide a vehicle through which art is consumed and appreciated.
this collaborative process rewards the artist and the gallery. the community where the art is created and exhibited is enriched. a psychological & social alchemical process occurs:
Ă˜
[disambiguation]
[allen smith]
My paintings are inspired by what I can best describe (in words) as the singular fleeting experience of ontological revelation - the sheer sublime wonder at the existence of our being - as well as the richly nuanced depths of our human spirit. Where is the limit of our human potential for understanding? This boundary is very important to me; resulting implications include a full spectrum of arrogance and humility in our human race.
Noumenon 14: Icons
I am at peace with paradox and wonder.
I often plan my paintings multiple steps ahead - 3, 4, or more - but reconsider my plan after each action and revise if necessary. I take pride in being highly sensitive and intimately responsive to the surfaces of my paintings. I consider the character of each individual mark and carefully amplify it in concert with others, allowing them opportunities to influence successive actions and ultimately, the finished painting. The countless smaller parts support the integrity of the whole, the totality, which must speak for itself in an instant.
The surfaces of my paintings reveal their history like geography, and I intend them to. The marks of paint sit in generations: some old and some young; some fresh, sharp, and ambitious; some dull, sloppy, and in decay; they rest frozen in time and space in relationship to one another. Some elements that were once dominant become faded, buried under dusty layers of glazes. Other elements having not yet fully materialized are left in a state of incompletion. Each act in my painting process is an identity claim in the journey to completion, simultaneously advancing toward finality and eliminating an infinite number of potentialities.
Noumenon (n. origins in Kantian philosophy): an object or event outside the detection of the senses; itself inaccessible to experience, to which a phenomenon is referred for the basis of its sense content.
Clockwise from left: Transient Noumenal Human Sketch Noumenon 15: Incomplete Understanding Incomplete Understanding detail
Horizontal bands dominate the majority of my work. To me, the horizontal is voluntarily submissive, stable, and foundational for anything vertical to exist; it is of eternal character, incorruptibly calm, and of supreme power in contrast to the transience and defiant angst of verticals. I employ tape to make the long horizontal lines. They are not perfectly symmetrical and occasionally include disruptions in pattern.
The oil paints are mixed with a variety of mediums and solvents to achieve different sheens. Mostly, the paint is applied with brushes, but occasionally I will use scrapers and palette knives, too, and sandpaper to remove layers and reveal peaks from buried marks.
Clockwise from bottom left: Noumenon 12: Brookings Noumenal Study: Installation Noumenal Landscape: Angel Island Installation detail Noumenal Study: Installation detail Noumenal Study: Installation
Clockwise from top: [disambiguation] installation Soundscape accompaniment Angel Island detail Incomplete Understanding detail Disambiguation detail Noumenon 12: Brookings detail
I glaze the entire surface of my paintings multiple times throughout the course of working by pouring viscous paint mixtures from jars onto the canvas and then wiping it with old shirts or rags, carefully manipulating the pigments into crevices and unifying the overall surface area. Oftentimes, multiple “color bands� are featured.
These can be painted over the top layers or tape can be removed to reveal a color band from underneath. I use these techniques in combination and to various degrees of complexity in seeking to create dialogues: figure and ground; object and background; surface and depth; universal and particular; time and space; appearance and truth; identity and environment.
Sometimes a prominent color band gets buried in glazes and never resurfaces.
In speaking to these themes, my paintings act as a metaphor for our individual human narratives and our collective existence.
[paul silas trapp]
My art comes from two main interests: 1) the experience of direct observational awareness, and 2) the structure of places that resonate within us as people; private, sacred, imaginative or otherwise. I love painting from life. I make images of interior and exterior places, open doorways, windows, land and seascapes. My paintings initially come from direct observation, however, my paintings are not purely personal records. They are not even painted in a highly representational manner. This is because my concern is for the extraordinary ways in which we perceptually experience places and objects.
Conscious Observational Awareness: I saw a tree covered in red leaves one autumn day. From where I stood, I could partially see through the leaves to the tree’s interior. What I saw made me stop. The interior of the tree appeared to be moving while the exterior remained stationary. My memory told me that trees cannot do that. As I got closer, I saw a flock of birds inside the tree moving but silent. For a few moments, before I saw the birds, my sight defied my expectations and I became newly aware of the tree. My awareness was heightened by this abnormal experience.
What created the situation was the combination of a real familiar object (the tree) and an unfamiliar visual phenomenon (the strange internal movement). I was unable to comfortably categorize my experience because I had never previously encountered it. Seeing the tree in this new way, I became aware of my consciousness sorting out what I was seeing. My perception was jarred out of passivity and activated to resolve the conflict. In my paintings I use a similar combination of familiar and unfamiliar elements as a visual strategy to activate the viewer’s perception.
Clockwise from left: Nasqually Reach Dr. Where? Astoria 2 Willamette Valley Window (split) Grants Pass
Left to right (opposite): [disambiguation installation] Door Shadow 2
Clockwise from left: Quarry Square Horizon Installation detail Cannon Beach Astoria 2
I depict what my eyes see - and - I also paint spacial anomalies that do not occur in reality. I use representational space to correspond with our common experience of the three-dimensional world. I also use planar space to contradict representational space. Planar space asserts flat shapes on the picture’s surface along with “impossible” illusions of space that can’t be logically resolved with representational space. I create visual conflict to pull my viewers out of their common experience of objects.
Embedding spacial anomalies in my paintings cues the viewer to the true content of my work: perception, not subject matter. I create unexpected visual experiences for discovering something new within something familiar, and introduce viewers to the act of seeing on a conscious level.
Direct Observation As viewers, we can break through our passive surface-level experience of an object or place with active visual observation. Bertrand Russell discusses the difference between our understanding of what an object is and what it looks like when he writes about his experience of looking at a table: Although I believe that the table is ‘really’ of the same colour all over, the parts that reflect the light look much brighter than other parts, and some parts look white because of reflected light. I know if I move, the parts that reflect the light will be different - the apparent distribution of colours on the table will change. It follows that if several people are looking at the table at the same moment, no two of them will see exactly the same distribution of colours, because no two can see it from exactly the same point of view, and any change in the point of view makes some change in the way the light is reflected.
The sunlight and Russell’s perspective caused perceptual changes. He put an emphasis on discovering the “reality” of the table; he emphasized the discovery of the “true” table. I have the opposite concerns. Russell explained how the appearance of the table changed as he moved around it. Subsequently, his thoughts about the table changed. He became open to active observation and an examination of his perceptions. He examined himself examining the table. He became suspended between the table and himself, aware of his own consciousness. I am less interested in the “reality” of the table and focus on the “reality” of my experience as revealed by the changing appearances of the table. Engaging in active observation can inform who we are, how we see and what we think.
For most practical purposes these differences are unimportant, but to the painter they are all-important: the painter has to unlearn the habit of thinking things seem to have the colour which common sense says they ‘really’ have, and to learn the habit of seeing things as they appear. Here we have already the beginning of one of the distinctions that cause most trouble in philosophy--the distinction between ‘appearance’ and ‘reality’, between what things seem to be and what they are.
[paul james cunningham]
End of Day Paintings, an aleatoric collection of thoughts about displacement, looking like drab birds of passage sitting out an adverse wind. Say not the struggle, all becomes clear by the first glimmer of dawn.
Clockwise from top: Anvil no. 1 Anvil no. 2 Shadow Compostion no. 2 detail (opposite)
Clockwise from left: [disambiguation] installation (3) End of Day Composition no. 2 End of Day Composition no. 1
Top to bottom: Shadow Composition no. 2 Installation detail Shadow Composition no.1
[claudia cilloniz marchini]
The two pieces in this exhibit are studies for an exhibition titled “i-mind.” i-mind will be a solo show in October 2018. The titles of these pieces are: “Theory Triangulation” and “Dinosaur Cloud.” Both are mixed media.
About i-mind i-mind, the title of the 2018 exhibit, suggests a twofold interpretation: As in mind-asthought and mind-as caring. For instance, with technology, knowledge sharing seems to be amplified, and storage cloud information may enable global sharing and understanding. On the other hand, intellect may be parallel to a cloud for being intangible, whereas a cloud in the sky has electric energy analogous to thought. The exhibit “i-mind” in October 2018 will be an attempt to find the patterns between the elements of thought, cloud energy, cloud knowledge sharing, and the dichotomy inferred in the word mind.
Dinosaur Cloud Dinosaur Cloud is a mixed media piece using meteorite, slate, oils and computer chips.
Clockwise from right: Installation detail [disambiguation] installation Dinosaur Cloud
Theory Triangulation Theory Triangulation is a mixed media piece that depicts a research method for data validation from two or more sources of the same phenomenon. This piece is raw and ongoing.
For now, the phenomenon is a meteorite purposely placed outside of a computer screen. The purpose is to depict the object in real time. The three cloud-head individuals are each making a different observation. The use of three individuals is based on the sexagesimal system, the basic math system that began with counting limbs.
In this case, the fingers, which are divided in 3 parts each. Also, the positioning of the heads makes a triangle. The wires suggest brain wave communication for cloud knowledge. As mentioned, this piece is still raw and the final piece will be exhibited in October 2018.
Clockwise from top left: Theory Triangulation Theory Triangulation detail (4)
[tom glassman] Officially: I have been shooting with a camera for hundreds of years. I attribute my ability “to see” to my advertising background. As a former creative director at several ad agencies I routinely look for the unusual. My first love is still black and white photography, as evidenced by many of the images routinely included in my shows and the monochromatic look of many of my color photographs. My wife, Linda, gets most of the credit for my photography career. She was the one who first encouraged me to pursue it, and over the years, allowed me to abandon her on many of our trips so I could go off and take pictures (while she went shopping). She also went without diamonds and furs so I could purchase a nice lens now and then.
*The unofficial methodology for creating art is successful only 86% of the time. Plagiarism has an 80% success rate.
As many people comment on my brilliant colors, unusual graphic patterns, and striking minimalist approach, it is worth noting that “…what you see is what was really there and what I saw when I took the photograph.” I do help capture the intense colors by using a polarizer filter and saturated films. Unofficially*: As I recall, the creative process is that you usually ingest the drugs then wake up a week or so later in a foreign country with a tattoo and hopefully a nice piece of art to show for your creative journey. “They” say that the accompanying rash and paternity suit are all part of the price you pay for the process.
Knot Hole
Everything is done in the camera. And although the images you see here were produced with a computer and a professional graphics printer, none of the images were manipulated in any way with any computer imaging software.
Clockwise from top left: Birch Swirl Balcony Silhouette detail 4 Oil Tanks and Catwalks Italy Shadow
Clockwise from top left: Lantern Shadow Open Barn Doors Picket Fence and Saw Teeth [disambiguation] installation Oil Tank Stairs
[duane megyesi]
When I began photography, I wanted to focus solely on people. Portraits, in my opinion were the most captivating images. The lines on a face, the curve of an arm - we could find ways to tell decades of stories in one image, with one body.
Clockwise from top: Schism Schism detail
In perfecting the process of capturing those tales, my thoughts on the art form matured and found reality in the abstract concepts surrounding the medium. The most striking images, the ones that haunt you, that really entrench themselves in our minds, aren’t the ones that tell you that the subject is significant. They’re the ones that make you feel as though you’re a part of the story itself.
Under the Weeping Sun
The same idea can be realized outside of humanity through artistic projection. When there’s no person to connect with, the focus is turned backwards toward the photographer. Capturing inanimate objects, landscapes, and weather patterns with that same projected love or tension, widens the photographer’s perspective and opens up an emotional conversation usually reserved for human beings.
My work is a doorway into the artist’s mind; stand at its threshold and glimpse a singular vision of the world. Discover the reasons I have fallen in love with photographing the details of nature. Feel the tension I capture through the uninviting shades of industry, and the stories whispered by the tiniest of things we experience every day, but never see.
Clockwise from left: Convergence detail Convergence [disambiguation] installation
[untitled 2.0 collective]
The objects are familiar - often nostalgic. They each hold meaning. A third dimension is conjured in the space where the objects are spliced together - not unlike the frames of a motion picture stitched in time to tell a story. The titles prompt consideration of the hybrid objects and a narrative is launched.
Jacques Ellul is the author of The Technological Society, first published in 1954. The Internet Archives explains the seminal work as follows: This is undoubtedly one of the most important books of the twentieth century, and if you accept its thesis you won’t be able to look at the political milieu in the same way ever again. (If you agree with it and it doesn’t change the way you look at things, you haven’t grasped its importance.)
Most political theorists take ideology to be a central point from which “real world” consequences emanate. In other words, a Communist or libertarian ideology in practical use will produce a particular type society and individual divorced from the actual technical workings of the society. Liberals and conservatives both speak of things in such a manner as if ideology is the prima facie cause of existence - but as Ellul shows in painstaking detail, this is wrong. What almost everyone fails to grasp is the pernicious effect of technique (and its offspring, technology) on modern man.
From left: harmonic convergence [bandcamp] detail, fait accompli [domestic drone surveillance]
This is not an optimistic book. Given that the nature of technique is one of a universal leveling of human cultures, needs, and desires (replacing real needs with false ones and the neighborhood restaurant with McDonalds), Ellul is certainly pessimistic. He does not propose any remedies for the Skinnerist nightmares of technique somehow leading to a Golden Age of humanity, where people will enjoy maximal freedom coupled with minimal want:
“...we are struck by the incredible naivete of these scientists... they claim they will be in a position to develop certain collective desires, to constitute certain homogeneous social units out of aggregates of individuals, to forbid men to raise their children, and even to persuade them to renounce having any... at the same time, they speak of assuring the triumph of freedom and of the necessity of avoiding dictatorship... they seem incapable of grasping the contradiction involved, or of understanding that what they are proposing.” (p. 434)*.
Credit: https://archive.org/details/JacquesEllulTheTechnologicalSociety
Clockwise from top left: harmonic convergence [bandcamp] narcissism ≠anxiety [selfie] resolution d.o.a. [abetting warrantless domestic surveillance] wake up call [eavesdropping]
Down: harmonic convergence [bandcamp] detail harmonic convergence [bandcamp] abstract: polybacterial human disease [the ills of social networking]
Untitled 2.0 Collective is an anonymous group of Rogue Valley artists working collaboratively to create art objects. They share materials, ideas, skills and critical analysis. The goal of these artists - working collectively - is to produce provocative pieces that stimulate thought, ignite conversation and encourage the acquisition of art.
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paul james cunningham
Clockwise from right: Time Travelers Frolic Frolic II Light Unexpected Rogue in the Morning
bee bantug
opposite: saddle up (top) 38”h x 60”w mixed media with collage cryin’ time again (bottom) 55”h x 37”w mixed media with found objects
“thoughts not owned the apprentice (right) images but borrowed 45”h x 19”w mixed media with found objects from soup lines of cosmic porridge the deep wounds carved from chaos images of spirit colliding with matter”
Left to right: dear landlord 65”h x 45”w mixed media with found objects compression of time 37”h x 27”w re-purposed poster with collage
e’ bender-webb
Is Under Oath “...Long, Strange, thoroughly American Lineage�
Post-Apocalyptic Preservation Society
(opposite): Google Gods, Prophets, Saints & Sinners The Downside of Aspirational Living
untitled 2.0 collective
Left: Color Cross 2017 acrylic on canvas 22” x 36.5” (w x h) Right: In God We Trust 2017 acrylic, US currency, & petroleum on canvas 22.5” x 20.25” (w x h)
allen smith
Claudia Cilloniz Marchini Portrait paintings: 12 in x 12 in Oil and Dorlands wax on marble 2003-2005 Narratives: Written by African American Slaves From book Slave Testimony (Blassingame, 1977) Portraits book: Paintings for Painters by Painter (Marchini, 2016)
claudia cilloniz marchini
Dangerous impolitic, late-night thoughts carelessly committed to paper … while confident in the belief that they will never see the light of day so I will never have to go into hiding or leave town…by a devout, multi-faith, recovering agnostic (except when in a foxhole). More specifically, when I first took pen to parchment as a first-year electrolyte at an Avian Seminary before an outbreak of bird flu turned one of the lay brothers into a lorikeet and we had to close our doors…I felt sure these writings would remain forever hidden at the bottom of the bird cage of my stuffed parrot (formerly alive and excessively and annoyingly talkative)… never dreaming that a heated discussion over the placement of glitter on one of our seminary’s famous decorative ornamental combination garden bird baths and gazing balls would lead to the incriminating papers’ disappearance from the birdcage and subsequent very public reappearance in a catalogue of one of the world’s major art galleries. Although there is scant truth to the critical acclaim these writings are said to have received to date, the rumors about the villagers storming the doublewide manor house with pitchforks and torches is lamentably accurate. Left: Church Door Golden OR; Right: Church Door MT with Cross
tom glassman
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: A Celebration of Bullying and Toadyism and Sucking Up to Management Think about it: Here’s a Christmas song for children that celebrates, encourages, and codifies a pattern of bullying – with absolutely no mention of a penalty or punishment for Above left to right: Holiday Trailer those who engage in it: Rainy Car Windshield “All of the other reindeer used to laugh and call him names. They never let poor Our Lady of Prompt Succor Rudolph join in any reindeer games.” So what changes Rudolph’s dismal life as a victim for the better? Right: When Rudolph is singled out for his disability by top management for an important Snow Drift with Footprints assignment (guiding the sleigh on a foggy night), that’s when the bullying by those Below left to right: around him suddenly stops… Santa Off Season “Then all the reindeer loved him…” God or Deity (aka The King & the Duke) And they were unashamedly sycophantic towards him: Santa Fe Sled “And they shouted out with glee, / you’ll go down in history.” Conclusion: This is a song that teaches inappropriate behavior and workplace skills for children and this is yet another reason why we should declare war on Christmas.
New works in the works: Earth 1-A A parallel universe in which Adam and Eve do not eat the forbidden apple in the Garden of Eden so they do not “know” each other, do not have kids, are not expelled from the earthly paradise, and are the only two people on earth – except for the snake, which hasn’t been made to crawl on its belly yet since it hasn’t done anything evil yet! Sample dialog: Adam, “Hey.” Eve, “Hey.” Snake, “Hey. How ‘bout them apples?” Adam, “Another day in paradise.” Eve, “Yup. Just like yesterday.” Snake: “And the day before that.” And so on…
My ultra latest newest idea for a TV series: Lesbian Kung Fu Trucker Guardian Angels Essentially the show is about a pair of scantilyclad lesbian guardian angel truck drivers who crisscross the country stopping at truck stops and biker bars and solving problems of faith and human failing with their lightningquick fists and plunging cleavage while quoting scripture, the 2nd amendment, and conservative family values. Of course they only help people who vote conservative republican (no evil liberal democrats worth saving here) and after a couple of years’ worth of successfully saving souls on the highest rated TV show on conservative cable channels, God rewards their good work by making them heterosexual. The End... Amen
Biblical Theory – Research & Conclusions: Why Moses Parted The Red Sea Pretty obvious no-brainer stuff here: When you’re fleeing Egypt with the entire Israelite population, you’re bound to have thousands of complete family groups within that particular mobile demographic – including Jewish grandmothers who are fairly strict about anyone (including strangers) not going swimming in the water for at least a full hour after eating. And since Jews are always eating…even while fleeing pursuing Egyptians…and therefore couldn’t ever even get their feet wet in the waters of the Red Sea for at least an hour after eating, Moses had to part The Red Sea so they could make a timely escape on dry land without having to wait the requisite hour before going into the water and swimming to freedom.
Left to right: Servant Lord’s Supper Emmaus
paul silas trapp
Manifest
duane megyesi
chromosome Xq28 - antique fencing masks & pheasant wings
a group exhibit of intriguing objects, edgy and obsessive collections and assembled art pieces. these works were influenced by & pay homage to the readymades of marcel duchamp, joseph cornell’s shadowboxes, louise nevelson’s constructions & jasper johns’ assemblages.
the collective process: 1) amass materials. 2) apply a critical eye. 3) edit rigorously. 4) maintain ironic attitude. 5) end with a thought provoking, wistful title.
archaeology & acquisitions
Clockwise from bottom left: Test Tube Babies Archaeology & Acquistions installation Variegated Test Tube Babies detail
Exhibit #1: “William, Ron, David, Barry, Dominick, Paul, Tom, Robert, Leon, Jeff, Rick, Janet, Jean, Andrew, Steven, Joe, Ben, John, Rollin, Scott, Dan, Maria, Dick, Michelle, Richard, Schmidt, Charles, Louis, Dennis, Edward, Stephen, Katherine, Diane� (aka test tube babies). Vintage Photographs, Pyrex Test Tubes and Aluminum Clothespins demonstrate the power of objects formed exclusively from personal, private collections.
Exhibit #3: “Death Mask/Mad Cow,” “Death Mask/Ecoli,” and “Death Mask/Ebola” are collaborations with darte, an artist from Ashland, Oregon. Jessica Flottum manipulated paintings of viruses by darte through color xeroxing them on acetate and placing on her own “found photographs” for the titular “Death Masks.”
Exhibit #2: “Sticks & Stones.” Natural elements gathered on nature walks...particularly treks to waterfalls. Some of the sticks were found submerged at the base of the waterfalls which accounts for their appearance – not unlike driftwood, yet 100 miles from the nearest seashore. Stones were picked up along the path. The juxtaposition of found natural objects and the 1930’s curio cabinet they are placed in forms a hauntingly beautiful testament to what we remember, what we treasure, what we collect...and why. Jessica Flottum claims she is not an “artist,” just a collector. Her collections are intriguing, but what she does with them leaves her defenseless when arguing against the label “artist.” If you create art - and a cursory glance at her completed pieces demonstrates that truth - what are you? Where do Flottum’s assemblages belong? An antique mall? No. A flea market? No. A thrift shop? No. Etsy? eBay? Ruby Lane? No. No. No. They belong in an art gallery. Does that make her an “artist?” Cases in Point follow as Evidentiary Exhibits.
Impulse. Synonymous with inspiration and catalyst.
When forming a piece of art, it’s about the next right step. Never the whole picture from the outset.
stephan
ie lee
Understanding how the materials behave and combining that understanding with the mystery of impulse is where the joy in process is for me.
When I approach the materials I have at hand with the desire to merge them from a perspective of controlling the outcome, it’s a rare thing when the work turns out the way I hoped it would. I have to leave breathing space for impulse. I have to be willing to make a mark or work a color in and then to pause just long enough to notice what new idea has come in or what to do next. Impulse is the element of mystery that cannot be contrived and, when honored, creates the invitation for a deeper connection to process and result.
The Society of Pretty Maidens Turned Eager Crones
neddah eus
Bad Dreams Mirror Without bones we are nothing. Bones are the structure that holds us up, makes us who we are, the essential strength to our bodies.
Finding bones is like seeing into the hidden world which makes us what we are. Its like looking at what is left. Its knowing a being once surrounded the bleached shape that now lies on the forest floor.
“Bad Dreams� mirror is a reminder of what lies beneath, our inner structure, our most wonderful skeletal system and the fact that underneath we are all pretty much the same.
kelly forbush Kelly Forbush has a way of lightening things up. Her quirky vision churns out crowd-pleasers... with a subversive edge. The familiar objects she uses in her art are gathered from kitchen cupboards, toy boxes and dusty old offices. Once they’re dissected, blended and reassembled, a tentatively darker and dystopian view of suburbia emerges. Forbush practices a comedic deconstruction of childhood relics and conjures viewers’ memories by selecting toys and games as her medium. The final assemblages venture beyond the curbside banality of rural America and depict the life that lingers behind the curtains.
Her “dolls” are fun and a tad bit freaky. Dollhouse fragments are substituted for blank canvases and prove to be intriguing exercises in “autopsies of artifacts.” Sculptures and wall pieces by Forbush prove apt inclusions for a virtual time capsule of wishful thinking for the new millennium. She was one of the first artists we turned to for an examination of obsessive collections and what comes from them. The time travel aspect of Kelly Forbush’s objects and outcomes put her work in the bullseye of our curatorial focus for “Archaeology & Acquisitions.”
Left to right: Airstream Campera Neighborhood Watch Conceived in a Vacuum
Clockwise from top left: Pegasus Marlboro Man Napoleon the Cat
untitled 2.0 collective
Left to right: Airhead Bipolar (top) The Grudge Family The Grudge Family details (below)
Clockwise from top: Ambidextrous [Hokey Pokey] Behold Roadkill
not suitable for human consumption
ten of each of the following: gold-rimmed china, fake food, placeholders & reports from database of racial slurs - november, 2016
55 Windsors untitled 2.0 collective/wallace nutting