Rachel Denny

Rachel Denny's work is an exploration of the seductive beauty of our natural world and the imprint that human intervention has made on its flora and fauna. Denny is attracted by the exuberance of nature in urban and unexpected places. “A deer in an urban backyard, a family of Peregrine falcons at my neighborhood park, a coyote skirting a parking lot,” she says, “These all become a moment of wonder as they shake us out of our daily routines." Denny works in a variety of materials—wood, plaster, resin, wool, found objects—to name a few. She is interested in the potential of her materials and how they can be manipulated in unexpected ways. “I am inspired by the elegant forms found in the natural world and the time honored action of trying to depict these forms in a relevant and interesting way that is an homage to this beauty and wonder." Denny is best known for her “Domestic Trophies” work—deer heads covered in cozy cashmere cable knit woolens and the like. She has shown in galleries nationwide for over 10 years, and her work will be shown at The Ohio Museum of Craft and the Winston-Wachter gallery in Seattle in the coming year..

Joana Vasconcelos

 

http://www.joanavasconcelos.com/ 

Born in Paris in 1971.  Lives and works in Lisbon.  

Artist Statement

The site-specific interventions in the public art domain assume special relevance in the artist's work.  Some of Joana Vasconcelos' most important public art interventions are: La Theiere, Le Royal Monceau, Paris (2010); Sr.Vinho, Mercado Municipal de Torres Vedras, Torres Vedras (2010); Jardim Bordallo Pinheiro, Jadim do Museu da Cidade, Lisbon (2008); Vitrine, Rua do Alecrim, no. 12, Lisbon (2008); Varina, Ponte D. Luis I, Porto (2008); The Jewel of the Tagus, Tower of Belem, Lisbon (2008); Donzela, Castelo de Santa Maria da Feira, Santa Maria da Feira (2007); Cactus, Forum Almada, Almada (2002).

The nature of Joana Vasconcelos' creative process is based on the appropriation, decontectualisation and subversion of pre-existent objects and everyday realities.  Sculptures and installations, which are revealing of an acute sense of scale and mastery of colour, as well as the recourse to performances and video or photographic records, all combine in the materialization of concepts which challenge the pre-arranged routines of the quotidian.  Starting out from ingenious operations of displacement, a reminiscence of the Ready-Made and the grammars of Nouveau Realisme and Pop, the artist offers us a complicit vision, but one which is at the same time critical of contemporary society and several features which serve the enunciations of collective identity, especially those that concern the status of women, class distinction or national identity.  From this process there derives a speech which is attentive to comtemporary idiosyncrasies, where the usual dichotomies of hand-crafted/industrial, private/public, tradition/modernity and popular culture/erudite culture are imbued with affinities that are apt to renovate the usual fluxes of signification which are characteristics of contemporaneity.

Lacy Jane Roberts

http://www.laceyjaneroberts.com/

 

b. 1980 in Royal Oak, Michigan, USA.

“My current work merges craft with objects of violence and control to examine large structures of power and how they might be interrupted by ways of making that are often labelled as gendered, amateur and low.  By hand-weaving razor wire fences that have been ensconced with yarn knitted on children’s toy knitting machines and morphing seminal craft tools like spinning wheels into cyborg like creatures, notions of what it means to ‘master’ (one’s tools) are thrown into question.  To ‘master’ is to wield power over others, but to ‘master’ in the context of craft is to possess a self-sufficient creative agency over materials and tools.”    

Catherine Hearse

http://www.leggegallery.com/HEARSE/Hearse2.html

Emily Bartletta

http://emilybarletta.com/home.html

American based artist who obtained a B.F.A. in Fibre Arts from The Maryland Institute College of Art 2003

Artist's Statement

 

My art began as a way to filter pain out of my body through my hands. The tedious and meditative processes of crochet and embroidery helped me to be mindful and present while carrying on. Since then each day has become a project in counting the hours and my artwork has become a record for the passage of time and events that occurred therein.
The repetitive gestures, marks, and shape building techniques accumulated and combined in mass create larger works. However I try to focus on the individual movement as it is happening and not plan what a piece will look like in the end. The materials have a way they want to naturally move and grow. It is futile to try and work against them by planning. I view each object I make as a physical container instilled with the memories and experiences that occurred while it was being made. Through my art I create imaginary machines that organically grow and pattern to reference flesh, blood, muscles, cells, plants, topography, molds, and diseases.
These artworks attempt to evoke emotions relating to pain, love, loneliness, and endurance. They attempt to dislodge and find comfort in the things you cannot recover from; the things that are waiting in the dark when the quiet nighttime comes rushing in.