December 10, 2011- January 4, 2012
Opening reception Saturday December 10th, 6-10pm
Room 1:
Alex Podesta
I vs. I (Tanner Stage II)
On December 10th , Alex Podesta opens I vs. I (Tanner Stage II), a show of recent pieces, at The Front, St. Claude Ave, New Orleans. The title of this show is a reference to a medical scale that correlates social development and the growth of external physical markers.
In all of my recent work I have culled the rich fantasies, daydreams, misconceptions and experiences of childhood and re-contextualized them through the filters of adulthood, experience and education. This effort has been made in an attempt to plumb the depths of the creative and comprehensive naiveté of youth; to illustrate, in engaging and serio-comic ways, the role of fantasy, "othering" and conflict in nascent self-awareness; and, through the time honored tradition of solipsistic navel gazing, to pick gently at the loose thread of wistful escapism inherent in a quiet, down hill slide into maturity. The central character in my works is usually found lost in a reverie of industriousness, paired with doppelganger or other machinations of his childish imagination. In concert, these figures toil at understanding, through experimentation or illustration, existential perplexities ranging from possibly surmountable commonplaces - e.g. What is loneliness and how is it combated? - To metaphysical impossibilities - e.g. Who is this god dude? And is he a hero? Like Superman? Or soldiers? Or knights on horseback? And what does hero mean anyway? Of course, no traction will ever be gained with these pursuits. These boys and toys and bunny/man chimera will be forever locked in the Sisyphean toil of misapplication, miscomprehension and misunderstanding.
www.alexpodesta.com
Room 2:
Morgana King & Jonathan Traviesa
Morgana King & Jonathan Traviesa
The show features a series of collaborative works that mainly combine photo murals with wall sculpture.
Room 3:
Megan Roniger
In Search of the Cajun Prairie
Megan Roniger
Imagine trying to bake a cake that you and no one else you know has ever tasted. You have a list of possible ingredients but are clueless as to measurements and everything else. How would you begin? In Search of the Cajun Prairie is a collection of new drawings and paintings which imagine a landscape that I and no one else I know has ever seen. Not unlike the phantom cake, the Cajun Prairie exists today in bits and pieces scattered about the state with only written accounts of what it once looked like. Over 2.5 million acres of prairie once stretched across Louisiana, and it captured the fancy of early explorers and travel writers who visited the region. It is a significant part of Louisiana's ecological heritage that has been almost completely forgotten and lost. My work explores picking up the pieces I have to go on and putting them together in a hopeful imagining of what was and what could be. It is a dream.
Room 4:
Special Ellipse
Curated by Ryan Watkins-Hughes
Special Ellipse is a group show of time-based, projectable works -video, animated gifs, etc. Participants were asked to submit work within the formal or thematic concept of the 'circle.' Initially, two artists were invited to take part in the exhibition while also extending an invitation to one additional artist. This process was repeated until all of the included works were found.
