June 8 - July 7, 2019
Opening Saturday June 8th, 6-10pm
Rooms 1 & 2:
Brooke Pickett, Jessie Vogel, EmJay (Jamie Solock and Madeleine Wieand)
Stillscapes
EmJay, Morning in the Mountains, Drawing, 2019 / Jessie Vogel, Clutter, Oil on canvas, particle board door, MDF, house paint, 2019 / Brooke Pickett, Detail, Oil on canvas, 2019
In the hierarchy of genres for art established in the seventeenth century by the French Academy, still life was ranked at the bottom – fifth after history painting, portraiture, genre painting (scenes of everyday life) and landscape. Still life and landscape were considered lowly because they did not involve human subject matter. In contemporary times they are often considered antiquated or boring. The artists in Stillscapes seek to reposition the landscape and still life by abstracting and deconstructing them and then putting them back together to tell alternative stories. This approach not only reflects on the genres themselves, but allows the viewer to make their own meaning from everyday objects and scenery.
Room 3:
Madeleine Wieand
A Happy Life
A Happy Life, 2019 / Archival Inkjet Print / 12" x 12", Drift, 2019 / Archival Inkjet Print / 16" x 16", Fence Cut, 2019 / Archival Inkjet Print / 16" x 16", Pink Wall, 2017 / Archival Inkjet Print / 14" x 14", Two Horizons, 2018 / Archival Inkjet Print / 12" x 18"
A Happy Life examines emotions provoked by environment - particularly those of calm and tranquility - in a political, economic, and social context which is anything but. In my practice I am often looking for edges: horizon lines, fences, intersections between private and public, built and natural, water and land, where one thing meets another in peace. The placidity and stillness of these interactions, devoid of humans but not of their influence, attempt to create a break from anxiety, chaos, and conflict created by one’s surroundings (or one’s neuroatypical brain).
Madeleine Wieand was born in 1989 in Philadelphia and received her BFA in Photography from Pratt Institute in 2012. She works primarily in photography, printmaking, and textile media, and explores human perception and emotion through built and natural environments. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in cities including New York City, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Houston, and Mexico City. She is based in New Orleans and is an artist member of The Front.
Room 4:
Sarah Pearl Cooper
Arrangements in (Mostly) Ballpoint Pen
My drawings and paintings depict objects, landscapes, and animals that interest me to the point of obsessive study and constant drawing and redrawing. The ballpoint pen, typically a utilitarian tool, functions as an instrument of magic that is able to illuminate extraordinary in the ordinary.
Born in Buffalo, NY, Sarah Pearl Cooper is a multidisciplinary artist who graduated with a BFA from Pratt Institute in 2011. Since then, she has been making her way slowly South and has resided in New Orleans since 2015.