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Exhibition
Concept + Craft
2010 Selection, Exhibition Call for Curatorial Proposals
Curated by Danielle Fox and Alice Lehrer
September 14 - October 23, 2010
Artists' Reception: Thursday, September 16, 6 - 8pm | FREE
Film Screening & Discussion: Saturday, October 16, 1pm | FREE
Featured Artists
Mung Lar Lam
Jessica Matin
Anna Von Mertens
Caroline Seckinger
Patricia Thomas
Alicia Woods
Pro Arts presents Concept + Craft, a new exhibition featuring the six conceptual artists working at the intersection of minimalism and domestic craftwork. The exhibition looks specifically at the repetitive hand-work that women have practiced in the home for centuries, including carding, spinning, stitching, weaving, ironing, and basket-making. Acting as a source of inspiration for contemporary artists, these traditional crafts have been reinterpreted as the foundation for minimalist constructions. Selected artists include Mung Lar Lam, Jessica Martin, Anna Van Mertens, Caroline Seckinger, Patricia Thomas, and Alicia Woods.
Drawing from the traditional techniques of domestic craftwork, the artists represented in Concept + Craft address a diverse range of themes, including the relationship between ancient and contemporary civilization, patriarchy and resistance, and the tensions between nature and the built environment. The exhibition also features a broad range of nontraditional materials, including cassette tape used to spin hand-woven baskets in the work of Alicia Woods, and the six-foot aluminum and rabbit fur bowl from Caroline Seckinger, which work to blur the lines between traditional and nontraditional craft.
Acting as a counterpoint to the unemotional masculinity commonly associated with minimalism, several of the works directly address themes of femininity and motherhood, such as Patricia Thomas’ veil stitched with thorny rose vines (Death Bride) or Jessica Matin’s wrapped metal vessel entitled Nest. Gender boundaries are further blurred in the works by Mung Lar Lam whose seemingly domestic technique of folding, unfolding, and ironing to create marked textiles is juxtaposed with her choice of a military camouflage palette; or in Anna Van Mertens’ hand-dyed and hand-stitched quilts which use computerized calculations to create stitching that tracks the movement of the planets and stars over a specific period of time. Together, these six artists explore the rich conceptual landscape that exists along the borders of contemporary craft.
Concept + Craft is curated by Danielle Fox and Alice Lehrer. The exhibition is part of Pro Arts’ annual open call for exhibition proposals. Pro Arts’ visual arts programming is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, California Arts Council, and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
Download pdf Press Release
Image: Ironings, Mung Lar Lam, site specific installation, courtesy of the artist.
Funding provided by:
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