Fauna of Mirrors Reflects a Nuanced Approach to Nature

Fauna of Mirrors, a site-responsive exhibition curated by Etty Yaniv currently on view at the LIU Downtown Brooklyn campus, opened to the public on March 14, 2019 and remains on view through May 17th. The enticing exhibition features works by Charlotte Becket, Samuelle Green, Tamara Kostianovsky, Jessica Lagunas, Christina Massey, Lina Puerta, and Kathleen Vance. These works are housed in a glass enclosure on the LIU campus. Referencing Jorge Luis Borges’ Book of Imaginary Beings, this contemporary Fauna of Mirrors refers to Borges’ proposed “land beyond mirrors” which hosts strange, unknown creatures, a phantasmagoria which is reflected in the incredible images aggregated through illusionary reflections spilling across the glass surfaces.

Installation view, Fauna of Mirrors at Long Island University’s downtown Brooklyn campus (image courtesy Etty Yaniv)

Multi-dimensional reflections on the Anthropocene and humanity’s relationship with nature provide real-time reflections in the changing daylight onsite at Fauna of Mirrors. A triumph in adapting the Japanese viewing garden’s prized technique of miegakure (“hide and reveal”), the exhibit creates dialogues across the space lying between the various installations, sculptures and kinetic artworks on view. A pulsing, breathing form in its own right, Fauna of Mirrors creates a visual orchestral crescendo at Long Island University’s downtown Brooklyn campus. Readily experienced, yet cordoned off from the public, the forms create an artistic menagerie that creates a lingering impression – whether you gaze upon it for five seconds or five hours something new is revealed with every visit. Emphasizing both the verticality and the rounded curvature of this specific space, Fauna of Mirrors combines works by compelling contemporary artists into a lush representation of the interstices linking nature and artifice.

Suspended sculptures by Tamara Kostianovsky welcome visitors to the exhibit while alluding to sacrifice and consumption. Meat hooks hold up splayed, feathered creatures resembling dead birds – which upon further inspection, are actually created from a composite of different fabrics. Kostianovksy captures the poetic grace of these forms, recreating the exact curve of each bird feather with care and immaculate attention to detail. The figures are artificial recreations of natural forms, exacting the toll that our civilization can exact on our avian brethren.

Sculptures by Tamara Kostianovsky in Fauna of Mirrors (image courtesy Etty Yaniv)

Just beyond this sobering installation, the exhibit unfolds in its entirety before the viewer. Works are discernible by Charlotte Becket, Samuelle Green, Kathleen Vance, Christina Massey, and Lina Puerta. Immediately following the line of sight around the left curvature of the gallery, Lina Puerta’s artwork is a visible juxtaposition of sign and signifier. Puerta evinces her contemplative skill with metal built over a period of time as a Kohler artist in residence. The impressions of natural objects are visible in pieces of iron, carefully arranged around what appears to be a tree branch, but is actually a branch cast in iron itself. Puerta notes the combination of ephemeral and eternal provided inspiration for her work “Untitled” (branch on tiles)(2015). “During a 2015 residency at Kohler, in their factory’s foundry, I had the great opportunity to create iron casts of about anything I wanted,” reflects Puerta.  “The Large branch is a cast of an actual fallen branch that had begun to rot, found near the house were I stayed during the residency (Sheboygan, WI). I loved the idea of suspending in time something so fragile, that was dead, yet actively in transformation, as it decomposed. I was excited to cast such a delicate, life and death process into a strong, almost unbreakable material, as iron.”

Visible just beyond Puerta’s work is Kathleen Vance’s “Displaced Riverbed” (2019). A suspended riverbed in miniature, the man-made and natural collide in Vance’s artistic vision. “In order to simulate the natural, I use materials as close in texture and color as would be found in nature, often mixing natural with artificial materials to generate a feel of the “real”.  In this piece, I have sculpted the riverbed and incorporated collected soil and detritus from forest walks.  This piece is meant to be perceived as a riverbed scooped out of a natural environment, suspended in time and space.”

“I would like for visitors to consider their personal environment and seek out local access points to nature, such as parks and nature preserves,” reflects Vance.  “In presenting a single section of a river, removed from its course, I am giving just a piece that cannot function without its whole.  To experience that, you must go to the source.” Poignant and captivating in its attention to detail and alluring materiality, Vance represents our captivation with the aesthetics of the natural world.

Samuelle Green’s “Bloom 1″(2019) encircles a pillar anchoring the space, rising up around this building feature like a bush in bloom or a colony of mushrooms. Green takes into consideration the various viewpoints of the built environment, subversively reclaiming aspects of the man-made back into the natural environment. Carefully responding to the curvature of the space, Green dexterously re-purposes found paper to craft her intricate, geometrical compositions, her installation leading into a small cluster of mixed media sculptures by artist Christina Massey.

Massey’s assorted sculptures combine textures in her works, juxtaposing glass and metal in sharp angles and elusive curves. “I love having multiple complex textures and materials in a piece, there’s a challenge there that I love so much in the artistic process so make these seemingly odd materials work together.” Massey continues to expand particularly on her use of glass, an ancient process capturing various elements of nature into a refined practice spanning centuries of artistic creation. “This particular work was funded in part by a grant from the Brooklyn Arts Fund that was specifically granted for me to pursue creating new work using experimental glass blowing techniques, so each piece has some glass in it along with a combination of metals, wire, fencing and paint.” In addition to this rapt attention to form, Massey also created an installation built of carefully conceived forms ready to display across the verticality of the space. “This is such a unique space, so you had to think about not only what the options for hanging work were…but the proximity to the glass and columns, too. For me, the work is modular which allowed me a little room to play once in the space and react to how other work was installed.”

Side view, Fauna of Mirrors (image courtesy Etty Yaniv)

Absorbing light in a dark silhouette shifting through space and whirring ominously, Charlotte Becket’s “La Mancha Negra 4″(2019) follows a peculiar choreography, shifting around the gallery floor. Formed of various industrial materials, Becket’s kinetic sculpture confounds the viewer. Unsettling yet awe-inspiring, the sheer scale of the sculpture absorbs the visitor’s fully attention. Encountering Becket’s barely-defined form as it lurks and pushes through its immediate environment, the internal logic of the figure remains a captivating mystery. The parallels between this menacing figure’s indiscernible actions and our own inane choices to continue with environmental destruction are only hinted at as the viewer is encouraged to relate to the figure and the environment, and our choices in relation to it, on their own terms.

Finally, near the entryway to the building itself lie detailed, tactile pieces by Jessica Lagunas and Lina Puerta. Mementos of our natural world, leaves form delicate books and canvases for words and markings that prove to be enticing to the touch. Protected in these enclosed vitrines, Lagunas’ poetic ability to capture the lyrical beauty of natural outlines of leaves and other ephemera displays an intimacy with these fragile natural materials that proves to be both captivating and immensely rewarding for the viewer. Juxtaposed against the enduring iron impressions of natural objects by Puerta displayed in the same cases, the overall effect is a reminder of the beauty and frailty of our natural environment.

Works by Jessica Lagunas for Fauna of Mirrors (image courtesy the author)

The poetry of Yaniv’s powerfully curated Fauna of Mirrors proves to be an elegiac, yet lively, living documentation of the underlying forces that both unite and divide us as a species from the Earth that both sustains us and relies on our decisions. A reckoning displayed in a carefully defined space, this alternate view of the world we create and the natural ephemera we observe proves to be a whimsical mirror that holds lessons for us all.

The Empowering Artistic Practice of Marguerite Elliot

There is much to uncover in the diverse and precise artistic practice of artist Marguerite Elliot. Her career spans decades of women’s art herstory along the faultlines of second-wave feminism on the West Coast. Elliot’s career incorporates a vibrant interdisciplinary practice as an artist, welder, author, curator and video producer. Previously based in LA, Elliot now lives and works in Marin County in the northern San Francisco Bay Area. She was a pivotal founding member of the renowned LA-based Woman’s Building, the premier center for Feminist art, that operated for 18 years beginning in 1973. Recently, the world-renowned Getty Research Institute was awarded funding to preserve archives related to the Building, and on April 22nd Elliot will be honored alongside other women pioneers at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. In addition to her work teaching art at the LA Woman’s Building, she also taught at the Otis College of Art and Design. Her work has been included in exhibitions across the United States, including in a prestigious exhibition, Committed to Print, that dealt with about social issues – including feminism – at the renowned Museum of Modern Art in New York, NY.

 

“Saved for Eternity” Marguerite Elliot. Mixed media.

 

Elliot has been and continues to be a formidable artist spearheading developments in West Coast feminism while also serving as an incredible force for social critique and pioneering postmodern artworks created from metalworking and steel. Her vibrant presence as a Founding Member of the LA Woman’s Building informed the community’s incredible impact, exerting a presence that could be felt over the life and cultural scene in the greater Los Angeles area. A welder and sculptor, Elliot regularly creates large-scale artworks that require a precise and exacting skill set and complete mastery of metalworking methods. Working in steel from an early period of her practice, Elliot was a trailblazer not only for a cohort of women sculptors but she has also purposed her artwork into a means of addressing hot-button topics such as nuclear proliferation, environmental preservation and homelessness.

“Rift” Marguerite Elliot. Mixed media.

“Saraswati” Marguerite Elliot. Mixed media.

In addition to sustaining a demanding art studio practice, Elliot has steered feminist art history and theory with her incredibly thorough the comprehensive publication, “The Woman’s Building and Feminist Art Education, 1973-1991: A Pictorial Herstory.” Edited by Elliot and Maria Karras and published by the Otis College of Art & Design, provides an in-depth look into the remarkable influence the LA Woman’s Building sustained as a force for change as a part of the greater second-wave feminism movment. Outlining how the Woman’s Building steered the career trajectories of artists and changemakers such as Judy Chicago, Miriam Schapiro and many, many more, this tome holds a pivotal place in defining women’s impact in the Modern Art canon. Elliot’s position as a guest of honor at the Getty to honor her legacy as part of this group of powerful and unrelenting women on April 22nd is well-deserved and long overdue.

Elliot’s work is decisive and, frequently, physically demanding. With a carefully developed skill set that encompasses the punishing and technically precise requirements that welding requires, Elliot not only operates within a formally precise artistic lexicon, she applies her artistic acumen toward realizing socio-political change and working toward a common good.

 

“Where Did I Come From” Marguerite Elliot. Cast Bronze Rocks on Shelves.

 

Currently practicing across small and large-scale welded and mixed media sculpture, she exhibits a keenly psychological and insightful approach to her artworks. Elliot’s artwork titles, such as “Where Did I Come From” and “Saved for Eternity” also assume an autobiographical, yet ambiguous, approach. Continuing to pursue abstraction, Elliot continually digs deeper into her iconography to produce precisely rendered forms that resonate with viewers in an introspective and, often, personal significance. Viewers of Elliot’s work can ponder the meaning of eternity and the now within her practice: space and time seem to collapse under the significance of her keen and philosophical vision.

Elliot’s works have been shown in countless solo and group exhibits in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York City, and they are held in numerous public and private collections including New York’s MoMA. Elliot’s exhibitions have been reviewed in major art publications including the Los Angeles Times, the NY-based Village Voice, Art Week, and the Washington Post. She is a recipient of a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Elliot’s curatorial experience includes private, non-profit, and municipal galleries In Los Angeles and San Francisco and she is currently head of Elliot Art Productions, a company that works with artists to market their art and specializes in creative, promotional videos for artists. Upcoming exhibits include at North Bay Investment Partners in Berkeley, and the Sanchez Art Center in Pacifica, CA, and her studio in Fairfax welcomes visitors by appointment.

“Don’t Touch Me” Marguerite Elliot. Mixed media.

 

 

Inside/Outside at Plaxall Gallery Reveals the Private Side of Mental Illness

On view through April 7, 2019 at Plaxall Gallery, Inside/Outside documents the struggle that artists enduring mental illness experience every day. From displaying a fragmented sense of self to simplifying the figure down to a minimalist aesthetic, many works on view in the exhibit pay homage to the mind’s sense of self and the existing relationship between the mind and the body. Including artists such as Corran Shrimpton, Ella Veres, Nandan He, Angela Roger and many more, the works on view draw from the rich tapestry present in both the nearby Fountain House gallery community of artists and the Flushing Interfaith Council to produce an intersectional and urgent conversation around the effects of mental health on the artist community in NYC and beyond.

Inside/Outside at Plaxall Gallery, featuring work by Corran Shrimpton. Image courtesy the gallery.

On Thursday, April 4th, Fountain House Gallery in partnership with Plaxall Gallery will present a panel discussion around topics related to mental illness that are present in the exhibition. The Panel takes place from 5:30-7 pm at the Gallery space, is free and open to the public, and will feature artists Evan Brown, Wilfredo Benitez, Gina Minielli, Sharon Taylor and Maura Terese in conversation with curator Nancy Bruno and Ariel Willmott, Director at Fountain House Gallery. Fountain House Gallery Director Ariel Willmott notes the importance of featuring artwork in conversation around mental illness as crucial both to the wider community and for her personally. “The urgency and need for breaking the stigma around mental illness has become very clear to me and I believe that artists through their art and voice play an important role in achieving this,” she reveals.

Visions of self and a sense of longing and alienation permeate works throughout the gallery space. Shrimpton’s iconic sculpture depicts a female figure seemingly comprised of bricks that evokes a sense of constructed identity: while some of possess a firm understanding of who we are, those burdened with mental illness can shift in their relationship to self every single day. A self-understanding seemingly constructed from sturdy bricks one day can feel unstable and flimsy the next, depending on one’s mental health state.

Many of the paintings, sculptures and mixed media works on view reflect on partial, obscured and/or alternate views of one’s self. Identity becomes shrouded in a filter according to one’s daily physical and mental chemistry, according to prescriptions taken and not taken, mood or hormonal shifts. Many of the works on view are created by women, echoing societal pressures prevalent on how women and their figures are viewed in a highly critical society as opposed to the lack of critical attention paid to their male counterparts. It is important to remember, however, that mental health issues can affect everyone regardless of race, gender, religion, socioeconomic status or age.

Installation view, Inside/Outside at Plaxall Gallery

Artworks on view grapple with a wide range of topics, which are treated with a delicate, insightful nuance. Visitors are encouraged to aspire to a sense of empathy around mental illness. Perusing artworks on view in the space, guests can better gain perspectives around the challenges these artists confront every day in creating artwork, interacting with others, and searching their own sense of self. Introspection and admiration are encouraged at this profound, moving exhibition that deconstructs the building blocks of identity through a stunning array of artistic practices.

Inside/Outside is on view at Plaxall Gallery through April 7th, 2019. The gallery is located at 5-24 46th Avenue in Long Island City, Queens, and visiting hours are Thursday, 6-10 pm & Saturdays/Sundays, 12-5 pm. Don’t miss your last chance to witness this compelling contemporary view into the minds of artists working around mental health topics.