Category Archives: David Grant

A Curatorial Conversation with Leslie Kniesel

On August 21st, curator Leslie Kneisel held an informal conversation at the gallery. She discussed some of her inspiration for the current whitespace exhibit Not Biodegradable, as well as ideas and her thoughts behind the artwork she chose. We wanted to share with you a few of the highlights from her talk.

An artist in her own right, Leslie has exhibited her work in Atlanta since 1985. She considers Not Biodegradable her personal “contribution to the community.” With this exhibit she hopes to bring a “new direction and dialogue” to the Atlanta art community by showing a glimpse of the LA scene to Atlanta. In her observation of LA artists, Leslie became intrigued with how many seem to be process and material oriented, creating art that is more concerned with light, color and materials and less concept driven.

Curator Leslie Kniesel in front of “Mother Board” by Alison Foshee.

Curatorial Inspiration – The Bear Story & Art that Endures

The roots for Not Biodegradable germinated in two experiences.

On a camping trip last spring, a tattered plastic bag caught Leslie’s eye while she was speaking with the camp director. The director stopped her from picking it up. Its presence was to serve as an example of what remains after the campers and the bears have left the campground.

Plastic’s longevity merged with Leslie’s thoughts regarding a discussion that participating artist Mery Lynn McCorkle had about whether to create art that disintegrates or art that endures and is “permanent.”

Forever Plastic – Artistic Manipulation

Created from a clay mold, David Grant’s latex sculptures are rooted in the homosexual subculture of “gainers.” (please see entry dated August 11, 2010) Yet, Grant’s touch of silliness, irreverence, bravado and eye for color invite the viewer to touch. As Leslie exclaimed: “Squooshy! DO TOUCH!”

Director Susan Bridges DOES Touch!

Through her luminous mixed media paintings, Mery Lynn McCorkle “takes things that give me pain and turns them into beauty.” The beading in her paintings serves as Morse code. In one work the code, “You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, even the stars will die”, imbues an artistic form of mortality to deceased family members. The celestial references in her works also evoke her loved ones.

Artist Mery Lynn McCorkle (L)

Process oriented, artist Alison Foshee transforms the everyday, “insignificant” plastic pushpin into floral arrangements that mimic the organizational systems of nature.

Detail of “Mother Board” by Alison Foshee.

French artist Mireille Vautier embroiders plastic bags that result in delicate, translucent, fluid forms. Vautier explores “natural phenomenon through plastic,” as in “La Mue” that mimics a snake shedding its skin.

Mireille Vautier’s cascading “La Mue.”

A comic note on the more serious debate of what constitutes art.

Whether intentionally or not, Vautier’s work also raises the question of what constitutes art. As Leslie explained, she had a challenging time convincing customs to release Vautier’s artwork when it arrived from France. Customs personnel asserted that since it was not on a canvas it was not art. At least not according to their classification system. Customs released it only after the classification for her work was changed to sculpture.

For Leslie, this incident highlights how our society continues to struggle with understanding what constitutes art or how it should be classified. She hopes that the works in Not Biodegradable will help to expand our notion of art.

NOT BIODEGRADABLE
Curated by Leslie Kneisel

Artists include: Alison Foshee, David Grant, Mery Lynn McCorkle, Jon Rajkovich, Shirley Tse, Mireille Vautier
Exhibition is currently on view until September 4, 2010.

A Passion for Plastic: Opening Reception

Curated by Leslie Kniesel, Not Biodegradable opened to quite a crowd!

Intrigued by how the artists explored how plastic can be transformed into art, some guests even decided to get a little up close & personal…

 The ladies of Whitespace enjoy David Grant’s sculpture “Damon.” 
(L-R: Kat Ivey, Sage Fountain & Leslie Hochsztein)  

Viewers contemplate works by Jon Rajkovich(L) and Shirley Tse (R).
Pushpins as systemized floral arrangements.
Artist Alison Foshee in front of her wallpiece “Mother Board.”
(Photographer: Terry Kearns)
Artist Jon Rajkovich with his artwork made from found objects.
(Photographer: Terry Kearns)

Not Biodegradable is on view until September 4, 2010.
 

Exhibition: NOT BIODEGRADABLE

NOT BIODEGRADABLE
Curated by Leslie Kneisel
Participating Artists: Alison Foshee, David Grant,
Mery Lynn McCorkle, Jon Rajkovich, Shirley Tse, Mireille Vautier

Exhibition Dates: August 6 – September 4, 2010 
Conversation: Saturday, August 21st @ 3 pm

The artists in NOT BIODEGRADABLE employ plastics or petroleum-based products in their process, either referentially, materially or both. With the exception of one, the artists are from Los Angeles. Linked through their choice of materials, they share a passion for how the non-biodegradable can be manipulated.

Playfulness, exuberant obsessiveness and a love of color permeate their artwork. Each artist uniquely explores the capabilities of their chosen material. Whether plastic (which lasts hundreds of years), or petroleum (often wasted on fueling cars), the creative results suggest they may be better utilized in making art – then at least the art would endure forever.

Alison Foshee, “Mother Board” (detail), push pins on cardboard, 8’x14′.

Alison Foshee tinkers with pre-fabricated objects such as plastic pushpins. She is particularly interested in the dual nature of these consumable goods. Simultaneously indispensable and without value, they function in her work as a not-so-subtle metaphor for culture’s subjective definition of what is precious.

David Grant, “Damon”, sculptural latex.

David Grant‘s sculptural rubber latex pieces are playful references to a subculture within the gay community known as “gainers”: prodigiously large men who intentionally overeat in order to gain weight and thereby increase their sexual pleasure. Their admirers measure beauty by their own standards, complete with “stars.”

Mery Lynn McCorkle, “Winter Sky 3″, mixed media, 30 x 20”.
Lower layer: acrylic, spray paint, glitter, pencil on denril; Armature: escutcheon pins & bronze wire; Upper layer: acrylic, autobody pigment, mylar thread on rayon paper.
NOTE: The beads on the wire armature are in Morse code.

Mery Lynn McCorkle‘s sculptural paintings are elegiac meditations on the beauty of the galaxy and its stars. Plastic in her work pays homage to an immortality that is not ours, but rather plastic’s ability to “outlast our bones.”

Jon Rajkovich, “Blackadder”, welded plastic, pvc, epoxy, aluminum and 
wood, 43 x 20 x 7″

In his sculptures, Jon Rajkovich merges fabricated objects with past impressions and elements of imagination. While alluding to their earlier history, he continues an object’s life cycle by placing it within a different context, where it has a new point of departure.

Shirley Tse, “Vagabond or Wanderlust? #1″, plastic bag, 24 x 34 x 2”.

For over a decade, Shirley Tse‘s installations, sculptures and photographs have engaged the philosophical implications of plastic as a phenomenon: transience, mobility, mutation, multiplicity and conflict that defines our contemporary society. “The context in which plastic is seen calls for a dilemma between its phenomenological and semiotic significance. I realize plastic is more than a substance, it is a formula. It is a code. In our world, it becomes a site. A site that is physical, semantic and sociopolitical all at once”.

Mireille Vautier, “Mue”, embroideries on plastic.

Mireille Vautier creates embroideries on plastic bags. Her embroidery imparts nobility to these everyday, “useless”, non-biodegradable objects. She transforms them into translucent, light-filled creations reminiscent of fluid membranes.