Tag Archives: whitespace

Docking on the Orphic Shore: Interview with Artist Seana Reilly

Seana Reilly

(from left to right) ProfferedStone, ChthonicCourse, FrozenCadence, 2016, Seana Reilly

Seana Reilly’s latest show at whitespace is a cross between a library and a church, temple, or cathedral. With gothic and other architectural influences, Eastern and Western religious motifs and a quieting quality, Docking on the Orphic Shore is reverential. For this blogpost, we decided to interview Seana to get a better understanding of the materials, her process and the creation of the show in whitespace.

Hilleary: Your show feels absolutely sacred and spiritual. Docking on the Orphic Shore is a representation of that place we all seem to be trying to get to, whether it is heaven in Judeo-Christian religions, or Nirvana in Buddhism, the Orphic Shore seems to be that place as well.

Seana: It’s about trying to lose your edges and connect with something larger than yourself. It expands outward beyond the physical limits of your body. Sometimes religions will help people do that. Sometimes science with its endlessly evolving frontiers can help people get there. Poetry can as well. There are so many different paths – it’s whichever suits you as an individual. One expression for me of this dissolution of the self is in the piece titled OrphicSonnet. It’s a transcribed Rilke poem – as I moved down the surface losing myself in the writing, three lines behind me the words were starting to migrate and change, losing themselves. Once the piece was done I found it kind of interesting that the image was very recognizable as text-based, but at the same time completely unreadable, illegible. I don’t think you can put this larger experience into words, so it’s rather fitting.

H: You and I have spoken about the materials before, but how would you describe working with them and your process?

S: My process is more participatory practice than ritual. It’s a communion of sorts. I’m always trying to balance control and chaos. When working with the graphite there are a few things I can control and make decisions about, such as the viscosity, the substrate, or the scale. That’s where my architectural background asserts itself… the defined space, the pristine edge, the square format. But once those decisions are made and the material is released into that framework, I surrender control. The graphite can be prodded a bit – in the service of broad aesthetic decisions – but it has certain inherent qualities that produce particular kinds of affects or patterns. This is what fascinates me… how the material mimics planetary-scale processes in nature. Some of the works read as landscapes, but any representational aspects of the work are accidental and unbidden. I neither erase nor encourage these. More than anything I’m intrigued by them.

H: What about the gray walls in that room? How did you decide to create that as part of the exhibition?

S: The two rooms are different. Works in both spaces are graphite, but graphite in two different forms and applied in two different ways. I kept all the tactile hands-on paste graphite in the first room because I wanted a grounded place to enter into first. It’s also a very bright white room and sets up a contrast with the other darker space with the liquid graphite pieces. It’s markedly different when you step up and across that threshold into the room with the books. In thinking about this room I kept coming back to both a sense of drama and stillness. I spent some time at the Carlos Museum. They do it well – I think it’s all in the value shifts in color & lighting. I chose the mid-value grey walls to tone down the space energetically, and in a practical sense it helps to set off the white portions of the works which get lost on white walls.

H: There is a rhythm to the whole space something that ties it together as a whole, could you speak on to that?

S: Obviously, there’s consistency of palette and material. That helps. I also like working in series, so there’s a rhythm built into that. There’s a consistency of presentation as well. The series of vertical paintings between the books, for example, sets up a repeating rhythm that leans toward religious architecture and also toward museum presentations of ancient tablets and scrolls. Then you intersperse the books, also done in series… Books of this size are usually reserved for deep records of knowledge or spiritual guidance, so they lend a certain weightiness to the room, both visually and atmospherically. The intent and presentation is consistent. At least that’s what I was shooting for. One other thing that may help is the continuity of visual language throughout the show. Every piece in the show is an expression of the way the earth was formed – not in some abstract way, but a physical manifestation of the laws of gravity and fluid motion. The books are not full of alphanumeric symbols or pictorial allegories pointing to things outside of themselves. They are full of nature itself, as are the paintings.

Getting to Know Mimi Hart Silver

We thank all who came on opening night, and have come in since, to view Mimi Hart Silver’s Dead of Night. If you have yet to experience the show, there are still two weeks left to see her acclaimed first solo exhibition at whitespace. We also invite you to join us for an afternoon closing reception and artist talk with Mimi on Saturday, July 27th. Stay tuned for details!

We’re thrilled to add Mimi Hart Silver to our fantastic roster of whitespace artists!  We sat down with Mimi to learn more about her life and work – read on and get to know this young Atlanta artist:

whitespace: We’re thrilled to add you to the whitespace roster and to introduce you and your work to the Atlanta art community and beyond.  Can you tell us a bit about yourself and where you come from?

Mimi Hart Silver: Thank you. It seems like yesterday that I was a student at SCAD dreaming about a show at whitespace, so this is all pretty surreal.

Mimi Hart Silver in her studio at the Goat Farm

I grew up on a string of barrier islands in North Carolina called the Outer Banks. It felt like the fringe or a frontier. Life and death seemed more apparent there because everyday life was shaped directly by the environment and the weather. It was impossible not to be effected. Continue reading

Take a Look: “Dead of Night” paintings by Mimi Hart Silver

Whitespace is pleased to introduce Mimi Hart Silver in her first solo exhibition  Dead of Night, on view through July 27th.  We hope you enjoy this exclusive preview of the works and will join us for the opening reception of the exhibition on Friday, June 21st from 7pm to 10pm.  If you’d like to inquire about any of the works, request additional information, or schedule a private viewing with the gallery director please don’t hesitate to contact gallery@whitespace814.com or 404.688.1892.

Hurt
oil on canvas
41” x 72”
2011
$3800 Continue reading

Take a Look: “Safe,” photographs by Sandra-Lee Phipps

Check out the works in Safe, photographs by Sandra-Lee Phipps, on view at whitespace through June 15th.   Feel free to contact Sarah at gallery@whitespace814.com with questions, inquiries or to request additional information about the artist or any of the works.

Here, Now
archival pigment print
24″ x 36″
edition 1 of 5
$1200 framed
$1000 unframed Continue reading

CALL FOR ARTISTS: “Short Shorts” a Summer Film Series at whitespace

Short Shorts
Summer Short Film Series
Call for Artists
whitespace

Atlanta, Georgia
Deadline: June 23rd, 2013, 5pm
www.whitespace814.com

Are you an artist or film-maker looking for a way to showcase your short films?  whitespace gallery in Atlanta, Georgia is currently accepting submissions for a series of short film screenings this summer.  Continue reading

Artist Spotlight: Tommy Taylor on Working in Film as a Scenic Painter

“Ya see all them pink and orange tubes inside there?  … Well, they’re explosives”

You couldn’t pay me to get up every day at 5 in the morning and drive 30 miles to a dirty warehouse for a job…or so I thought. But, that is what I have been doing for the better part of the past 6 months. Traffic at this hour is nonexistent, the intersection at Ponce and Moreland/Briarcliff -generally a hideous place to be at any hour of the day – is just a blip in the rear view mirror at 5:30 a.m.

I am beginning my third feature film as a scenic painter. Continue reading

Take a Look: “Under the Rainbow” new works by Ann-Marie Manker

Here’s a look at the pieces in Under the Rainbow, new works by Ann-Marie Manker.  Feel free to contact us at gallery@whitespace814.com with questions and inquiries.

 


Niagara

Acrylic, graphite, ink, varnish on wood panel
14” x 18” x 2”
SOLD Continue reading