Unfamiliar Territories

If you haven’t visited the Adam Lister Gallery in Fairfax, get on your galoshes and make the trek. The Space (the building in which the Adam Lister Gallery is located) is sponsored by the City of Fairfax Commission on the Arts and Kimco Realty, and it is a great use of it. 

I went to go check out their current exhibition, “Unfamiliar Territories” on opening night. “This show, “Unfamiliar Territories”” Says Adam, “is a result of an open call that we did this past fall. We received a huge amount of high quality submissions from all over the country. The exhibit was juried by a panel of our gallery staff, curators and collectors, and 15 finalist were invited to participate in this show.” 

The exhibition is described on the gallery website as an exhibit that brings together a group of artists that have a common ground of questioning our perceptions of the world within their work.  It also states, “Through modifying, investigating, and engaging in exploration for the purpose of discovery, each artist has formulated their own unique system of communication.”  This certainly rings true. There is a wide rang of style, medium, and idea in this show ranging from a sword made of pens to series of works created from small plaster shells filled with paint and dropped onto canvas board. “They take the familiar and the obvious, and through a process of reformulation, present it as curious and unfamiliar.”, finishes the description.

Also, he presents the “Capsule Gallery” where for 4 quarters you can win original miniature artworks by Sean Dolon himself, gallery owner Adam Lister, and his fiancé Stephanie Rivers. I won a beautiful miniature watercolor of flowers done by Adam Lister (see photos). 

As I (perhaps a little too excitedly) opened my plastic case to receive my prize I realized that I was standing next to Sean. I spoke with him about his work.

“The Art Arcade” was the first "art machine" that I created, which is the one where the player controls a claw in order to win artwork.” Donlon said. “My idea was first brushed off in my head as it would be to complicated and not worth doing but it slowly drove me to search and try to locate someone who was selling them. Once I was able to find someone selling a machine I still had no intentions of buying one. I was just going to look and it turned out that this person had a whole warehouse of old and broken arcade games. I ended up not being able to leave with out the beat up machine that I felt needed to be rescued from a cave of silence where it would never have a purpose except to collect dust.  So after bargaining and figuring out transportation for the 300+ pound machine I started to clean and fix it up into the art arcade it is now.” He continued,   “… Everywhere I go I hear or read, "Please Don't Touch the Art."  I believe that art should be personally experienced in all five human senses including touch.  I like the idea of being able to hold the art and touch it.”

Sean hopes to show these “Art Machines” at other galleries in the future. “The Art Arcade” was recently featured at Artist on Foot in DC at the Artcade hosted by Philippa Hughes.  It has also been featured at The Workhouse Arts Center were Donlon used to have his studio, and also that There Urban Decay Show. Inside the machine are original hand cut stencil soft sculptures that are made with canvas and Donlon’s old jeans he has grown out of.  “I like making my work out of materials I have had close use and relations with growing up, something I used day to day and had a history with.  I feel like it makes the work more personal and lets people have a part of my past, and it’s a great way to recycle.” Right on.

The Gallery also offers a table full of one of a kind prints ranging from photos like "White Elvis" from DC’s Diana Adams Pez series, to an Asian inspired print titled “Geisha” by Jacobe Noonan all with very doable prices. Everyone can walk away with something here.

Attending opening night I was lucky enough to talk with several of the artists showing. I asked them about their work:

Craig Hill:

Craig Hill combines abstraction and pop culture with painting and collage techniques to create shiny acrylic and resin gems. “I have developed a visual vocabulary inspired by an archive of countless images” says Hill. He pulls from scenes on TV, advertisements, and comic books. Superheroes, athletes, cowboys and logos are the stars of these works. “I create arrangements of diverse cultural references…I create works that revolve around issues of masculinity and male rites of passage”, Hill states.

JC: Craig, I was introduced to your work last year at the Adam Lister Gallery and couldn’t decide what I thought about your use of glitter and butterflies. However so obviously appropriated from images in pop culture I began to find myself wanting to collect these works. Smiley faces, hearts, and flowers are often times hard to be taken seriously. This is what I love about them. The craftsmanship in these pieces allows for such childlike imagery with out lessening their quality. How did you come to use these materials to create these images?

CH: I started using materials like glitter and rhinestones to address stereotypical male gender roles and issues masculinity in my work. At first my work may appear pretty, ridiculous, or naive, but all of the images and materials I use have a very specific purpose. A lot of the research for my work is done by shopping in toy stores, craft stores, and supermarkets and observing how boys and girls are marketed towards. I’ve noticed that there are reoccurring visual devises that are used to appeal to young boys and young girls. I have adapted these visual elements to subvert the appropriated images of boyhood icons in my paintings and works on paper. Also growing up it was taboo and frowned upon to use “girl” materials or images in a drawing or a school project, so it has become a liberating experience to use these materials as an adult.

Gail Vollrath:

Gail Vollrath, a Chicago native has been living and working in DC since 2001. Gail uses mixed media such as china marker, oil, tar and oil based paint pens along with oil paint on canvas, paper or aluminum.  Typical themes in her work are things that represent the day - current affairs, conversations and events as well as isolation and marginalization.  Gail’s mark making and color choices are usually intuitive.  The images are sometimes derived from clip art or actual objects.

JC: Gail, your small mixed media works read to me as keep sakes. The small pieces of material inside like mementos. Does this ring true as you create them? You mention them representing conversations and events, would it be appropriate to call them narratives?

GV: Ultimately, I think almost anything you see in them is appropriate.  I don’t typically work directly, meaning I don’t plan or sketch either literally or figuratively when I start a project.  There are areas of reference and areas of field that can read vaguer.  One thing that I do intend with each piece is to keep them as open as possible, yet true to me and what is happening in my world at the time.  I can see how my work can read as narrative in the way that you speak of in your question.  Each area, mark, color choice, bit of collage material, representational image, etc. come together in relationship.

Christopher Duerk

Chris describes in his artist statement his work: "In dialectical opposition to my earlier decades in painting, my current objective is to have none at all other than PLAY. My approach is to show up for the session; remain as absent minded, distracted and disinterested as possible; make haphazard decisions and random gestures with fingers, hands or brushes; and avoid getting caught in that terrible web of mental machinations, processes and judgments. By repeatedly taking this position, I am reminded that the less the ego is present, the more remarkable are the end results.”

JC: Chris, I notice on your website that you also do a lot of figurative work, although very highly design based. The two works in “Unfamiliar Territories” are based solely on pattern. Why the change? At the opening you spoke about your ability to create better work when you were detached from it, do you feel that you are more detached while creating these works then are your figurative?

CD: The answer is really quite pragmatic. I don't paint but 3-4 hours on Friday nights anymore due to my current lifestyle, which for a change is focused on earning a living. An unfortunate necessity in the modern age and at my age! With acrylics I can be messy, non-toxic, and often get the picture done in 1-3 sessions. Beyond that amount of time I become bored and lose interest. I've not time or interest in laboring over a canvas/board anymore. And this is a BIG change, because in the prime of my life I'd spend easily 8-12 hours a day nearly every day at the easel. 

On the other hand, I am just now beginning turning my attention back to figurative painting. Indeed, it's time for another change, since I'm growing tired of the abstraction thing. In truth abstraction NEVER brought me as much Spiritual fulfillment, since by nature I am a "story teller", a dreamer, and much prefer a narrative in my pictures. To return to this focus I'll just have to learn to work faster so as not fall back into laboring and fussing over the work.

Steve Wanna

Steve is an experimental sound and visual artist currently living and working in the DC area. His work generally concerns itself more with the process rather then the result alone. Works showing at the Adam Lister Gallery are composed by creating plaster shells using balloons dipped into plaster, When the plaster dries, Wanna pops the balloon and has a thin shell that strong enough to hold some paint and other material but fragile enough to shatter on impact. “I’ve made several pieces this way, experimenting with filling different the shells with different materials (paint, lacquer, powder pigment, various debris, etc). Each piece then is the result of the impact of the material in the shell on that surface.” States Wanna.

JC: I notice in your artist statement that you talk a lot about process. Displaying these works tabletop helps them read as if they have just been created. You can see where the paint splatter has originated from, and as you have used shells of paint the remains of their containers disperse onto the canvas. Do you take videos or photographs of the action?

Also these works seem wonderfully composed, is it important where the shells fall?

SW: I really can't plan or design the pieces per se, because I can't predict where the shells will fall and how exactly they'll splatter. I can't control the composition, nor can I duplicate it, even if I were to repeat the process exactly (same size shell, same ingredients, etc). I find that aspect of these works exciting. I have control over certain aspects of the process but not everything. I haven't taken pictures or video of any of these mainly because I tend to not remember to do that until after (Sad face). I do take lots of photographs after the fact...

The only reason the works were displayed flat was because these two contain powder pigment that's not fixed. The surface is sprayed with fixative to help stabilize it a bit but there's a lot of loose powder underneath that would simply fall off if they were not flat… so it's a practical matter in this case. I suggested to Adam (gallery owner) that they be displayed in such a way that they could be viewed from any angle because they don't really have a clear orientation. That would allow each person to choose the angle that makes most sense to them, and allows them to relate to the work in a personal way.

If you haven’t visited the exhibition, “Unfamiliar Territories”, it will hang until Febuary 21^st.

If you can’t squeeze it into your schedule be sure to check out the next show, a two person exhibit featuring new photographs by Sean Salyards and a new series of geometric abstract paintings by Adam Lister himself. 

“Salyards teaches photography right down the street from us at George Mason University.  The photos in this show are from a series of projects that he has been working on that involve his documentation of a depressed, nearly abandoned Florida community.  The architecture, loneliness and mystery in these pieces somehow directly related to my recent work involving flat colors and constructivist systems,” says Adam.