Interview

Em Rooney

July 4, 2019 By Brainard Carey Leave a Comment

Em Rooney lives and works in Massachusettes. She’s recently been included in exhibitions at François Ghebaly in Los Angeles, Gallery Crèvecoeur, in Paris, and Foxy Production, in New York, NY.

Her last solo show; Ordinary Time, at Bodega in New York was concurrent with her inclusion in Being: New Photography, at The Museum of Modern Art in 2018. Her current project approaches the idea of gift giving and editions as a generative, and semantic entry into more sculptural forms.

A collection of these pieces will be exhibited in September at Galerie Fons Welters, in Amsterdam.

The book mentioned in the interview is Ana Patova Crosses a Bridge.

Are Scared By the Land, 2018 Pewter, fiberglass, Aqua-Resin, silver, steel, screws, iPad, 4:20 video on loop 40 x 16 x 13 in (101.6 x 40.6 x 33 cm)

Pinky Ring Edition of 4 (You, Me, Mariana, and Jess): Part 1, 2019. Steel, cement coating, polystyrene, enamel, pewter, leather, hardware. 60 x 23 x 13 inches (152.5 x 58.5 x 33 cm)

Amitis Motevalli

July 3, 2019 By Brainard Carey Leave a Comment

Amitis Motevalli is an artist born in Iran. She explores the cultural resistance and survival of people living in poverty, conflict and war. Through many mediums including, sculpture, video, performance and collaborative public art, her work juxtaposes iconography, with iconoclasm, asking questions about violence, domination, occupation and the path to decolonization , while invoking the significance of a secular grassroots struggle. Motevalli is invested in research, collaboration, and the potential of art to expand thought. She currently lives and works in Los Angeles, exhibiting art internationally as well as organizing to create an active and resistant cultural discourse through information exchange, either in art, pedagogy or organizing artists and educators.

Ashley Stull Meyers

June 27, 2019 By Brainard Carey Leave a Comment

photo by Sam Gehrke.

Ashley Stull Meyers is a writer, editor, and curator. She has curated exhibitions and public programming for a diverse set of arts institutions along the west coast, including those in San Francisco, CA, Oakland, CA, Seattle, WA, and Portland, OR.

She has been in academic residency at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art (Omaha, NE) and the Banff Centre (Banff, Alberta).

She is currently Northwest Editor for Art Practical and has contributed writing to Bomb Magazine, Rhizome, Arts.Black and SFAQ/NYAQ.

In 2017 Stull Meyers was named Director and Curator of The Art Gym and Belluschi Pavilion at Marylhurst University.

Currently, she is co-curator of the 2019 Portland Biennial. She is based in Portland, Oregon.

Margaret Smithers-Crump

June 26, 2019 By Brainard Carey Leave a Comment

Margaret Smithers-Crump is a Canadian artist based in Houston, Texas. Her work addresses the vulnerability and interconnectedness of Earth’s diverse life forms and ecosystems as impacted by global warming, pollution and loss of habitat. Fittingly, she creates her spatial artworks with recycled plexiglas, a material that evokes fragility and human consumption.

Smithers-Crump has exhibited nationally with recent solo exhibitions at the Grace Museum, Abilene; Pearl Fincher MFA, Houston; Galveston Art Center; Imperial Center for the Arts, Rocky Mount, NC; Penn College of Technology – Penn State and Manifest Art Gallery, Cincinnati. Her upcoming solo exhibitions include Rudolph Blume Fine Art / Art Scan Gallery in conjunction with the 2019 Sculpture Month Houston and the Art Museum of South East Texas, Beaumont in 2020.

She received her BFA in Painting from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio in 1973. Smithers-Crump grew up on her family’s island in Canada and lived in the south Pacific in her early twenties. This early experience nurtured her respect and awe for nature. She maintains that the planet is her best educator.

The book mentioned in the interview is Braiding Sweetgrass, Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer.

Vital Signs, Gallery view, exhibited at the Galveston Art Center, Galveston, Texas, 2016. This image features “In Silence” in the foreground and “Code Blue” on the back gallery wall. Art materials are recycled plexiglas, paint, and wood.

Detail from A Question of Balance, incorporating 135 hand cut and fabricated recycled plexiglas dodecahedrons with a circular reverse painted plexiglas support, anthracite and black sand. 72” x 72” x 15”, 2016 – 2018

Michelle Bolinger

June 25, 2019 By Brainard Carey Leave a Comment

Michelle Bolinger received her MFA from the University of Washington in 2005, and her BFA from Indiana University in 2003. She has had solo shows at Francine Seders Gallery in Seattle, WA as well as Roman Susan Gallery, The Presidents Gallery and DIG all located in Chicago, IL.

Recent group exhibitions include Soak. Stroke. Scratchat Melanee Cooper Gallery, Chicago, and New American Paintings: Midwest Editionat the Elmhurst Art Museum. She has taught at Northwestern University, Loyola University, Lake Forest College and Harold Washington College. In 2012 she was a Visiting Professor & Artist in Residence at the University of South Florida in Tampa. She has been awarded multiple grants from the Illinois Arts Council and the Chicago Artists Assistance Program.

The books mentioned in the interview are Becoming, by Michelle Obama and The Gruffalo.