Contemporary Art

Anna Von Mertens - Portraits

“Odd avenues of knowledge and inquiry interest me. I research further and uncover phenomena in isolated fields of study that mirror information about my own private world. I then translate this empirical data into a subjective version to reflect the parallels I see.

I have tracked how energy is dispersed in a nuclear explosion and how energy is stored in a cell; exposed hidden topographies (of the human body, of the ocean floor); contrasted migration routes of birds to the migration routes of humans; and shown the stars exactly as seen above violent moments in American history.

These patterns reveal to me aspects of our existence, whether it is how we experience time and face the infinite - embedded in that is our own mortality - or how the boundary of the body is presented to others versus how it is felt internally.

I use the stitch to follow these trails, tracing the paths with my fingers. The dotted line of hand-stitching is a marker of uncertainty, a way of exploring. The time invested in making the work, allowing for contemplation and internalizing, becomes a part of how the work is viewed.

I see all of these elements as a form of mapping, reflecting the need to get my own bearings in this vast universe.” Anna Von Mertens (via)

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James Hoff: I’m Already a Has-Been exhibition / VI, VII, Oslo
August 31 — December 5, 2012

For his first exhibition at VI, VII, American artist, writer and editor James Hoff presents two groups of paintings based around language, and abstraction as a culture-bound illness.

One set of paintings tries to imagine a visual counterpart for syndromes that enter language through specific geographic contexts as the outcome of locally existing phenomena and paranoia—Nigerian ‘Brain Fag’ syndrome for example—formulating abstraction as a cultural malady that is linguistically spread.

A second set of works is based on drawings found at stationary stores in cities like Oslo and New York, casually and communally scribbled onto notepads when customers were testing their pens.

In these works, the scratch pad functions as a surrogate for abstraction illustrating the collective pathos of the community from which they were born. All of this, of course, goes back to Freud and can be traced through the Dadaist affinity with automatic writing and the very imperfect science of twentieth century gestalt theory which used mark-making as a way to determine cognitive skills, sanity and mental health.

In preparing this exhibition, the artist chose to include new works not previously addressed in this press release. The works were composed by means of flocking the areas left exposed after a first-pass tearing away at the shrink wrap around pre-fabricated canvases, freezing with small colored fibers set into wet paint, the exact moment the canvas is about to be freed to be painted on. In this sense each of these partially flocked works is a still life, soft to the touch, that documents the innate and every everyday activity of unwrapping a package. (via Contemporary Art Daily)

Images courtesy of VI, VII, Oslo. Photos by Jon Benjamin Tallerås.

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Ellen Schön: Vortex, 2012, Smoke-fired clay, 13” x 20” x 20”

Ellen Schön: Open-mouthed Totem, 2011, Stoneware, 19” x 5” x 4”

Francesco Ardini: Forms of meat, 2012, Stoneware, Pink Flesh Matt glaze (990°C), Plastic hair

Francesco Ardini: Envelopes series, 2012, Stoneware, glazes (990°C), approx 44-55 cm. each

David Gallagher: Out Of Place, 2012, Ceramic, Wood, Cement, Audio, Video, Interactive Digital Projection

David Gallagher is a ceramic artist from Philadelphia and completed his undergraduate work at the Tyler School of Art-Temple University. He is currently pursuing his Masters of Fine Arts at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas.

View David Gallagher’s works featured on Ceramics Now Magazine

More ceramic artists »

David Gallagher: Liminal Processing of Euclidean Data to No Available End, 2011, Stoneware, Porcelain, Enamel, Monofilament, Florescent Light, Digital Processor, Motors, and Lasers