Category: Art Residency

Gathering: Artist Ankica Mitrovska

7/24/2017

Abrams Claghorn Gallery
1251 Solano Ave, Albany, California 9470

Showing July 5 - August 31, 2017
Recption: Saturday July 15, 5 - 7 pm
Artist Talk: Saturday August 12, 5 - 7pm

www.ankicamitrovska.com

Ankica Mitrovska was featured in our Spring 2015 where we specifically discussed the relationship between the aggressor and victim, the duality between powerful and vulnerable, and so much more. She's exhibited all over the United States and internationally, including Macedonia, where she grew up. We're thrilled Ankica has joined us for Venison's Retrospective with Untitled (D.T.).

Untitled (D.T) // mixed media // 12" x 8.5" x 0.3" // now on view at Abrams Claghorn

detail view of Untitled (The Demise of Bog) // charcoal, acrylic paint, wire, wood, plastic // 8' x 8' //2015 // Outpost Residency Missouri

Artist Statement:

My work operates on the dualities of aggressor and victim, powerful and vulnerable, the same way along which politically driven ideologies are implemented in western contemporary society. Thus, different means of control such as surveillance over people, controlled media, and propagation of fear create social anxieties of isolation, oppression, and division. The metaphorical nature of the work is intended to be a starting point of questioning the social and political structures we live in.

My work alternates between drawing, installation and video performance.

My central interests are concerned with gender (in)equality, social (in)stability, social pressure, power relationships and the individual's or collective psychological transformations over resisting and embracing social change.

See the work!

Gathering: A Venison Magazine Retrospective

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An opening at François Ghebaly Gallery, Los Angeles

9/13/2015

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Candice Lin and Dan Bayles opening, September 12, 2015 7-10 pm by Nazish Chunara

Candice Lin recently finished a residency at the 18th Street Arts Center, an organization I volunteer with and absolutely admire. So of course I had to go to the opening of Lin's You Are a Spacious Fluid Sac at François Ghebaly Gallery, where she is a returning exhibitor. I came upon so much more than I'd expect and can't stop thinking about what I saw. Lin has filled the gap between art and anthropology in such a straightforward and beautiful manner. Neither her website, or Ghebaly's website do it justice; I highly recommend heading down to the gallery to see it for yourself.

Along with Lin, Dan Bayles' exhibit was quite alluring. Once you step into the gallery, the first thing you'll see is a wall full of serene colors and images. Bayles work is so different then Lins, but they exhibit well together because each artist provokes wonder. My friend and I found ourselves trying to guess the titles of these paintings based off of how they made us feel. It's like he was going to tell us how to feel with each piece we looked at, and he's really good at it. I can see why Bayles is a returning exhibitor at this gallery. The Apotheosis of Washington is another must see.

The exhibits will be up until October 24th, 2015.
François Ghebaly Gallery
2245 E. Washington Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90021

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Time Peace &The Hustle (In Progress) - Studio Visit with Anja Ulfeldt

4/6/2015

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Studio Visit by: Danielle Schlunegger

Public Reception: Saturday April 11th, 4-8pm
Lost & Foundry Oakland
305 Center Street, Oakland CA, half a block from West Oakland BART

Lost & Foundry Oakland will be unveiling new works by Artist in Residence, Anja Ulfeldt this upcoming Saturday. Time Peace is the culmination of a 5-week residency featuring a series of rotary devices that measure time and symbolize its passage. I wanted to visit her in the studio for a little sneak peek before the opening. Upon entering the metal door of The Lost and Foundry Gallery this past Wednesday, I was immediately confronted with two huge barrel-like structures, and several smaller versions lining the walls. Covered in mahogany and cherry veneer, the wall "tumblers" still had their plexiglass faces covered and tapped tight with blue painters tape, evocative of large faceless wall clocks.

As part of the crowd funding campaign to build the work during her residency, contributors donated objects that they had felt an attachment to for one reason or another to be weathered down by these tumblers. In effect this transformation would lift the weight of the donor’s previous inability to let go of the objects, relieving them of their attachment through a mechanical weathering of the object.

“You’ll be able to see through them,” says Ulfeldt, placing her fingers on the blue tape holding the industrial covering onto the plexiglass, gently spinning it on the wall.

“The tumblers are definitely a sound piece. They have these mahogany shelves inside like a dryer, that help lift/stir the contents and then drop them. It's supposed to be like a chorus of randomly timed falling sounds. The motors make a whirring/grumbling sound when they run. I kinda love it! I just got a donation of a pile of coins too which will probably sound great falling every couple of minutes." Across the room she pulls a cardboard box out from under a collapsible table and sits cross-legged on the floor, opening the flaps. Inside rests the collection of objects that have been donated for their eventual destruction.

“Growing up in what might have qualified as a hoarder house I have a close personal relationship to the question of what gives an object power over us emotionally? What makes us love an object of art for reasons we sometimes don’t understand? Often in art there is a focus on longevity. Some artworks are made of stone and can outlive the civilization that created them while others are intentionally ephemeral. But what about other items those individuals collect and keep in their lives and how does this relate to wealth accumulation and assignment of value on objects, material and art? I'm particularly interested in how we assign value to possessions beyond the obvious monetary value of the materials they contain.”

She shows me a sand dollar with -January 5th 2014 -Surfing for the first time- written in fat black marker on the back. Then pulls out a pair of glasses, some hearing aids, a softened and sad looking plaster cast of a child’s face, a little ceramic bird, and several other everyday objects from the box.

“I know the story of some of these objects better than others,” she said holding the sand dollar out to me as we rummaged through the box together. I turned it over in my hand and knew this was the last time I would see these little objects that someone, somewhere, had cherished in their whole, un-mutilated state.

She closed up the box and placed it back under the table, and humored my curiosity regarding the giant wheels in the center of the room.

I watched her step into one, and as it turned around and around with her steps it became evocative to a time in my childhood. For a moment I was back in a county fair funhouse, rolling about with a bunch of other squealing children in an oversized padded wheel. The sounds of those memories faded away and all was silent except for the loud whirring of the metal-framed wheel turning under the warm gallery lights.

Ulfeldt steps out and explains The Hustle (working title), “… Invites visitors to enter one of two walks of life: one a fast-moving hustle, the other a seductively soft resting place. These take the form of rotary drums sharing an axle and transmission. The gearing is designed so that the movement of the fast-paced climbers eventually destabilizes those lounging on the slow-moving side. The treadmill … speaks to the labor of love that is sculpture and the sculptors’ love of labor. The Treadmill represents the desire for purpose and the need to work toward that purpose. If you can understand the idea of art for art’s sake then why not labor for labor’s sake.

"This piece is also inspired by the level of hustle required to survive as an artist in the Bay Area. While the love is the labor and the labor is the love there is still this feeling that if you stop to rest you may never make it back onto the wheel or that the fast paced world of money may just pass you by. The level of hustle required to be an artist in the Bay Area is increasing at a rapid rate and many people are leaving. So I pose the question: How much hustle can you sustain? Is it really worth it?”

Ulfeldt stairs up with tired eyes at the pair of wheels she has meticulously welded together and layered in plywood. I left her to her work at the Lost and Foundry studio. She seemed anxious to get back to it, probably with a grand to-do list looming in her head.

The question Ulfeldt had previously stated rang again and again in my head. At first this question in her statement threw me off.

“Is it worth it?”

As an artist, The Hustle speaks to me of the amount of work many Bay Area artists must endure to be able to sustain their practice: working 40 hours a week, producing art, maintaining the work load and personal relationships, and the attempt to grow an ever evolving network to forward my creative career. This is a task many artists face. It can be wholly overwhelming at times, and can feel utterly unsustainable. How do I keep my own momentum moving forward without overturning everything I’ve been working towards?

“Is it worth it?"

"Is it really worth it?”

You can Interact with The Hussle (working title) and join Anja Ulfeldt for a public reception of Time Piece this Saturday April 11th, 4-8pm at Lost & Foundry Oakland
305 Center Street, Oakland CA, half a block from West Oakland BART

http://lostandfoundryoakland.com/
http://www.anjaulfeldt.com/

Anja is the Co-Founder and Director of Basement Gallery Oakland (slated to reopen in May, 2015) as well as a founding member of the Artstead Boat Project, a floating venue for art and performance built from a converted potato barge. She is a recipient of the Visions from the New California Award in 2010, TSFF & SOMArts Murphy and Cadogan Contemporary Art Award in 2013 and The AAF/Seebacher Prize for Fine Arts in 2014 resulting in a three-week fellowship at the International Summer Academy of Fine Arts in Salzburg, Austria.

The daughter of a painter and an engineer, Anja grew up in Berkeley, CA, and earned her BFA from California College of the Arts in 2001 and her MFA from Stanford University in 2014. Her recent installations have become know as “performable objects” and are physical scenarios in which the participant becomes an impromptu performer.

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Sewing Seeds

2/22/2015

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Yesterday, Adriana and I installed 25 Cocoons upstairs at Elsewhere Studios in Paonia, Colorado. It's been nearly two months of home visits, wet felting and personalizing these little hovels and finally, it's all come together in a whimsical installation. I'm only going to give you some teaser shots in hopes that if you are local you'll come out to see this interactive installation in person. If you're not local, have no fear we will post a weekly about how the opening went, next week, so stay tuned and subscribe.

Come out and see, feel, smell, and hear the art of the evening at Elsewhere Studios next to the Flying Fork Cafe on Thursday Feb. 26th from 6-8pm.
Read more about the show, and all the projects and artists involved here.

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January Opening at Elsewhere

1/30/2015

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Yesterday, Elsewhere hosted its January opening showcasing the work of our fellow resident Nazish Chunara. During her one-month stay she completed a large-scale paper installation and a series of printed textiles. Nazish delved head-first into her first-ever installation and took her geometric paintings to the next level. (Claps all around!)

Installation by Nazish Chunara

The show also highlighted the past work and in-progress experimentations by gouache and watercolor extraordinaire, Aralia Diana Rose.

Left, works by Aralia Rose, Right fabric prints by Nazish Chunara

Amber and I showed our in-progress collaborative installation in the upstairs studio as well as a few samples of our solo work

It was a lovely night of white wine spritzers, home-made samosas (Thanks, Nazish!), interactive fiber art, lushly illustrative gouache experimentations, suggestive clay sculptures, and good company. Thanks to all who came out to support the Elsewhere residents and celebrate Nazish's time here! Come back this February 26th to see our finished Paonia Cocoons installation and various solo projects. Also, it's not too late to have your home or business represented in the Paonia installation. Email us at venisonmagazine@gmail.com for more info on how you can get involved.

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First Week at Elsewhere

1/14/2015

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You can officially make fun of us, Paonia, we both suffered from altitude sickness for the first few days while we stayed at Elsewhere. Dizziness, nausea, and disorientation hit us and crippled our motivations to construct work. We spent the first four days thinking and talking things through. By Friday, we had come up with a concept and ordered materials for our collaborative work, which was good since we needed to talk about it at the meet and greet that evening.

Adriana sketched this wonderful image to help illustrate our collaborative plans at Elsewhere. We will be making cocoons representing the homes and businesses of Paonia using wet felting techniques, stitching, home-visits, and object collecting. These cocoons will be installed in the upstairs studio and hung from canopy of woven sticks and twigs collected from around Paonia. The result will be an installation-map in which each cocoon will represent the identity of a place in Paonia and explore what is quintessential about each location.

Paonia Cocoons Sketch by Adriana Villagran

While we waited for our wool for wet felting to arrive, we played and experimented with fiberous materials. Tomato was a big help, he really knew just what to do and when to do it.

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Elsewhere Studio Blog: Our Arrival

1/6/2015

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Too nervous to jinx our arrival to Paonia after our car frustrations the first day, we spent the 5-hour car drive from Richfield avoiding any celebratory statements about finally getting there until we actually pulled up to the green house with “Elsewhere Studios” emblazoned across the facade. The house is quite possibly the most beautiful and imaginative house we’ve had the privilege to inhabit. It has a giant drift wood banister on the stairs, a basement live-work space with a hobbit door (which Amber and I warmly refer to as Bag End), radiant wood floors to warm your feet, and a cat named Tomato who loves everyone and shows it by climbing up into your lap and giving you a hug. Amber and I will be living and working in the upstairs portion of the house which includes a small bedroom and living nook, free-standing bath tub, a concrete shower, and lots of storage space. It is a charming and unassuming space perfect for facilitating our artistic practice.

Our live-work space in the upstairs portion of the house.

The back of the house, complete with hobbit hole.

Tomato, lord and master of Elsewhere Studios.

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Weekly Blog

Gathering: Artist Ankica Mitrovska

Artist Statement:

See the work!

An opening at François Ghebaly Gallery, Los Angeles

Time Peace &The Hustle (In Progress) - Studio Visit with Anja Ulfeldt

Studio Visit by: Danielle Schlunegger

Sewing Seeds

January Opening at Elsewhere

First Week at Elsewhere

Elsewhere Studio Blog: Our Arrival

Author

Categories

Weekly Blog

Gathering: Artist Ankica Mitrovska

Artist Statement:

See the work!

An opening at François Ghebaly Gallery, Los Angeles

Time Peace &The Hustle (In Progress) - Studio Visit with Anja Ulfeldt﻿

Studio Visit by: Danielle Schlunegger

Sewing Seeds

January Opening at Elsewhere

First Week at Elsewhere

Elsewhere Studio Blog: Our Arrival

Author

Categories

Time Peace &The Hustle (In Progress) - Studio Visit with Anja Ulfeldt