Joseph Shetler

Regarding Space

The presence and value of simplicity in my upbringing has greatly inspired my practice, both conceptually and aesthetically. Raised in a Mennonite family, the idea of simplicity pervades all aspects of life, from the modest architecture of our churches to our cookbooks, which are titled More With Less and Simply in Season. One of the theological questions we ask ourselves is how can we be in the world, but not of the world? Mennonite families typically live humbly; homes are not embellished with art, excess, or worldly items, but are rather of modest design, in which form follows function. One of the ways to live simply is to not place too much emphasis on the endless pursuit of worldly success, popular culture, and social media. As a visual artist, I create work that reflects these values; it’s a rejection of the things that I believe complicate our lives.Regarding Space is a proposal of an ideal space to exhibit an Untitled (Tyvek) series of 9 drawings. The exhibition itself would display each work in separate rooms, which would allow the materials to interact with light and space. This controlled environment creates a complete experience for the viewer by controlling how the work is seen. Regarding Space is meant to expose the complexities of the paper, graphite, and quiet forms.Thank you to friends, family, Maria Vizcaino, and Aaron Aeschliman, AIA.

Joseph Shetler (born Goshen, Indiana) is an American post-minimalist artist. He approaches post-minimalism with a Mennonite lens, basing his aesthetic off of anabaptist theology and simple way of life as well as art history. He was educated at Hesston College (A.A. 2004), Goshen College (B.A. 2006), and Arizona State University (M.F.A. 2014). He lives in Washington, DC. He recently has had artist residencies at Anderson Ranch, Ragdale, and Vermont Studio Center.

www.josephshetler.com

Accumulations

I see my drawings as places in transition; a tracing and excavation of numerous histories layered within a single form. Based upon my immediate surroundings, the images exist as record of physical, psychological, and spatial navigations: amalgamations of thousands of individual moments of consciousness. The drawings map day-to-day, month-to-month, and often seasonal changes manifested within a given space: the natural fluctuations of light, the shuffling of objects, and the shifting of my own physical proximity and perspective. Over time, descriptive information collapses, breaks down, and is rebuilt again. Fragmented moments of clarity and disorientation overlap one another, existing simultaneously within the drawn space. As charcoal possesses immediacy in its materiality that can be applied and taken away with ease, so are the numerous panels of paper added and subtracted throughout the drawing’s organic evolution. Similar to tectonic plates, the panels of paper shift, split, converge, and diverge in response to pictorial pressures, suggesting individual cavities of space. In this manner, the drawings are in a constant state of flux, both in their visual forms and physical construction.

Christian Brahe is a painter. He received his BFA from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 2012, and his MFA from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 2014. Brahe lives and works in Williamsburg, Virginia.

christianbrahe.com

Handmade

“Handmade” is a series of new sculptures that explore my reinterpretations of common manmade objects and techniques of building forms by hand. I am fascinated with discovering new approaches to working with a material and enjoy the challenge of trying to resolve how I can utilize these to make forms. The resulting sculptures are up front infused with humor and playful explorations of materials but throughout the work I explore ideas about gender roles and self-reflection. These themes are more pronounced in some work and subtle in others. Ultimately my hope is that the viewer looks and contemplates them a little deeper to realize these manipulated objects and materials hold layered ways to experience and interpret meaning.

Suzi Fox is a sculptor based in Northern Virginia. She has exhibited in several national and regional exhibitions. Her work uses process as the primary means for generating form and the potential play of meaning. Through manipulations such as carving, weaving and twisting materials she begins to understand the direction to pursue for a sculpture. Fox received her Master of Fine Arts at Rhode Island School of Design and her Bachelor of Fine Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University. She is an Adjunct Professor of Sculpture in the District.

www.suzifox.net

Synchronicity

I was twelve when I first saw Francis Bacon’s Study after Velasquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X at the Des Moines Art center. After thirty years I still see his influence on my work. My figurative work like Bacon’s are often solitary and displayed in a series. Our compositions are both haunting and distorted; influenced by the progression of time and the motion of the figure. The visual representation of movement and time’s effect on the human form is vital to my work. In my paintings I distort time by overlapping various moments together in one composition.
I use a combination of photography, digital collage, animation and projections to create multifaceted figures that appear to move and animate. One composition may consist of four or five different poses and time frames. Overlapping echoes – a figure may merge into another or become a haunting monstrous abstraction – appearing to be trapped between an important decision and a solitary disquieting moment. I describe the figures as complex layers of half-truths, fading and emerging from displaced time and space. Inspiration for my work comes from the notion that our conscience is guided by our experiences and the limitless decisions we make each day. The paintings in this show are a visual representation of those decisions.What you see is a human form collaged together from separate time frames and reassembled to create a portrait outside of measurable reality.

Scott Hutchison received his BFA in 1995 at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa and an MFA in painting from The George Washington University in 1999. He currently resides in the DC metro area; teaching painting and drawing at Georgetown University and at The Art League. His artwork has been featured in a variety of venues. Most recently his drawings were selected for “Drawing: The Art of Seeing” at The Atlantic Gallery in New York City and “Perspective: Fresh Look at Contemporary Painting and Drawing” at The Hillyer Arts Space in Washington DC. Highlights from his solo exhibition record include: “In Motion”, at Red House Art Center, Syracuse, NY and “In Sequence” at the Blackrock Center for the Arts in Germantown Maryland.

www.scotthutchison.com

Wayward Passages

In Persian you “see” dreams, in English you “have” them. Do we observe or possess dreams?
Dreams and works of art are and aren’t true. They both challenge reality, trying to replace what is with what might be, and generate an altered state of consciousness. They are both fleeting and lend themselves to interpretation.
In this body of work, I am exploring these concepts by giving my dreams a physicality that exists independent of me. I use the dream imagery to access and possibly unleash authentic human experiences.
Dreams here have an existence independent of, and external to, the dreamer.

Bahar Jalehmahmoudi is an Iranian-American artist who works as an installation artist and sculptor. She received her B.A in 2009 from San Diego State University, and her MFA in studio art in 2013 from University of Maryland, College Park. As an artist who grew up in Iran, her artworks reexamine freedom, femininity, identity, and humanity. Her mixed media works transform recycled and found materials often associated with femininity into constructed assemblages. While the materials she utilizes are quite familiar, even commonplace, the densely layered forms she creates blur the boundaries of form and function, body and space, seduction and revulsion. Her work celebrates femininity through the socio-cultural mirror of Persian artistic culture. It originates in personal experiences, but ultimately addresses universal artistic, political and social ideas and aspirations.