In this Issue
•A Word from Dubhe…
•Gallery Artists at NCECA
•Joan Winter’s Art Video Documentary
•Our Current exhibition
Dubhe outside her gallery in the West Loop
•For
comments, questions or feedback about the gallery or this newsletter please
e-mail Dubhe:
info@dubhecarrenogallery.com
•Visit
our website for a complete list of artists and exhibitions.
www.dubhecarrenogallery.com
Roxanne Jackson setting up at the Material Matter's NCECA
2010 Invitational Exhibition.
Dennis Lee Mitchell, Under My
Skin #9 at the Material Matters, NCECA Invitational Exhibition.
Gallery View of current solo exhibition by Roxanne Jackson's
BLINDSIGHT
Roxanne Jackson, Hoof Heels, 2010, ceramic, glaze,platinum gold luster,
flock, fur, 9" x 8" x 4" each
Roxanne Jackson discusses her
work during a gallery talk on May 22.
C o n n e c t w i t h u s :
Newsletter#1
A Word From Dubhe…
Our first Newsletter!!! The time has come to finally launch the Dubhe
Carreño Gallery Newsletter. I have been very observant of other galleries’
communications with their audiences—clients, artists and gallery friends
alike. I love the informal nature of some of them and would like to follow
in their footsteps—I tend to be very formal in all communications and it is
time to loosen up and share with all of you what we are doing and what the
gallery’s artists are up to. The objective of this letter is to bring you
closer, even if you are miles away from Chicago, with just a few articles
per newsletter and create a platform for dialogue and keep you in the loop.
Don’t worry! I won’t overwhelm you with too many of these. I’m planning to
follow a quarterly format to start with and see how much you enjoy it. To
know that, I’ll need to get your feedback—questions, comments, requests,
etc.
To fill you in on background information, I re-opened the gallery in
Chicago’s West Loop this past fall and already feel right at home. I love
the neighborhood, the galleries I am surrounded by and the energy they share
with me. I will continue focusing on contemporary ceramics even though
sometimes there may be no ceramic work on display in the gallery, as many
pointed out during the previous exhibition by Joan Winter. My interest in
ceramics is a manifestation of my response to artists considering the
content that materials add to their work. Therefore there was no surprise
to me when I fell in love with Joan Winter’s works on paper and mixed media
sculpture. I look forward to receiving your feedback and hope you will
enjoy getting to know the gallery more.
On another note, I am very excited that I will be visiting Watershed Center
for the Ceramic Arts for the first time this summer for their annual Salad
Day on July 10 in Newcastle, ME. I love what they are doing, many of artists
I work with have benefited by their programs and I want to support their
mission and efforts.
To find out more about
Watershed and ways you too, can support their mission visit their website at
www.watershedceramics.org
I look forward to hearing from you! You can call me or send me an email at
312-666-3150 or
info@dubhecarrenogallery.com
Have a great summer!
Dubhe
Gallery
Artists at NCECA 2010
 |
After a very successful exhibition of Le Cirque de L’Armee Rouge, at the gallery here in Chicago this past January, Anne Drew Potter had a very strong presence in Philadelphia at the National Council on Education for the Ceramics Arts (NCECA) Conference. Anne Drew’s Sym and Asym (left) figurative duet was exhibited at the Wexler Gallery at a powerful exhibition curated by Leslie Ferrin titled The Hermaphrodites: Living In Two Worlds.Also Anne Drew's Three Little Girls with the Shirley Temple Curls was featured at the Dis/Arming Domesticity exhibition, curated by Gail Brown at the Wallingford Community Arts Center. |
Alongside the very unnerving collection of human specimens at the Mütter
Museum, Anne Drew Potter’s iggy and
Roxanne Jackson’s Cadaver Study with Grill
were shown at an exhibition curated by Sasha Koozel Reibstein titled
Corporeal Manifestations. The Mütter Museum produced a very interesting
video piece featuring Roxanne Jackson and Sasha Koozel Reibstein. You can
watch it here:
http://www.collphyphil.org/
Congratulations to Anne Drew Potter, awarded with the NCECA International
Residency and Roxanne Jackson, winner of the Jerome Grant for Ceramic
Artists.
Joan Winter’s Documentary of Silent Light
click on the image to view video
For the first time, Dubhe Carreño Gallery produced
an artist’s documentary of the exhibition Silent Light by
Joan Winter. The 15 minute artist’s
video documentary turned out to be a
beautiful documentary that succeeds in capturing the artist’s vision and
sensibility. In this documentary the artist discusses her inspiration and
process whiled addressing individual works in the exhibition.
Our Current Exhibition
Roxanne Jackson: BLINDSIGHT
Written by: Jennifer Baker
Currently the gallery is featuring a show of mixed media and ceramic
sculpture by Roxanne Jackson, entitled BLINDSIGHT. The show is a dynamic
installation of disconcerting beauty, as it urges the viewer to consider the
victimization of several animal species which are commonly thought of as
hunted prey. Upon entering the space,
Jackson invites us to take on the role of animal, to dress as Pan, with a
pair of sensationally high-heeled, ceramic, flocked and gold-luster cloven
hooves that sit near the door. As we begin to consider the animal side of
our self, we witness a tableau of desecrated creatures: a suffering fawn, a
regal bison turned trophy, and a pair of stillborn white bison calves. The
pale, silent twins rest in the center of the gallery floor and are reflected
in a Rorschach-like wall painting. They are breathtakingly sorrowful. The
uncanny symmetry of their death is underscored by the Native American
auspicious legend that is attached to the birth of an albino bison. The
wall painting implores us to search and identify the unseen, the shadow, the
Other.
Jackson gave an insightful artist’s talk on Saturday, May 22, following the
opening reception on Friday. In her talk, she revealed her background in
botany and her experience as a river guide working in the varied
wildernesses of California, Alaska, and Nepal. She described her experience
of protecting people from the likes of grizzly bears and other predators –
on more than one occasion – with only pepper spray as a weapon. Her
experience of living in a civil world where animals are domesticated and
contained as well as in a wilderness where she might just as soon become
prey is evident within the work. Though animals are presented as
decorative skins and as a trophy head (nods to man’s role as hunter), the
tenacity of the creatures’ will to live is hinted at in some of the work:
the fawn bares tiny fangs if you look closely and the bison’s tongue hangs
from its mouth in the most mocking of gestures. They seem to warn us
against becoming too comfortable in our own perceived safety.
As an audience, we are compelled to feel a sense of empathy for these
animals. We are challenged to question
both aspects of our consciousness: our active conscious mind – the human
side – that is capable of logic and reason, and our unconscious mind – the
animal side – that is more savage and instinctual, to determine just where
this empathy emerges from. As logical and reasonable species we sit atop
the food chain, taking on the role of hunter rather than the role of the
hunted. In this role we often find ourselves also the protector.
Jackson reminds us here that this empathy may not only come from a logical,
reasonable place, but from our recognition of how easily we can fall victim
to the predatory nature of emotion and impulse.
_______________________________
Thank you!
Thank you for your interest in the gallery and look forward to seeing you
soon.