Frances Gallardo: Meteorology

What: Frances Gallardo: Meteorology
When: Saturday, January 18th – Sunday, March 2^nd, 2014  
Opening & Performance: Saturday, January 18^th from 2-4pm
Reception: Thursday, February 13th, 6-8pm; Curator Talk with Laura Roulet at 7pm
Where: Target Gallery, Torpedo Factory Art Center, 105 N. Union Street, Alexandria, VA
www.torpedofactory.org/target

Description: Target Gallery presents it’s first curated show of 2014, Frances Gallardo: Meteorology. The exhibition will run from Saturday, January 18^th through Sunday, March 2^nd, 2014 and will feature large-scale cut-paper installations, sculpture, and conceptual performance art. There will be an opening reception and performance on Saturday, January 18^th from 2-4pm. There will be an additional reception on Thursday, February 13^th from 6-8pm, which will include a curator talk by Laura Roulet at 7pm.  

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(Alexandria, VA) The deceptive beauty of Frances Gallardo’s cut-paper hurricane series belies the urgent underlying theme of climate change, which is a particular threat for her native island of Puerto Rico in the Tropics. Gallardo’s work combines exquisitely crafted cut-paper installations with conceptual performance art. Delving beneath the surface, paper serves as a metaphor for human skin and vulnerability. Based on satellite imagery appropriated from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) website, Meteorology includes large-scale cut-paper installations and sculpture. The public opening on Saturday, January 18 will include a site-responsive performance by the artist. 

About Frances Gallardo
Frances Gallardo (b. 1984 San Juan, Puerto Rico) lives and works in San Juan and New York. She graduated in 2008 from the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras. She has held residencies at the Center for Book Arts (NYC) and Beta Local (San Juan). In 2012, she was awarded the Lexus Prize and was featured in a solo exhibit at the Puerto Rican Institute of Culture in San Juan. This is her first exhibition in the DMV region.

Curator Information – About Laura Roulet
Laura Roulet is an independent curator and writer, specializing in contemporary and Latin American art. She was one of five international curators chosen for the citywide public art project, 5 x 5, a major initiative sponsored by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities in 2012. She has organized exhibitions in Mexico, Puerto Rico and Washington DC including at the Art Museum of the Americas, the Mexican Cultural Institute, Artisphere, Hillyer Art Space, Project 4, Fusebox and the DC Art Center. Recent exhibits include Sculpting Outside the Lines, an outdoor sculpture exhibit in Foggy Bottom and Medios y ambientes in Mexico City.  Her publications include many catalogue essays, encyclopedia entries, articles in American Art, Art Journal, Art Nexus, Sculpture, and the book Contemporary Puerto Rican Installation Art, the Guagua Aerea, the Trojan Horse and the Termite. She worked on the Ana Mendieta retrospective, organized by the Hirshhorn Museum in 2004, and contributed to that catalogue.

The entire exhibition will be online beginning January 18^th, 2014 at www.torpedofactory.org/target.

Look in to the "Void" with Radio Sebastian - Opening August 3rd!

What: Radio Sebastian: You, Me, and the Void
When: Saturday, August 3^rd – Sunday, September 1^st, 2013
Reception: Thursday, August 8^th, 6-8pm; Artist Talk at 7pm, FREE
Where: Target Gallery, Torpedo Factory Art Center, 105 N. Union Street, Alexandria, VA
www.torpedofactory.org/target

“Radio Sebastian looks into the subject of the “Void” and creates a new way of expressing and presenting it to the viewer…they are a true testament to the quality of Washington DC artists.”  - Samantha May, Juror, and Gallery Director of Hillyer Art Space

Description: Target Gallery presents You, Me, and the Void, a solo exhibition by Radio Sebastian, a collaborative between Corwin Levi and Yumiko Blackwell. The exhibition will include a site-specific installation, a series of mixed-media collages, and an interactive video piece. Join us for a reception on Thursday, August 8^th from 6-8pm to meet the artists and hear them speak about their work.

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(Alexandria, VA) The Torpedo Factory Art Center’s Target Gallery presents You, Me, and the Void, a solo exhibition by DC-based artists Radio Sebastian, which opens on August 3^rd and runs through September 1^st, 2013. Each year the Target Gallery hosts “Open Exhibition,” an open call for proposals for a solo exhibition. Three arts experts from the DC-area made up this year’s jury panel; Samantha May, Director of Hillyer Art Space, Foon Sham, noted sculptor and professor, and Morgan Hungerford West, founder and writer of the arts and lifestyle blog Pandahead. They reviewed close to 50 proposals individually, and then gathered for a group review of their top ten selections before naming Radio Sebastian the 2013 winners.

Radio Sebastian is a husband and wife collaborative between artists Corwin Levi and Yumi Blackwell. The title for the exhibition, You, Me, and the Void, comes from the artists’ examination of “the void," which they state in their proposal, has always existed. Yves Klein famously leapt into it. Anish Kapoor noted "the void is not silent" and described it as "that very first moment of creativity where everything is possible and nothing has actually happened."

To Radio Sebastian, they do not see “the void” as containing nothing, rather “a space where everything is possible and has already happened, but we most often access only sparks of creation and must work out the actual creating ourselves. It is the space in which everyone's creativity and power exist and from which we can glimpse moments of what is possible.”

The exhibition will consist of the manifestation of Corwin's void, a selection of poets' voids, and a selection of people at large's voids. Corwin's void is based in the word shine and the six-sided symbol he equates with it. He sees this word and this symbol as representing everything that an individual is capable of achieving and his void is full of them, for everyone. They will include in the show drawings of networks of this symbol, both abstractly and on top of photographs. The centerpiece of the exhibition will be a site-specific installation where they will write public domain poems on pieces of paper, tie them into floating bundles, and hang them from the ceiling with fishing line over stacks of poetry books and a tape drawing on the floor.

In addition, they will include video pieces where they have asked, and videotaped, many people saying the word "shine" for as long as they can, their personal shine, and their descriptions of the Void--and have edited these together. They will also encourage Target Gallery viewers to submit video clips (via email) for inclusion in their future exhibitions and to add to the videos in the gallery as the show progresses.

The entire exhibition will be online beginning August 3rd at www.torpedofactory.org/target.

Juror Information:
Samantha May is the Gallery Director of Hillyer Art Space, a non-profit D.C. art gallery dedicated to assisting local and international artists make their entrance, or re-entrance in to the DC art scene.  At Hillyer Art Space she oversees all exhibiting artists, mounts the monthly gallery exhibits, and chairs the Artists' Advisory Committee made up of well-established local artists; with Emeritus members including: Bill Christenberry, Sam Gilliam, and Manon Cleary. While at Hillyer Art Space she has simultaneously worked on her Master's Degree in Art History from American University, where her thesis on John Singer Sargent is now under review.
 
Sculptor Foon Sham received a BFA from the California College of Arts and Crafts, and a MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University. He is professor of Art at the University of Maryland, College Park. He has had 30 solo exhibitions in the Washington Metropolitan region and in New York, Ohio, Delaware, New Mexico, Canada, Norway, Mexico, Australia and most recently in Hong Kong. His work have been included group exhibitions at Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Art Museum of the Americas in Washington DC and Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. His public collections include the Nayatad Sculpture Park in Hungary, United World College in Norway, Universidid De Palermo in Argentina, the MacQuarie University in Sydney, Australia, the Sculpture Park at OMI International Arts Center in Ghent, New York, the Museum of Contemporary Arts of Yucatan, Merida, Mexico, the large scale sculpture at the Gallery Place-Chinatown Metrorail Station, the Convention Center in Washington DC and recently the Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong. He has also received many awards including a Residency Grant from the National Endowment of the Arts, and the Franz and Virginia Bader Fund from Washington DC and Strauss Fellowship from Fairfax County, Virginia. In Washington, DC he is represented by Project 4.

Morgan Hungerford West writes art and lifestyle blog Panda Head, and works in the realms of art direction and art production in Washington, DC. Her installations have been featured at the French Embassy and the Textile Museum; her line of handmade, vintage lace teepees have garnered mention in the New York Times, and are currently sold exclusively, and on a made-to-order basis, by BHLDN, the wedding branch of Anthropologie. Her various projects have been featured on Refinery29, Apartment Therapy, and LuckyMag.com, as well as in the Washington Post, Washingtonian Magazine, and Nylon Magazine.

Food: Friend or Foe - Reception postponed

Due to severe weather forecast (which we actually never got any of besides a little wind and rain) we had to reschedule our reception for Food: Friend or Foe. The new reception date is Sunday, June 30th, 2-4pm. Hope everyone can still make it and come meet some of the artists for this awesome exhibition!

One Million Bones

On May 6th, the One Million Bones project will come to the Torpedo Factory. Raising awareness about genocide that is happening all over the world today, this installation is made from over 1,000 ceramic bones created by different groups in the Northern Virginia area, including George Washington Middle School, Bishop McNamara High School, local recreation centers, churches, and more. This powerful installation will be on display through Friday, May 10th before it will be packed up to make its way across the river to join bones made from groups all of the country.

On June 8th and 9th, one million handmade bones crafted by students, artists and activists from around the world will be laid on the National Mall in Washington, DC. A striking symbol of our common humanity, these bones were made to honor those lost to genocide and mass atrocities and those still fighting to survive them in Sudan, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burma and Somalia.

Special Thanks to Torpedo Factory Artists Lisa Schumaier, Robert Rosselle, and Jennifer Hatfield.

Beyond Funtion Opens on May 4th!

What: Beyond Function
When: Saturday, May 4th – Sunday, June 2nd, 2013
Reception: Thursday, May 9th, 6-8pm; juror talk with Novie Trump at 7pm, FREE

Target Gallery presents Beyond Function. From precariously stacked bowls to “inflatable” dinosaur sculptures, the exhibition features ceramic works that go beyond utility, seeking to be valued for their aesthetic quality over their usefulness. In addition, juror Novie Trump and Laurel Lukaszewski will create a site-specific ceramic installation outside of the gallery. Join us for a reception on Thursday, May 9th from 6-8pm to meet some of the artists and hear a juror talk at 7pm.

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(Alexandria, VA) The Torpedo Factory Art Center’s Target Gallery presents Beyond Function, which opens on May 4th and runs through June 2nd, 2013. Throughout time ceramics has been an important part of our daily lives. When one hears the word ceramics, their first thought often goes to items such as tableware, tiles, vases, etc. While it can be appreciated for its aesthetics, this work is most likely regarded first for functional quality over artistic merit. This exhibition examines how artists today are using this ancient medium and going beyond utilitarian connotations, creating work that seeks to be valued as pure form.

Beyond Function will feature a wide range of work by thirteen artists from across the United States, and one from Turin, Italy. Artist David Bogus, from Laredo Texas, will show his piece Optimist Luggage 1. Bogus uses the slip-cast method, which is traditionally used in the mass-production of pottery, using molds made from both found and rendered objects to achieve a sense of scale and repetition. He applies principles of graphic design and color to achieve a superficial attractiveness while their contents have purposely been obscured offering both psychological and nostalgic metaphors.

Brooklyn-based artist Phoenix Lindsey-Hall presents Extinguish, part of the larger body of work After Kempf, an exploration into lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender hate crimes. Using mixed media, including ceramic, concrete, and found materials, Lindsey-Hall transforms everyday objects that have been used as weapons in specific hate crime cases. “Clay becomes skin as I press into the surface, leaving the trace of my hand and simultaneously representing the act of violence. Here the twisting, mutilation and ultimate undoing of the body is transferred to the objects. The disturbance of everyday objects calls into question the very system in which they exist.”

Selected artists include: David Bogus (TX), Jackie Brown (PA), Angela Carbone (TX), Mary K Cloonan (MD), Stephen Gian Mangione (CA), Clara Graziolino (Italy), Anita Holt (VA), Brett Kern (WV),  Phoenix Lindsey-Hall (NY), Shalya Marsh (PA), Lori Mills (NY), Tybre Newcomer (MI), Amanda Small (NC), Mary Sweeney (NY)

Juror Information – About Novie Trump
Novie Trump is a sculptor and installation artist working primarily in ceramic and mixed media. Formally trained in classical archaeology at the University of North Carolina, her work has been selected for juried and invitational exhibitions in the US and Europe and has been featured in numerous publications. Winner of the 2009 Strauss Fellowship, she has been awarded grants and commissions for several public art works, the most recent at the National Institutes of Health in Washington, DC. Trump is the founder and director of Flux Studios, a contemporary art space in Mt. Rainier, MD.