Confluence: April 10th - April 30th
Confluence: a place where things merge or flow together. This is the theme for our upcoming show. The concept is bringing in visiting artists that merge together with a local artist. This concept brings perspectives that we may not get here in Eastern. So we thought it was a good idea.
We will be featuring the work of Nathan Orton (Portland, OR), Maria Kondratiev (New York), and our own Eric Coon.
Maria Kondratiev : Artist Statement
My work reflects the merging of painterly abstraction and graphic narrative. I employ various media in painting, drawing, and printmaking to reflect upon the identity of my imagery and to exhaust the possibilities of these mediums. Constructing a delicate hybrid made up of memory fragments and implied narrative, I choose imagery that reflects an interest in the romantic and epic Russian animations and folklore of my childhood and the figures, particularly female, that occupy my memories of these fictions and invade my narrative language. I draw from archived memories of my early childhood in St.Perersburg with my mother; everything from the superstitions recanted by my grandmother to Cosmos cigarettes, braided hair and miniscule teacups, carries a vivid child-like attention to detail. The drawings and paintings are an attempt to explore the detachment of fiction from reality, ultimately failing to distinguish between either.
Within intaglio I have been able to single out and draw attention to elements of the overall printed narrative. I use multi-dimensional copper matrixes upon which I etch bits-and-pieces that are often the most vivid elements within my memory. These fragments install smaller narratives into the time and space of the overall printed piece and overall story. The print, although acting as a whole, reveals smaller scattering elements that recall the individual lapses in time and detail of the larger self. In my pursuit to terrify, humor and fascinate I embellish on the recollected distortions of childhood fairy tales that are active in my subconscious and are activated by smaller drawings in the narrative of a larger print.
The works on paper in wet media although related to the print are very different in the way they are executed. The paintings are emotional landscapes that are often depicting dream imagery. My approach to printmaking and painting is inherent in the evolution of drawing. By drawing into painting, I borrow from the print to increase the tension between a drafting sensibility and painterly abstraction. Often I use plastic surfaces that lend themselves to the use of paint in a way that can be erased and layered. Using needles, colored pencils, and fingerprints I draw into the surface and by layering I allow a buildup that eventually is reduced to its recollected previous state. I accentuate and exaggerate the in-between spaces and gaps by rubbing out the figures, essentially allowing the background to become the ground. What remains on the surface is the aftermath of violence a pre-linguistic atmosphere in a state of suspended animation. I hope to evoke a dormant state of the subconscious and the hyper-conscious awareness of imaginative childhood memories invaded with exaggerated distortions that occur through time.
Biography
Maria Kondratiev was born in 1983 in St.Petersburg, Russian and moved to United States in 1993. In 2006 Maria graduated from S.U.N.Y. Purchase College with B.F.A. in Printmaking and Drawing. Upon her graduation Maria moved to New York City and currently lives and works in Brooklyn.
Nathan Orton: Artist Statement
With my sketchbook in tow I wander my city on foot or by bicycle and draw the people who cross my path. Once back in my studio, I look over my drawings and attempt to resurrect them using sculptural materials with the hope of creating three-dimensional objects that share the same spirit as my drawings. I am able to make lines with wire and mass with folds of paper, I feel free to manipulate, mark and erase parts of these figures, much like I would with a drawing. This process helps me to gain further knowledge of the drawings I originally captured.
It is my goal to represent the essence of the human form. The visual information that is offered, allows the viewer to interpret the work as a journalistic description of the surroundings that I bare witness to, a subtle study of the human body, or both of these.Biography
Born in Northern Idaho, in 1980, Nate Orton moved to Portland, Oregon after completing his Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Idaho, Moscow. Since then, he has lived what he calls a classy-poor lifestyle. He constantly draws, paints and sculpts his city and hinterlands trying to gain a better understanding of the people and structures around him.
Eric Coon: Artist Statement
My interest in art-making is centered around creating things larger than myself. The subjectivity of my work is motivated by and framed by archetypical forms, widely accessible in their primordial omnipresence. Currently, i am dealing with the idea of the shrine and the exaltation of the secular. Sacred art has been a dominate influence recently; my usage of static compositions with their religious flavor has been a tool in this construction. My starting point has inevitably been a focus on vision and more specifically the idea of vision as a creative force, where the definitive nature of perception houses a magnetism, fueled by desire and the will.
Past Shows
View the various shows of the past. View slideshows, read about the artists, and get a sense of how we do things around here.