In Search of Conjunctions
Demian DinéYazhi’, Kerry Downey, Gabriel Jesiolowski, Ellen Lesperance and Sara Osebold
Saturdays, January 23- February 27, 2016
Opening Reception: January 23, 6-9pm
Project Diana: Lisa Mellinger
Writer in Residence: Gabriel Jesiolowski
Demian DinéYazhi’, Kerry Downey, Gabriel Jesiolowski, Ellen Lesperance and Sara Osebold
Saturdays, January 23- February 27, 2016
Opening Reception: January 23, 6-9pm
Project Diana: Lisa Mellinger
Writer in Residence: Gabriel Jesiolowski
The Alice is pleased to announce In Search of Conjunctions, a group exhibition of new drawing, photography, video and sculpture from Demian DinéYazhi’, Kerry Downey, Gabriel Jesiolowski, Ellen Lesperance and Sara Osebold.
The five artists featured in this exhibition find moments of quiet intimacy and meditation through texture and nature, while simultaneously exercising a critical linguistic wit. There is both a hiding and a boldness in these works. Vulnerable bodies, assertive bodies and protesting bodies are uniquely present. Their proximities call for new Conjunctions/ Calligraphies / Choreographies / Geographies / Cartographies / Oceanographies / Phonographies / Photographies / Poetries / … If this is a syntax nothing "fits" and these artists suggest a spirit of hope in the incongruence.
you could (not) be an artist and think it’s beautiful,
you could (not) be an activist and feel solidarity,
you could (not) be a craftsperson and see the skill
OR-
you could just come upon it and learn
and feel
In Search of Conjunctions is the first exhibition organized by The Alice 2016 curatorial team.
The five artists featured in this exhibition find moments of quiet intimacy and meditation through texture and nature, while simultaneously exercising a critical linguistic wit. There is both a hiding and a boldness in these works. Vulnerable bodies, assertive bodies and protesting bodies are uniquely present. Their proximities call for new Conjunctions/ Calligraphies / Choreographies / Geographies / Cartographies / Oceanographies / Phonographies / Photographies / Poetries / … If this is a syntax nothing "fits" and these artists suggest a spirit of hope in the incongruence.
you could (not) be an artist and think it’s beautiful,
you could (not) be an activist and feel solidarity,
you could (not) be a craftsperson and see the skill
OR-
you could just come upon it and learn
and feel
In Search of Conjunctions is the first exhibition organized by The Alice 2016 curatorial team.
Artist Bios
Demian DinéYazhi' is a Portland-based transdisciplinary artist born to the clans Naasht'ézhí Tábąąhá (Zuni Clan Water's Edge) and Tódích'íí'nii (Bitter Water) of the Diné (Navajo). His work can be understood through the lens of curatorial inquiry, zine production, street interventions, education, workshops, and transdisciplinary methods of art production. Demian’s work is rooted in Radical Indigenous Queer Feminist politics, landscape representation, memory formation, Indigenous Survivance, HIV/AIDS-related art & activism, gender, identity, & sexuality. DinéYazhi’ received his BFA in Intermedia Arts from Pacific Northwest College of Art in 2014. He is the founder & director of the artist/activist/warrior initiative, RISE: Radical Indigenous Survivance & Empowerment, which is dedicated to the education, perseverance, & evolution of Indigenous art & culture. He is the recipient of grants from Evergreen State College (2014), Portland Institute of Contemporary Art (2014), & Art Matters Foundation (2015). In March 2015, Demian will present a new body of work at Center for Contemporary Native Art at the Portland Art Museum in the Indigenous lands of the Multnomah (Portland, Oregon).
Kerry Downey (Ft Lauderdale, 1979) is an interdisciplinary artist and teacher whose work explores intersubjectivity and sensory experiences of the body. Downey reimagines the possibilities and limitations of gender, intimacy, and support in late capitalist America. Private feelings bleed unpredictably into the rug, your neighbor, and the surrounding landscape. Uncertainty and desire act as forms of resistance to the values of normative productivity.
Recent exhibitions have taken place at Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College (Annadale), The Drawing Center (NYC), Taylor Macklin (Zurich), Franklin Street Works (CT), REVERSE (Brooklyn), Invisible Dog (Brooklyn), and A.I.R Gallery (Brooklyn). Downey's work has been reviewed in Artforum, The Brooklyn Rail, The Village Voice, The New York Times, and The New Yorker. They are recent recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation Emerging Artist Grant. Downey was a participating artist in The Drawing Center’s inaugural Open Sessions program (2014-2015) and was a Queer/Art/Mentorship Fellow (2012-13). They have been an artist-in-residence at The Vermont Studio Center and Real Time and Space. They have recently taught at Hunter College and Parsons The New School for Design and currently work in Education at The Museum of Modern Art. Downey holds a BA from Bard College and an MFA from Hunter College.
Gabriel Jesiolowski works in a research-based practice using installation, interventionist strategies, painting, performance, printed matter, and text to navigate the crossings of art, social processes and healing. Theories of embodiment, trans* subjectivities and poetics have been of enduring interest to their practice. Over the past ten years he has taught art, writing and gender studies at the university level, curated traveling and site-specific exhibitions and has worked as a caregiver, wood finisher and designer. They collaborate with the NYC based design laboratory and architecture firm Atelier DNA, and currently develop programming for a queer arts and sciences residency and community resource center, The Institute for Emergent Ecologies. They currently live and work on Lopez Island.
Ellen Lesperance works and lives in Portland, Oregon. Her work pays tribute to direct action campaigns and feminist activism. Lesperance's paintings are based on knit garments worn by women involved in protests, sit-ins, demonstrations, and civil disobedience.Her work has been presented in solo and two-person exhibitions at Seattle Art Museum, Samson Projects in Boston, and PS122 in New York. She has participated in group exhibitions at institutions such as the Drawing Center in New York, Ashland Art Museum, Portland Institute of Contemporary Art, the Dahl Arts Center in Rapid City, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston-Salem, and Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art. The artist has received grants and awards from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Art Matters, Pollock-Krasner Foundation, and the Ford Family Foundation. Ellen's work is being shown at The Alice courtesy of her gallery in Portland, Adams and Ollman.
Sara Osebold is a Seattle artist primarily focused on sculpture and drawing. Her work comes out of an unwavering fascination with themes based on Nature, landscape, mystery and play. While sculpture allows her to delve into the conceptual realm, drawings give her access to the immediate and intuitive. She received her MFA at Pratt Institute, has been a past member of Soil and recently completed a summer residency at Seattle Presents Gallery sponsored by the Office of Arts and Culture.