unstable objects
opening reception on September 2, 2017 from 4-7pm
Saturdays, September 2- October 7, 2017
The Alice is honored to have two guest curators, Kemi Adeyemi and Sampada Aranke, from September 2 - October 7 featuring works by artists Martinez E-B, Zachary Fabri, Steffani Jemison, Kambui Oluijimi and Amina Ross in their exhibition unstable objects, as well as, Portland based artist, Lisa Jarrett at Project Diana.
unstable objects examines sculptural forms that undertake peculiar affiliations between structure and ambiguity, transforming (dis)figured objects into questionable bodies of inquiry. As the attention to materiality itself is never divorced from racial hierarchies, the exhibition investigates trespassed boundaries between body/object, form/content, and visual/haptic as more than simply pressing against sculptural mandates. These unstable objects prompt counter-intuitive practices of looking askance, imagining sound, and feeling space that reflect on the presumed stability of The Body while revealing the formal as deeply social.
opening reception on September 2, 2017 from 4-7pm
Saturdays, September 2- October 7, 2017
The Alice is honored to have two guest curators, Kemi Adeyemi and Sampada Aranke, from September 2 - October 7 featuring works by artists Martinez E-B, Zachary Fabri, Steffani Jemison, Kambui Oluijimi and Amina Ross in their exhibition unstable objects, as well as, Portland based artist, Lisa Jarrett at Project Diana.
unstable objects examines sculptural forms that undertake peculiar affiliations between structure and ambiguity, transforming (dis)figured objects into questionable bodies of inquiry. As the attention to materiality itself is never divorced from racial hierarchies, the exhibition investigates trespassed boundaries between body/object, form/content, and visual/haptic as more than simply pressing against sculptural mandates. These unstable objects prompt counter-intuitive practices of looking askance, imagining sound, and feeling space that reflect on the presumed stability of The Body while revealing the formal as deeply social.
Curators
Kemi Adeyemi and Sampada Aranke are Assistant Professors at the University of Washington and School of the Art Institute of Chicago, respectively. Our work considers performance theories of embodiment, visual culture, and black cultural and aesthetic theory. We have written on contemporary practices in outlets ranging from e-flux, Artforum, and Art Journal to Sounding Out!, Palimpsest, and QED. This work has included catalog essays for Kambui Olujimi, Zachary Fabri, Sadie Barnette, Jovencio de la Paz, Oliverio Rodriguez, Marianne Fairbanks, and others. We look forward to convening conferences, colloquia, festivals, and exhibitions in London, Portland, Chicago, Seattle, and the Bay Area over the duration of 2017 and 2018.
Artists
Martinez E-B is a native of inner-city Cleveland, OH, and now living and working out of the Chicago, IL area, MARTINEZ E-B creates artworks that simulate the cultural/social/political fog of his birthplace. E-B received a BFA in Painting from Cleveland Institute of Art and his MA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Columbia College Chicago. He is a multidisciplinary artist who has illustrated and authored books, had his works adapted into theater, shown in numerous exhibits, and has recently been featured in Sound of Applause Cleveland and in LEF(t) an artist publication by Critical Practice Inc. NYC. Martinez E-B, is a devout advocate for social change and holds a seat at the Kent State University’s Culturally Responsive panel. He has also launched his own company, Red Light Go Studios, whose mission is to create entertaining critical thinking material for the benefit of the youth mind-set.
Zachary Fabri received his BFA in graphic design from New World School of the Arts in Miami in 2000. He continued his studies at Hunter College, where he received an MFA in 2007. His solo exhibitions include From the Wolf to the Fox, Aljira: A Center for Contemporary Art (2016), Marrow in the Morrows, Third Streaming, New York (2012), and Not Cool: Out of Balance, Galerie Open, Berlin (2010). His group exhibitions include Fore, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (2012); Civil Disobedience, White Box, New York (2010); Rockstone and Bootheel: Contemporary West Indian Art, Real Art Ways, Hartford, CT (2009); Metro Poles: Art in Action, Bronx River Art Center, Bronx, NY (2008); Neo Neo Dada, Rush Arts Gallery, New York (2007); Dark Matter, Galerie Open, Berlin (2007); Momentum: Nordic Biennial for Contemporary Art, Moss, Norway (2006); Domestic Affairs, Projekt 0047, Berlin (2006); and What Means Free?, Chelsea Hotel, New York (2005).
Steffani Jemison uses time-based, photographic, and discursive platforms to examine "progress" and its alternatives. Jemison's work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. Her work has been presented at the Museum of Modern Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Studio Museum in Harlem, The Drawing Center, LAXART, the New Museum of Contemporary Art, the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Art, Bridget Donahue, Laurel Gitlen,Team Gallery, and others. Her work is in the public collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Studio Museum in Harlem, and the Kadist Foundation. Jemison was born in Berkeley, California, and is currently based in Brooklyn, New York. She holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2009) and a BA in Comparative Literature from Columbia University (2003).
Kambui Olujimi was born and raised in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. He received his MFA from Columbia University School of the Arts and is a graduate of Parson's School of Design and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Olujimi works within the realm of ideas rather than within an exclusive medium. Although he has directed a great deal of work in film, his is truly a multi-media practice. He crafts potent social commentary from delicate wisps of myth and whimsy mixed with real-world narrative. Lyrical and elliptical rather than ideological, Olujimi’s art transcends the political sphere, affirming its own autonomy. Olujimi's work has been exhibited widely across the United States, with solo exhibitions at the CUE Arts Foundation (New York, NY); MIT List Visual Arts Center (Cambridge, MA); Apexart (New York, NY); and Art in General (Brooklyn, NY). His work has premiered at The Sundance Film Festival (Park City, UT), as well as group exhibitions at the Smithsonian Institute, (Washington D.C.); Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles (Los Angeles, CA); the Museum of Modern Art (New York, NY); Studio Museum in Harlem (New York, NY); and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (San Francisco, CA). Internationally he has exhibited at Museo Nacional Reina (Sofia, Madrid); Kiasma (Helsingfors, Finland); Para Site (Hong Kong, China); and The Jim Thompson Art Center (Bangkok, Thailand). His work is in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum of Art and the Orange County Museum of Art. His exhibitions have garnered reviews by Art in America, The New York Times, The New Yorker, ArtSlant, Modern Painters, Artforum, and The Brooklyn Rail, among others. In 2012, the exhibition monograph "Wayward North" was published by Art in General. He has received numerous grants and fellowships including from A Blade of Grass, The Jerome Foundation, and The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. Olujimi has completed residencies with Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (Skowhegan, ME); Apexart (New York, NY), The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (New York, NY); Civitella Ranieri (Umbertide, Italy), and The Fountainhead Residency (Miami, FL). He was most recently awarded a Rauschenberg Residency (Captiva, Florida). Kambui Olujimi has exhibited with Catharine Clark Gallery since 2010.
Amina Ross is an undisciplined artist born and raised in New York, NY. Amina currently lives and works in Chicago, IL. Founder and Director of Beauty Breaks, workshop and performance series.
Project Diana artist: Lisa Jarrett lives and works in Portland, Oregon, where she teaches classes in art and social practice at Portland State University's School of Art + Design. She exhibits nationally and currently has work in the Speaking Volumes: Transforming Hate exhibition.
Writer in Residence
Quenton Baker is a poet and educator from Seattle. His current focus is the fact of blackness in American society. His work has appeared in Jubilat, Vinyl, Apogee, Pinwheel, Poetry Northwest, The James Franco Review, and Cura and in the anthologies Measure for Measure: An Anthology of Poetic Meters and It Was Written: Poetry Inspired by Hip-Hop. He has an MFA in Poetry from the University of Southern Maine and is a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee. He was a 2015-2016 Made at Hugo House fellow and is the recipient of the James W. Ray Venture Project award from Artist Trust. He is the author of This Glittering Republic (Willow Books, 2016).
Love longs for an Object, a poem written in response to unstable objects