From: Nguyen Nguyen:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Michael Fila (301) 581-5194 mfila@strathmore.org
Strathmore Fine Arts Presents
2013-2014 Fine Artists in Residence Exhibition
Saturday, August 2 through Sunday, August 24, 2014 Gudelsky Gallery Suite
Gallery Hours
Strathmore Fine Art Presents
2013-2014 FINE ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE EXHIBITION Featuring New Works by chukwumaa, Ali Halperin, Ariel Klein, Nguyen Nguyen with mentors John Anderson, June Linowitz, John Wang, Eileen Martin
NORTH BETHESDA, MD – Emerging visual artists chukwumaa, Ali Halperin Ariel Klein, and Nguyen Nguyen will conclude their residency experience at Strathmore by unveiling new works in the art center's Fine Artists in Residence Exhibition. Their unique voices and contemporary perspectives are expressed through oil paint, hand drawn and digital illustration, mixed media, performance art, and soft sculpture. The exhibition is on view from Saturday, August 2 through Sunday, August 24, 2014 in the Mansion at Strathmore. The multidimensional exhibition will also include work from Fine Artists in Residence (Fine AIR) mentors—multidisciplinary artist John Anderson, sculptor June Linowitz, calligrapher John Wang, and glass artist Eileen Martin. For more information, call (301) 581-5100 or visit www.strathmore.org.
The first floor of the Mansion will feature past works by the Fine AIRs, collaborative works created with their mentors, as well as original works by the mentors. The second floor will feature new works exclusively by the Fine AIRs, with each artist highlighted in their own gallery space.
Strathmore's Fine Artist in Residence program cultivates local visual arts talent in the Washington, D.C. area by pairing artists early in their careers with established professionals in related disciplines and mediums. Fine AIR residencies last eight months, during which participants expand their craft and explore new artistic possibilities in professional development workshops, attend site visits, build their audience, develop a curatorial perspective, solidify their artistic voice and, ultimately, premiere a new body of work commissioned by Strathmore.
Artists Unveiling New Projects at the Fine Artists in Residence Exhibition
chukwumaa: Mixed-media sculptor and performance artist chukwumaa's work explores the concept of "belonging" by exploring the interactions between individuals and the group. He shares these observances using surreal performances and new media soft sculpture, using impermanent material such as video,
cardboard, store bought tape, found objects and bungee cords. chukwumaa will present a new perspective, positioning, and understanding of an older work called "HURR POEM," featuring performance, video and impermanent sculpture. The new work is titled "HURR POEM (Document)."
Ali Halperin: In her exploration of consumer culture, mixed media artist Ali Halperin entombs clothing in black tar. She pairs these works with plush handcrafted knits and fur textiles to construct bodily wall sculptures. She applies a hardening formula to the fabric, that she created herself over time, to couple the soft material with a rigid surface. The tar simultaneously represents the "elite" through its slick, black sheen, while nodding to the ostracized or maligned, those "tarred and feathered." She deconstructs the relationship between the physical body and commercial objects, exploring the fetishism of commodities and concepts of luxury and leanness.
Halperin received her BA from Barnard College at Columbia University in New York City, her Post-Baccalaureate Certificate at Maryland Institute College of Art, and a Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Ariel Klein: For his 2014 exhibition at Strathmore, Ariel Klein painted "The President's Own" United States Marine Band from life. Klein shadowed the musicians at public concerts, ceremonies, nighttime parades and to the funeral of a three-star general at Arlington National Cemetery, using his iPad as a canvas to make digital sketches which he then translated into oil paintings. By capturing band members in a contemporary style, Klein creates a fresh visual interpretation of the patriotic spirit represented by "The President's Own" United States Marine Band.
Named a distinguished Scholar in the Arts by Governor Martin O'Malley, the Silver Spring resident studied painting at the Maryland Institute College of Art and the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Facultad de Bellas Artes.
Nguyen Khoi Nguyen: Nguyen Khoi Nguyen is a multidisciplinary artist with expertise in drawing, painting, film-making, and music. He is currently working on a multimedia graphic novel titled The Gulf, the third chapter of which he created for his residency at Strathmore. The project is a nonlinear narrative; each story is its own vignette. The Gulf is inspired by Nguyen's experiences and family history, particularly living in Vietnam, Southwest Florida, and Washington, D.C., and includes stories, drawings, music, and animation. The title refers to the physical location of the Gulf Coast of Florida, where the artist was raised, as well as the idea of division—between adulthood and childhood, parent and child, and Vietnamese and American identity.
Nguyen studied visual art at the Cooper Union, music and integrated arts at Bard College, and completed a master's degree in jazz piano at the University of Maryland. Nguyen was the recipient of the DC Commission for the Arts Artist Fellowship Grant for 2012.
Strathmore Fine Artist in Residence Mentors
John James Anderson (mentor to chukwumaa): John James Anderson is an associate professor of art, and program coordinator of Visual Communication at Prince George's Community College. His work has received several grants from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and is represented locally by Adah Rose Gallery. He has also written art criticism for Washington City Paper, Art in America, and Sculpture. Anderson's work often defies categorization as he moves fluidly between painting, performance, sculpture, and mixed media. His work often references issues of social consciousness, such as labor issues, culturally marginalized peoples, gentrification, and urban places in transition.
However, his work at Strathmore represents a departure for Anderson as he returns to his roots in painting. Canvases cut into unconventional shapes are streaked with neon and brightly hued lines, creating linear abstractions.
For their collaborative piece, Anderson and chukwumaa are merging their performance styles by blending performance art with text.
June Linowitz (mentor to Ali Halperin): Sculptor June Linwotiz has been a working artist for nearly 30 years. Her current work is an evolving series of wall hanging, three dimensional heads that explore emotions and states of mind. The series explores several universal concepts: masks, emotions, and human facial expression. Most often, the bottom part of each head displays the facial expression associated with an emotion, while the top part interprets or comments on that emotion. Linowitz's wall hangings are primarily sculpted from polystyrene and wood, and painted with encaustic, a wax material.
For her collaborative piece, Linowitz and mentee Ali Halperin created a zombie mask, infusing Linowitz's current series with a cheeky pop culture reference. They will also display a work depicting an old and a young woman, created using digital illustration and traditional sculptural techniques.
John Wang (mentor to Ariel Klein): John Wang expanded an early interest in calligraphy and painting into the field of Chinese seal carving. He blends these related skill sets in his fine art. In 2014 he was designated a Seal Carving Master by the Maryland State Fine Arts Council. Wang currently teaches calligraphy at the George Washington University. He displays several traditional Chinese calligraphic works at Strathmore.
During weekly studio visits throughout the residency, Wang demonstrated for Klein the art of traditional Chinese calligraphy. Together they developed a calligraphic digital illustration for Strathmore.
Eileen Martin (mentor to Nguyen Nguyen): While glass artist Eileen Martin began her career in lead and copper foil stained glass fabrication and glass painting, she has expanded into fused and kiln-formed glass, lamination and sand-blasting. She incorporates a variety of other media into her sculptural works, including clay, metal, rubber, concrete, paper, stone and wood. She also does on-site restoration of stained glass in historic structures and churches. She is a member of the National Capital Art Glass Guild and the Washington Guild of Goldsmiths. At Strathmore she displays colorful layered glass sculptures that are textured, but also flat like a canvas.
Martin collaborated with pupil Nguyen Nguyen to mount panels of his graphic novel on glass, isolating the work from its larger narrative and inviting the viewer to perceive the piece in a new way.
About Strathmore
Strathmore is an arts presenter and cultural destination serving to nurture art, artists and community through creative and diverse programming of the highest quality. The Mansion at Strathmore is located at 10701 Rockville Pike, North Bethesda, MD, one half-mile north of the Capital Beltway and immediately adjacent to the Grosvenor-Strathmore station on Metro's Red Line.
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Strathmore is supported by a grant from the Maryland State Arts Council, an agency dedicated to cultivating a vibrant cultural community where the arts thrive. An agency of the Department of Business & Economic Development, the MSAC provides financial support and technical assistance to non-profit organizations, units of government, colleges and universities for arts activities.
Strathmore is also supported in part by the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County.
Strathmore Fine Arts Presents
2013-2014 Fine Artists in Residence Exhibition
Saturday, August 2 through Sunday, August 24, 2014 Gudelsky Gallery Suite
Gallery Hours
Mansion at Strathmore
10701 Rockville Pike
North Bethesda, MD 20852
For additional information or to purchase tickets visit www.strathmore.org or call (301) 581-5100.
