Ties that Bind

Fowler-Kellogg Art Center, Chautauqua Institution

June 26 - August 10, 2018

Ties That Bind features work by contemporary artists who examine the fragility and resilience of our entanglements as well as their chosen medium. You will discover eight artists making work in glass, paint, cut paper, and everyday materials, but their commonalities are interspersed and nuanced.

ARTISTS: Jonathan Capps, Lisa Demagall, Crystal Latimer, Rebecca Rutstein, Katie Shaw, Leigh Suggs, Eric Standley

Curatorial Statement:

As a textile artist and lace-maker, I imagined the possibility of curating an exhibition based on the theme of lace work. After a year of research and discovery, the work I encountered revealed a deeper consideration of the structural intricacy and connectivity embodied by lace. Ties That Bind features work by contemporary artists who examine the fragility and resilience of our entanglements as well as their chosen medium. You will discover eight artists making work in glass, paint, cut paper, and everyday materials, but their commonalities are interspersed and nuanced.

 Replicating domestic objects in flame-worked glass, Lisa Demagall explores her family ties – particularly in works which reproduce her own grandmother’s heirloom lace. Crystal Latimer digs deep into her Costa Rican heritage, embellishing her gestural paintings with patterns found in Latin American tile work. Lace was often named for the place in which it was made. The paintings of Rebecca Rutstein draw inspiration from spaces that exist in the sky or underwater. Sui Park’s intricate sculptures made from fishing line and zip ties feel as though they were excavated from such spaces.

 Eric Standley’s laser-cut paper pieces are built of hundreds of delicate layers. They call to mind the visual opulence of gothic architecture or the sinews within the human body. Reminiscent of blueprints, Katie Shaw’s small worlds combine digital constructs with hand drawn patterns. Leigh Suggs plays with our optic experience through hand-cut intersecting lines and reflected color. These same reticulating lines are echoed in the exquisitely hand-blown vessels of Jonathan Capps.

These artists expose our attachments to time and place as well as our connections to each other. The desire to feel connected to something greater than us and the drive to test the boundaries of creation – these are the Ties That Bind us together.

PRESS:

Melissa Kuntz, ‘Ties that Bind Weaves Craft, Metaphor into ‘Timeless Form’, Chautauquan Daily, July 1, 2018