“It’s gonna take a lotta love” is a group exhibition that explores ideas about
inclusivity, authenticity, and commonality in an age of anxiety, isolated individualism, and
virtually lived experience. The show is on view from March 7 – May 24, 2015, and is curated by
Liza Statton and Terri C. Smith. A free public reception will take place on Saturday, March 7th
from 6:00-8:00pm with member VIP reception from 5:00-6:00pm.
The artists in “It’s gonna take a lotta love” intentionally avoid many of the sensationalist
strategies used by the culture and advertising industries, Rather than critiquing these methods
of slick production, elaborate fabrication, and massive scale through ironic appropriation, they
make art that focuses on the aesthetic and conceptual potential of the everyday.
These artists
also share a type of tragic-comic vision of contemporary culture. Humor, joy, and melancholy,
among others, mix easily in their work. Such emotional credibility creates a slippage between
empathy and alienation.
Some artists create this slippage by making and re-making objects using seemingly
inconsequential materials.
Wayne White paints witty and sometimes biting phrases on found
paintings of pastoral landscapes and rustic barns. Andy Coolquitt resituates familiar materials
such as vinyl records, lightbulbs, synthetic shag fabric, and books-on-tape into installations
that are inspired by functions and spaces outside of the gallery. His works articulate a tension
between the familiarity of our real lives and the exclusive domain of the white cube gallery.
Whiting Tennis creates drawings, paintings and sculptures that pit Modernist art’s fascination
with pure form against an intentionally personal mode of a hobbiest aesthetic that wrestles with
ideas of concealment and containment.
Other artists such as Jon Campbell, Stephen Vitiello, and Jeremy Deller create subtle
interventions using everyday language and music. Deller’s poster “Attention all DJs” takes on
the form of a handwritten sign with tongue-in-cheek instructions for DJs. Jon Campbell’s “four
letter word flags” brightly declare words like “Yeah,” “Home,” and “Want.” By inserting his word
flags between country, state, or corporate flags in a city, Campbell prompts passerby’s to ask if
the words we all use are worthy of a public format usually saved for pagentry or branding.
Stephen Vitiello’s sound works in “It’s gonna take a lotta love” appropriate commercial music
from well known singers. With “Dolly Ascending” Vitiello slows down Dolly Parton singing “Stairway to Heaven” to the point where it sounds like choral music. In A.L. Steiner +
Robbinschild’s “C.L.U.E. Part I” video two women perform dance infused movements in
backdrops of natural and built environments, connecting color, action, attitude, and
environment in a straightforward way that includes the audience in their choreographed antics.
Two of the exhibiting artists, Andy Coolquitt and Jon Campbell, have been commisioned to
make new works for “It’s gonna take a lotta love.” In the gallery, Coolquitt, whose assemblages
reconsider the materials we unconsciously engage with, will be creating a new mixed media
installation entitled “oo oo.” Australian artist Jon Campbell has been commissioned to make
new works for the exhibition. His gallery contributions include a "four letter word" mural and a
set list painting, which is based on a Melbourne band’s 1984 performance. Campbell extends
his painting practice into the public sphere with an ambitious installation in Downtown
Stamford, his first in the United States. Campbell, who is interested in representing “the
overlooked and undervalued,” will design and exhibit flags and banners with the words: Hold,
Home, Look, Play, Want, and Yeah. The works will be mounted on existing flagpoles in public
parks, at office buildings, and on construction fences throughout Downtown.
Getting There:
Franklin Street Works is located at 41 Franklin Street in downtown Stamford, Connecticut, near
the UConn campus and less than one hour from New York City via Metro North. Franklin
Street Works is approximately one mile (a 15 minute walk) from the Stamford train station. On
street parking is available on Franklin Street (metered until 6 pm except on Sunday), and paid
parking is available nearby in a lot on Franklin Street and in the Summer Street Garage (100
Summer Street), behind Target.
The art space and café are open to the public on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday:
12:00pm - 5:00pm with extended hours on Thursdays, 12:00pm - 7:00pm. Franklin Street
Works does not charge for admission during regular gallery hours.
No comments:
Post a Comment