Blog

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Meet My New StudioAssistant

I have a new studio assistant! YAY!

Meet Jeese Durost

Jesse is currently cutting ribbon, making yarn from recycled materials and drilling tens of thousands of bottle caps and corks I’ve been hoarding or received as gifts from hoarder friends these last 9 years. You know who you are and I thank you. XOXO.

Jesse currently lives and works in Queens, New York and rides his bike and takes the PATH to Sky Garden Gallery a couple days a week to help me out.

For his own artwork, Jesse utilizes found and common materials, to build precarious, architectural sculptures, paintings, videos and digital works that attempt to exist in a state of perpetual flux. He is interested in exploring the peripheral aspects of the exterior world, how they inform and are informed by interior, subliminal states of being.

Jesse received his BFA from Columbus College of Art and Design in 1998. His work has been exhibited at The Soap Factory in Minneapolis, 33 Orchard in New York City, and 1430
Contemporary in Portland, Oregon.

To see some of Jesse’s personal works visit www.Jessedurost.com

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Quarantine Check In From Sky Garden Gallery

If I’ve learned anything during this time of uncertainty, things happen when they happen. And for a reason… If I just allow, there is less stress and anxiety in the not knowing of things.

… for real.

If you want to social distance watch a sunset with me from Sky Garden’s roof deck in Jersey City, please let me know. Open sky and air… and this view…

Ping me your avails.

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Kenya Art Residency Update: Turning Lemons into Lemonade

This month, I was supposed to be in Kenya learning beading and basketry techniques but my artists residency with Now Friends was postponed/canceled. Damn you Corona…  

For a little inspiration visit with my Pinterest scrapbook Kenya Residency 2020 board instead.

I have been experimenting all year with recycled materials in preparation for this residency.  I am ready so, switch up and plan B, turning lemons into lemonade mode…

I enrolled in a ZOOM alternative weaving and basketry intensive program at the Textile Arts Center (NYC) later this month. It isn’t Kenya, but I am moving forward advancing my skills using bottle caps, wine corks, plastic bags, ribbon gifted to me by so many of my favorite people. You know who you are.

Watch my Instagram Stories to see how these works progress.

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Sky Garden Gallery @ Virtual Access JC Fridays

On June 5, 2020, McCarty and I participated in @ Virtual Access JC Fridays to show fibre works from I Am My Hair while I demonstrated the Larks Head Knot .

Watch our segment.

Or to experience the self guided I Am My Hair Workshop slide show please visit this – link

JC Fridays is a seasonal arts festival in Jersey City, New Jersey presented by Art House Productions. 

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Material Identity In Colorado

In the exhibition Material Identity, artists and makers are invited to explore the substance of material, paying special attention to their place in the world, either from a focus inward, or how they identify in. The show asks how does materiality represent who we are? Does the material you use dictate who you are as a maker? How does medium speak to who you are as an individual?

EXHIBITION DATES: July 10 – Aug 29, 2020

LOCATION: Artworks Center for Contemporary Art in Loveland Colorado

I have three fiber works in the exhibition

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BWAC “Wide Open” Will Open

Good News…. as New York City progresses toward reopening, BWAC gallery in Brooklyn will open the juried show, Wide Open 11, to the public in August 2020.

EXHIBITION DATES: August 15 to September 13.

LOCATION:  499 Van Brunt Street, Door #7A, Brooklyn, NY

Twilight Off The Bow

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Wide Open 11

Wide Open 11 is a national juried show, hosted by BWAC and juried by Paulina Pobocha, Associate Curator, Department of Painting and Sculpture, Museum of Modern Art!

Now in its eleventh year and as its name implies, the broad theme of this exhibition looks to explore the idea of “wide open” in all the hidden niches of our collective psyche; It encompasses all the possibilities of knowledge, freedom and love: wide open space; arms wide open; eyes wide open. Yet, as with all things, there is the inevitable opposite: wide open to attack, corruption and failure.

“Twilight Off The Bow” Mixed Media Fiber 100’x 1/2″ 2019
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My June Exhibition Schedule

Despite the global pandemic, art shows are still going on. They have moved into virtual galleries, online catalogs, Instagram Live and ZOOM. The ripple effects of digital media merging with the physical art world will be felt for years. I am here for it all.

Opening This Month

On Saturday, May 30th, BWAC virtually opened Wide Open 11.

Current Exhibitions

Fiber 2020 has been extended to July 8th. Visit the online gallery here.

Intertwined visit the online gallery here.

Art in the Atrium 28th Annual Exhibit visit the online gallery here.

Here We Are visit the online gallery here.

My solo show Wonder Women is still at Bridge Arts Gallery. Take a peek here.