I grew up believing that art making was a part of the “Arts & Crafts” category. I didn’t go to art school and I wasn’t exposed to the ‘Contemporary Art World’ until I was an adult and moved to NYC. For many of us, art making is always craft, a hobby that deepens, a kinetic fixation. So it was exciting to be a part of this group exhibition of artists who have a close physical connection with their material for creative expression. Most of the artists in this show work in ceramics, a medium I’m hoping to explore more of, but my contribution were textile banners that I’ve made from sports jerseys and reworked discarded commercial advertisements.
From the curator, Andrew Cornell Robinson
The exhibition, Queer and Peculiar Craft presents an inter-sectional group of artists each of whom have a unique visual language composed of cast-off histories and unexpected applications of craft materials. Artists: Koren Christofides, Greg Climer, Roxanne Jackson, Brian Kenny, Edmund Green Langdell, Phoenix Lindsey-Hall, Vick Quezada, Timo Rissanen, Andrew Cornell Robinson, Juana Valdes, and Lu Zhang.
The makers in this exhibition employ craft strategies in order to give voice to their search for personal and cultural identity in contrast to imposed standards of normalcy. Yet when these new voices, and visual languages push the boundaries of an accepted norm, they are seen as other, as strange, queer and peculiar. These artists each have an uncanny ability to find their voice by expanding the boundaries of cultural traditions. Their approach to craft materials expand techniques with long histories, such as transfer-ware, slump molding, relief modeling, slip-casting, pottery, quilting, cross stitching, enamels, and printmaking, among other media.
The implication of queer peculiarity applied to the construction of otherness offers a simultaneous burden and an opportunity for each of these artists who come to their work with unique lived experiences and perspectives. These makers explore how making and meaning provide unique points of view on queer aesthetics, feminism, and explorations of identity in relationship to place, culture and history. The works included in this queer and peculiar exhibition ask how we might imagine, make, live and see differently.
Queer and Peculiar Craft showcases an inter-sectional group of artists who explore craft to transgress expectations of traditional materials, methods, and meaning. Artists included in this exhibition each have an uncanny ability to find their voice by expanding the boundaries of cultural traditions. Their craft strategies expand techniques with long histories, such as pottery, quilting, cross stitching, needle felting, crochet, and printmaking, among other media. These makers explore how making and meaning provide unique perspectives on queer aesthetics, feminism, and explorations of identity in relationship to place, culture and history.
Artists: Koren Christofides, Greg Climer, Roxanne Jackson, Brian Kenny, Edmund Langdell, Phoenix Lindsey-Hall, Vick Quezada, Timo Rissanen, Andrew Cornell Robinson, Juana Valdes, and Lu Zhang.
The Clemente Abrazo Interno Gallery 107 Suffolk Street, New York, NY 10002. www.theclementecenter.org
Dec 5, 2019 through Jan 18, 2020. On view Wed - Sun 12-7pm.
http://acrstudio.com/queer-and-peculiar-craft.html