Gray Contemporary is pleased to announce two exhibitions, in the Main Gallery Teresa Baker: Return, and in the Second Gallery a group exhibition including Robert Dunne, Robert Erickson, Jamey Hart, Lael Marshall, Yoella Razili, John Tallman. All exhibitions open April 7th from 5:00 – 8:00 pm, and will continue through May 12, 2018.
Main Gallery
Teresa Baker: Return
Growing up, our white cotton towels used for drying dishes were hand-embroidered with flowers. They were never to be used for drying hands. Doilies were used to cover dressers or really, any wood furniture. They were always white and starched and had to remain clean. Handmade quilts were to be covered with standard store- bought blankets so we didn’t get the quilts dirty or they didn’t fade in the sun.
There was a care for objects–a reverence for even the seemingly simplest items–because they had a purpose. This consideration of objects comes from my German North Dakotan heritage on one side and my Mandan/Hidatsa tribes on the other. The Mandan/Hidatsa’s relationship to objects is more spiritual, involving ceremony, place, animals, and people. The sense of using the common materials you have in front of you is a concept found in both backgrounds.
I am continuing that use of common materials–primarily yarn and astroturf in this current work. Astroturf reminds me of materials used for sweat lodges-old carpets and blankets that are not highly regarded, but cover the top of willow structures and used to facilitate ceremony. Yarn allows for line to be added and shapes to be made. Mark and color develop until the object becomes its own.
About the Artist:
Teresa Baker (b.1985) is Mandan, Hidatsa and German from the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in Mandaree, ND. Solo exhibitions include: Art Museum of Southeast Texas, Beaumont, TX; The Luggage Store Gallery, San Francisco, CA; Interim, San Francisco, CA and the Art studio, Inc. Beaumont, TX. Select Group exhibitions include: The Alice, Seattle, WA; The Wattis Institute, San Francisco, CA; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA; di Rosa, Napa, CA; Kiria Koula, San Francisco, CA; Et Al, San Francisco, CA and Interface Gallery, Oakland, CA. She was a Tournesol Award Artist-in-Residence (2013-2014) at the Headlands Center for the Arts, an Affiliate Artist-in-Residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts (2014-2015) and Artist- in-Residence at The MacDowell Colony (2015). Baker received an MFA from California College of Arts, San Francisco, CA and a BA in Visual Arts from Fordham University, New York, NY. She currently lives and works in Beaumont, TX.
Second Gallery
Robert Dunne, Robert Erickson, Jamey Hart, Lael Marshall, Yoella Razili, John Tallman
In the Second Gallery is a group exhibition in which is focused on the playfulness and experimentation of building a visual language with materials by combining painting and sculpture. In Jamey Hart’s juxtaposition of materials within the green painted shaped wood and multi-colored beads in Hard Feelings or the recycling and redefining of wood in Yoella Razili’s wall construction, each artist finds a link in their varying material to create a singular distinction of visual language. Robert Dunne’s minimal shapes formed with plaster and scrap wood derived from visual and physical memories of his environment, while somewhat altered the shapes feel a sense of familiarity from their traditional usage. In the work of Robert Erickson and Lael Marshall you see a similar approach in using the wood stretchers to create a sculptural three dimensional aspect to the chosen stretched material. As Erickson’s are stretched with polyester in which rectangular shapes of ink are suspended on, Marshall’s oddly angled shapes are stretched with solid dyed abaca paper. In John Tallman’s Green (untitled) two almost identical oval shapes of wood soaked in green acrylic with a glossy finish are stacked though slightly off kilter creating a sense of an echo. This work joins the idea of painting and sculpture effortlessly. Combined these works exhibit a sense of exploration in materials that display painting and sculpture in a uniformed manner.
About the Artists:
Robert Dunne (b.1968 Ireland) has exhibited widely throughout Europe and abroad, he has had two solo shows in 2017, one in the Theca Gallery, Milan, Italy and another in Linenhall Art Centre, Ireland. Also during that time he was selected for a number of group shows; `Absolute`, Boecker Contemporary, Germany. `Winter Open 2017`, Rua Red, South Dublin Arts Centre. `Harvest`, Theca Gallery, Milan, Italy. `In White`, Graze Galleria, Warsaw. `Black Box` traveling exhibition curated by Boecker Contemporary: France, Belgium and Germany. `Dirty Filthy Painting` Byron School of Art, NSW, Australia. `Combined’ Gray Contemporary, Houston, Texas, USA. He studied in the Cleveland Institute of Art, School of the Museum of Fine Art, Boston, and received his BFA from the National School of Art and Design.
Robert Erickson (b.1972, Newark, DE) Exhibited throughout the United States over the last 20 years. Recent group exhibitions include Museum of Contemporary Art – Tucson, Tucson Arizona, 57w57Arts, New York, NY. Additional selected exhibitions: Dropped Frames – Curated by JPW3, Elk Gallery, New York, NY. Accident Blackspot, – Curated by Jim Lee, Freight&Volume, New York, NY. Accident Blackspot, Markus Winter Gallery, Berlin, Germany. The Lurking Hole Gallery, Nottingham, UK. Received a BFA University of Delaware, 1997. Currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
Jamey Hart (b.1992, Erie, PA) has been exhibiting paintings actively throughout the United States and internationally over the last half a decade. His practice focuses tightly on the way a thing comes into being, like a rock or a snowball, compacted and varied. The work orbits the material language of abstract painting and reveals the potential therein. He has been included in publications such as Reciprocal Magazine, ArtMaze Magazine, Lula Japan, and New American Paintings. Selected solo exhibitions include Slow Pace Time at Front Gallery in Houston, TX and What’s Now From Then at Frame 301 in Beverly, MA. He has shown in group exhibitions in Bellport, NY, Brooklyn, NY, Warsaw, POL, Los Angeles, CA, and Boston, MA. Hart graduated in 2014 from the Cleveland Institute of Art where he studied painting. He is currently living and working out of Erie, PA.
Lael Marshall (b. 1968, Seattle, WA) has exhibited her work in galleries and arts organizations including 57W57 Arts, NYC, Dieu Donné, NYC, , BRIC, Brooklyn, NY, Parallel Art Space, Brooklyn, NY, The Riverside Art Museum, Riverside, CA, New Jersey Center for Visual Arts, Summit, NJ, Eugene Binder, Marfa, TX, ParisCONCRET, Paris, SNO, Sydney, ABContemporary, Zurich, Beers Contemporary, London, A3 Gallery Moscow, Les Moulins de Villacourt, Le Pont-de-Claix, France, mitart gallery, Basel, and ars agenda, Munich. She received her BFA from The University of Michigan and her MFA from the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich, Germany. She currently lives and works in Ridgewood, New York.
Yoella Razili is an Israeli-born artist who lives and works in Los Angeles. Her work belongs to the non-objective art movement and spans a range of media including found materials and paint. Razili received her Master of Fine Arts from Otis Art Institute in 1981. Since then, she has exhibited her artwork internationally in the USA, Israel, Korea, France, and Italy.
John Tallman (b. 1969, York, PA) has exhibited work at the Drawing Center and OK Harris Gallery In New York, and at various galleries and museums in the United States; Sydney, Australia; Leiden and the Hague in the Netherlands; Bonn and Siegburg Germany; Brussels, Belgium; Athens, Greece. He received his BFA in Painting from Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, PA and his MFA in painting from the University of Washington in Seattle. He currently works and lives in Nashville, TN.
