Fri 9/13 + Fri 9/20 @ 5pm
Cleveland transplant Andy Curlowe is doing remarkable things this month. First of all, he’s presenting two major exhibitions of new work – opening just one week — 168 hours — apart from each other. Further, they’re at two of the hottest venues in town – Cleaveland @ Zygote Press and Human Imprints with Kim Bissett @ Survival Kit located inside 78th St Studios. As if that weren’t enough, both shows are comprised entirely of new work created in mediums outside his more familiar paintings.
Each summer, Zygote Press invites a non-print artist to occupy their studio as an Artist In Residence (AIR). Over the past few weeks, Curlowe has been working at Zygote to learn new techniques and create new approaches to his work. As you can probably tell from the title, Cleaveland is an exhibition focusing specifically on our hometown. The show’s themes include identity, transition and ownership within the specific context of Cleveland’s landscape and history.
Curlowe is a 28-year-old artist originally from Schenectady, NY (the town made “famous” within certain circles by Charlie Kaufman’s strange but amazing mind-bender Synecdoche, New York starring Philip Seymour Hoffman). He studied painting and drawing at Montserrat College of Art in Beverly, Massachusetts. Soon after graduation, he and his wife Laura moved to Cleveland. They’ve been living here for six years. His work deals with natural and human interactions by juxtaposing organic and geometric forms.
Human Imprints are a common interest of Curlowe and Kim Bissett. Their exhibition at Survival Kit will include a series of photographs taken by Curlowe during a recent trip to Corinth, VT and paper sculptures by Bissett that contemplate how memories and thoughts are impacted by time, people and places. She creates relics of consciousness that resemble dynamic, almost 3D landscapes that are both painterly and sculptural out of manipulated papers. The result is work that jumps off the wall and into the viewer’s space. Bissett’s creations almost confront you, refusing to be ignored.
Curlowe and Bissett’s work complement each other because they deal with opposite but complementary ideas on the same subject. Curlowe deals with people’s outward impact on their environment while Bissett focuses on our surroundings’ impact on our internal realm. However, both artists recognize the cyclical nature of these circumstances. It’s constant feedback… continuous actions and reactions. In this way, the artists and their work could not fit together any better.
Our history and our inevitable progression
Our blind repetition
These are the themes of my most recent works
Layers of icons migrate, stagnate, and dictate
Standing guard against ambiguous plains.
Conductors and Spectators
Bleak skies and collapsing horizons
My goal is not direct narration.
Instead it is my process which resonates
Adding and subtracting,
Concealing and revealing
Reflecting and Repeating,
Attempting to root one’s self in that which is not solid.
-Andy Curlowe /Laura M. Skehan
Written in collaboration
(Observations and Translations)
Both shows and their opening receptions are FREE and open to the public. Cleaveland runs through 10/23. Additional Hours: Wednesdays and Saturdays Noon-4pm or by appointment (216) 621-2900. Human Imprints runs through 11/15. For additional viewing opportunities, contact the gallery at Survivalkitgallery@gmail.com or (216) 533-4885
Josh Usmani is a 27 year old local artist, curator and writer. Since 2008, his work has been featured in over 50 local and regional exhibitions.
One Response to “SEE: Cleaveland + Human Imprints”
Maryann
Bissett work is very deep, very expressively multiple layers of emotional life love it