MADE HERE PRESS RELEASE

MADE HERE Jairo Alfonsa, Mirra Goldfrad, Beth Sutherland

December 5, 2014 - January 5, 2015

Opening reception: December 5, 7-9pm

Artists In Residence Fall 2014

Guttenberg Arts Gallery is pleased to present “MADE HERE” a group exhibition of the current Artists in Residence; Jairo Alfonsa, Mirra Goldfrad and Beth Sutherland. On view December 5, 2014 through January 5, 2015.

The works included in MADE HERE were created during the artist’s residences addressing issues and concepts that revolve around the urban environment of Guttenberg as their focus. The title “MADE HERE” carries not only multiple definitions, but multiple conceptual meanings ranging from location to identity and are deeply considered within all the new works for this exhibition.

For Mirra Goldfrad this means “finding that the experiential qualities of place are responsible for subsequent perspectives and influence my work greatly.” Thus the specific location of Guttenberg is such a place that facilitates new works that attempt to internalize understandings formed by experiences, a kind of reconciliation of perceptual issues of consciousness. With Goldfrad, explorations of local imagery in relationship to individual uncertainties work toward identity formation to explore human interactions, as experience is paramount for her in the development of an individual. Goldfrad often uses print media with a preference for relief, “because I am drawn to the kind of poetic beauty of printing what is left untouched and the quality of line associated with relief prints”.

Beth Sutherland also is drawn to the involved process of relief printmaking but takes into the larger scope of her art making process. “I go out and draw on the spot, as I sit and draw from my car, a particular grouping of buildings upon a landscape or an odd embellishment suggests an unarticulated imaginary narrative of the occupants and passers-by. Then I go back to the studio, make drawings from memory as well, and finally edit all this into what I hope looks like a fresh, concise, composed image which retains the initial mystery that attracted me to the subject in the first place. Since arriving in Guttenberg, I've been compelled to record the fascinating neighborhood. The array of building styles, materials, and details creates a curious mixture of past and present.”

It is this same fascination with the details of a place are the basis of Jairo Alfonso’s newest drawings. His ongoing interest in exploring material culture from an archaeological perspective, particularly the multilayered nature of objects, reflecting on the relationship we, as human beings, establish with the objects we create, use, and discard. Alfonso’s works depicts accumulations of objects, devices and accessories from everyday life, piled up, and drawn closely together, so as to flood the pictorial space. He also will focus on a single object, and the act of disassembling becomes an anatomic lesson of sorts, which allows the viewer to metaphorical immerse himself or herself into a new world informed by the history, ideology, materials and shapes hidden in this artifacts.

Exhibition: December 5, 2014 - January 5, 2015; Opening Reception: December 5, 7-9pm.

For more information please contact info@guttenbergarts.org or 201-868-8585.

Guttenberg Art Gallery is free and open to the public by appointment.