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25/7/2003

Introductions South

ICA, San Jose

The San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art will open Introductions South, an annual exhibition that showcases the work of emerging artists from throughout the Bay Area. This on-going series of exhibitions provides exposure for a new crop of artists, while affording the ICA audience the opportunity to see a wide range of new work under one roof. As in years past, this year’s show will include innovative work in all media – painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, installation, and video.

The broad cultural and stylistic diversity of this region’s artistic talent is reflected in the exhibition, which includes the work of 19 artists from Davis to Santa Cruz. The presentation also serves as a showcase for the numerous art programs in the area. The majority of these artists are recent graduates from regional schools including San Jose State University (SJSU), San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI), San Francisco State University (SFSU), Sonoma State, Mills College, and Stanford University. For many, Introductions South will represent their first major exhibition.

In an effort to be as thorough as possible, curator Cathy Kimball solicited recommendations from curators, educators, artists, and collectors from around the region. In addition, Kimball visited individual artists’ studios, traveled to Open Studios from Oakland to Monterey, attended numerous BFA and MFA shows, and culled from the dozens of artists submissions the ICA receives each month. The result is a show that is not held together by a single thematic narrative, but rather, tells the story of Bay Area art in its most present tense.


PAINTING

Among the painters included in the exhibition, Carol Bierach adopts images from scientific illustrations, anatomical and astronomical references that she then reinterprets in her large-scale paintings.

Sam Nejati studied at the Visual Art School of Tehran for three years and painted for six hours each day. The twenty year old moved to the Bay Area at the beginning of the year to continue his study of art. Had he stayed in Iran, he was obliged to join the military. He was recently accepted into the BFA program at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland.

Drawing on her knowledge of Hypnotherapy and Dream Studies, Gina Pearlin’s paintings explore dreams – in particular, those nebulous and segmented images that linger long after a dream has dissipated.

Mitch Temple’s paintings are based on still frames from some of his favorite movies. After selecting an individual shot, Temple then alters the images by removing or adding characters, changing the composition, or shifting the position of objects.

Melissa Wood integrates her own writings and photographs with appropriated images from antique dictionaries and illustrations of strange, fanciful or unfamiliar animals into her large-scale and brightly colored paintings.


INSTALLATION

Matthew Moore’s installations focus on a particular parcel of land near Phoenix, AZ that his family has been farming for almost a century. Now, invading development has endangered this once rural area. Moore incorporates elements of this agrarian landscape in his work in order to record the history of the land.

Using 3-D graphic software, Photoshop and Illustrator, Inna Razumova creates mythological hybrid imagery based on evolutionary relationships. The original source for this detailed project comes from 16th and 17th century scholarly works on the classification of actual animals as well as mythical beasts. Her installations include detailed charts, renderings of these fictional beasts, and numerous calculations regarding their derivations.

Laura Splan explores concepts of normal and abnormal, order and disorder in her installations, which often include video, digital imaging, scientific implements and other fabricated objects. She uses medical science and technology as a point of departure to question categories of what is natural and what is desirable. The elements in her installations, which refer to our anatomy and physiology, are at once seductive and repulsive.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Tracey Snelling incorporates sculptures and photographs to create mysterious narratives. Snelling first constructs intricate 3-dimensional dwellings – houses, motels, and stores – which she furnishes with miniature fixtures. Then, using a large-format camera, she photographs the individual rooms of these sculptures. The resulting photographs assume a level of tension and mystery.


SCULPTURE

Using teabags, human hair, photographs and other ephemera, May Chan’s sculptures record her life history to the present. A small pair of shoes, woven together with Chan’s own hair, collected over many years, refer to her heritage, the marking of time, and her travels around the world.

Andrew Chung constructs his sculptures and installations from unconventional materials. “Morphosis” is an eight-foot-high, foam-cored and resin-coated white plastic fork that Chung suspends inside a diaphanous cocoon. The work reflects the contradictory relationship between the organic and the mass-produced consumable product.


VIDEO

Kerry Loewen’s “Night Moves” installation, entitled “The Pretty Ones” is a looping video that uses as its source, appropriated television commercial auditions. Taken out of context, the words and gestures create uncomfortable repetitions that question the role of beauty, competition, and self-image in western culture.

Other artists in the exhibition include Amy Balkin, Renee Billingslea, Kathryn Kain, Bob Lamp, Masako Miki, Barbara Jacobson Phelps, and Tyson Washburn.




The San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) is dedicated to making contemporary art accessible and comprehensible to audiences of all ages and backgrounds through innovative and thought-provoking exhibitions that create a bridge between the artwork and the issues of everyday life. ICA hours: Tuesday through Friday, 10 am – 5 pm; Thursday, 10 am – 8 pm; Saturday, 12 – 5 pm; closed Sunday and Monday. Admission to exhibitions is free.


Image: Tyson Washburn, Fall Series, 2002 C-print 16" x 20"



ICA
San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art
451 South First Street San Jose, CA 95113
tel (408) 283-8155 fax (408) 283-8157

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