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Opening Reception for “Look at Me” February 5, 2010

Posted by claralieu in Opening Receptions, Student Exhibitions, photography.
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We had a terrific turnout this afternoon for the opening reception of the student photography exhibition “Look at Me”. The exhibition is open through Feb. 25th.  View more photos from the opening reception on our Flickr account.

"Look at Me": Opening Reception

A lively crowd was present throughout the opening reception.

"Look at Me": Opening Reception

Fall 2009 ARTS208 Photography course with Professor Christine Rogers.

"Look at Me": Opening Reception

Professor Christine Rogers talks about the themes and ideas behind the exhibition at the opening reception.

"Look at Me": Opening Reception

Emily Evans discusses the process and experience of curating the exhibition.

Eleri Roberts on “Look at Me” February 3, 2010

Posted by claralieu in Student Exhibitions, photography.
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Today’s post is a guest blog post from Eleri Roberts, one of the students who has work in the “Look at Me” exhibition.  Below are her thoughts and experience on the curatorial process and installing the exhibition in the gallery.

The process of putting together the show has been a learning experience. It has been everything from fun to frustrating. The class first discussed the show early in the fall semester. At that point we thought of splitting the show into three themes that we would hope to unify in some way. We went down that path for some time, but eventually came to the conclusion that we needed a more cohesive show. It seemed to us that the show would be stronger if we unified all the artists as a whole instead of separating them into groups. This was the point at which we layed all the photos put and began connecting each body of work to another, whether it was through visual and aesthetic connections or through subject matter and meaning. We ended up with a circle that immediately felt right and even showed us how the show would be organized and structured.

Look at Me: Installation in Progress

Eleri Roberts and Christine Rogers work on installing the exhibition.

Now I will jump to the actual process of putting up the show in the Jewett Gallery. We quickly realized that there was no way we would be able to put up everyone’s complete final project without fully overwhelming the visitors to the gallery. It became clear that less is more. We then started the difficult task of editing each artist’s final project down to three or four prints. Not an easy task considering everyone had so many great photos! A few of the ARTS208 class members as well as Christine Rogers were there to give their input and eventually the selections were made. Now for the calculations! Christine, Emily, Rayla, and I spent a long time measuring, re-measuring, calculating, and re-calculating all of the distances needed between photos in order to put together a perfectly balanced show. Finally everything was figured out and we could start the hanging. With only a few mishaps, the end of the entire process was in sight. Just some lettering and labeling to do.

A long day with a lot of thought, but the end product was well worth it. I learned so much about the curatorial process as well as the work of a gallery preparator. I am so proud of our class. I am really looking forward to the show and hope to see you there! -Eleri Roberts

Eleri Roberts

Eleri Roberts, “Untitled”, silver gelatin prints, 2009

Press Release for “Transformations” February 3, 2010

Posted by claralieu in Press, Publicity, sculpture.
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I completed the press release for the  “Transformations” exhibition coming up in March 2010.  The exhibition features artists Ken Takashi Horii, Crudelle-Janello, Nathalie Miebach, Thomas Lyon Mills.  Click on the link below to read the press release.

Press release for Transformations

Nathalie Miebach

“Internal Storm” by Nathalie Miebach

Guest Blog Post: Christine Rogers February 2, 2010

Posted by claralieu in Student Exhibitions, photography.
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Today’s post is a guest blog post from Photography 208 Professor Christine Rogers. Her class put together the current exhibition in the gallery “Look at Me”, which has an opening reception this Thursday, Feb. 4, 4:45-6pm.

Now that the show is hung on the wall I can’t help but be so proud of and inspired by my students from the Fall Photography 208 class. This show emerged out of a class assignment to curate themselves into a show. I wanted this to be a learning experience and for them to put together something that they could be proud of and they felt was representative of their work as individuals and as a group. The first phase was brainstorming and trying to come up with a theme to connect the projects. The second phase was to revisit the theme idea and instead organize the show visually and (somewhat conceptually) as throughout the semester projects evolved and the themes no longer felt appropriate.

Hanging the work on the wall was another phase of the curatorial process as we discovered last week. We stuck to the original map that we made in class but we had to edit heavily as there was more work than we had wall space. Ultimately this was for the best as these decisions helped to create a stronger final show where the viewer can spend time with each edited body of work as well as look at this as a cohesive show.

Thank you again to everyone who came out to help hang the show: Ji, Cecilia, Olivia, Sarah, Shannon, EB, Rayla, Eleri, Shirley and Emily. For those students who are studying abroad this semester, we will miss you on Thursday and we hope you like the installation!

-Christine Rogers

Look at Me: Installation in Progress

Christine Rogers works with students to select works during the installation of  Look at Me

Look at Me: Curatorial Statement February 2, 2010

Posted by claralieu in Student Exhibitions, photography.
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The students in Christine Rogers’ ARTS208 photography course have been working on their curatorial statement for their exhibition “Look at Me”, which has an opening reception this Thursday, Feb. 4, 4:45-6pm. Read below on their experience curating their exhibition.

The process of bringing together the various final projects of fifteen individual students felt daunting at first and ended up going through two major stages. The first stage sought to connect the work thematically. After many conversations, flow charts and heated discussions it became clear to connect these pictures through small but significant visual relationships. What results is a wide circle approach to looking at these pictures, rather than a straight line.

“Look At Me” is a phrase commonly used by photographers but in this case it serves as a request on many levels: to look at the individual projects, how they relate immediately to the neighboring projects, but also how they fit into a bigger whole, connected by subtle visual links.

- Photography 208, Fall 2009
Julie Aguilera, Elizabeth Bartels, Emily Evans, Cecilia Flatley, Ji Lim, Olivia Linder, Alison McKenna, Sarah Moazeni, deCourcy O’Grady, Shirley Palomino, Eleri Roberts, Shannon Smith, Heidi Wang, Rayla Heide

Image of chalkboard, Emily Evans, 2009

Installation Views: “Look at Me” January 29, 2010

Posted by claralieu in Installing Exhibitions, Student Exhibitions, photography.
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We completed the finishing touches on the student photography exhibition “Look at Me”. The last tasks to be done in a gallery show are usually the wall labels for each individual work and the vinyl letters of the exhibition title.  Below are installation views of the exhibition.

Join us for the opening reception on Thursday, Feb. 4, 4:45-6pm.  RSVP on our Facebook event page.  View more photos of the exhibition on our Flickr page.

"Look at Me": Installation Views

View entering the gallery.

Heidi Wang

Silver gelatin prints by Heidi Wang.

Shirley Palomino

Digital inkjet photographs by Shirley Palomino.

"Look at Me": Installation Views

Installation for “Look at Me” January 28, 2010

Posted by claralieu in Student Exhibitions, installation, photography.
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Yesterday we began installation of the student photography exhibition “Look at Me”. The show is curated, selected and designed by Christine Rogers’ Fall 2009 Photography ARTS208 class. The various projects in this diverse class create an exhibition that is divided into three related categories: “People”, “Changing Perspectives” and “Reality vs. Pretense”.

Join us for the opening reception on Thursday, Feb. 4, 4:45-6pm.  RSVP on our Facebook event page.  View more photos of the installation in progress on the gallery’s Flickr account.

Look at Me: Installation in Progress

One of the most important parts of the installation was selecting which works would be installed in the gallery.  Each student had several photographs from their final project.  Together Christine and the students worked to balance the quantity of the works based on spacing in the gallery. Ultimately, the decision leaned towards having fewer works in the gallery to avoid over saturation of the gallery space.

Look at Me: Installation in Progress

Postcard for “Transformations” January 27, 2010

Posted by claralieu in Publicity, drawing, sculpture.
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I’m working on publicity materials for the upcoming exhibition “Transformations” in March 2010.  The exhibition features artists Ken Takashi Horii, Crudelle-Janello, Nathalie Miebach, Thomas Lyon Mills.  Below is the postcard for the exhibition.

Postcard for Transformations

New Facebook Page January 13, 2010

Posted by claralieu in Press.
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I’m pleased to announce a new Facebook page for the Jewett Art Gallery and the Applied Arts Program. Become a fan today to receive exhibition announcements and join the dialogue.  Hope to see you there!

Studio Visit with Anthony Crudelle-Janello December 21, 2009

Posted by claralieu in artists, photography, sculpture, studio visits.
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This past Friday afternoon I drove to Rhode Island for a studio visit with Anthony Crudelle-Janello, (more widely known as Tony Janello) who will be one of the four artists exhibiting in the upcoming show “Transformations” in March 2010.  We first met in 1998 when I was a student in his painting class in the Illustration Department at RISD during my senior year.  I now teach Drawing at RISD in Foundation Studies and he’s continued to teach Painting and Drawing in the Illustration Department since then.  We’ve kept in touch over the years since I graduated, and it was very exciting to visit his studio and get some insight on his thoughts and creative process.

Anthony Janello's Studio

Crudelle-Janello’s process involves many phases and transformations in a range of media. He creates essentially paper mache sculptures which are then lit and photographed, with the sculpture as a means to the photography. The role of photography as the final result allows him tremendous visual flexibility with the sculptures that he would otherwise not have. I was impressed by how much his photographs looked like paintings; they had an incredible atmosphere and depth that transcended the sculptures themselves.

What is astonishing about these sculptures is how low-tech they are in terms of construction and materials. For the interior structures of the sculptures, he uses sonotubes, which are extremely strong cardboard tubes that are used in construction for pouring concrete columns.  You can see in the photo below on the sculpture on the far left an example of one of the sonotubes that he’s sawed into a ring to hold the sculpture up. On top of the sonotube structure, he uses paper towels dipped in elmer’s glue to sculpt the heads into more detail. These materials also allow the sculptures to be highly durable, yet lightweight at the same time.

Anthony Janello's Studio

Below is an example of how Crudelle-Janello uses backgrounds and creates sets for his sculptures.  The backgrounds are created from thin sheets of plywood which are then painted to reflect surface, texture, and writing. Several of his backgrounds feature the visual look of a chalkboard which has writing layered over itself continuously.

Anthony Janello's Studio

Below are some experiments for adding yet another phase in his process: after he photographed the sculptures, he drew on the digital prints using crayons.  In this series below, there is a progression in the images where he is “healing” the “injury” in the sculpture’s head by drawing with cross-hatched marks on the images with crayon. Crudelle-Janello was a portrait painter for many years , and it seems like this is a perfect way to work in his experience in drawing into his current work.  These pieces above are still very early in their development, but we discussed the possibility of creating works with this process for the “Transformations” show.

Anthony Janello's Studio

The back of this sculpture seen in the photo below reveals the interior structure of the sculptures, created from sawed up strips of sonotubes.

Anthony Janello's Studio

Below is a close up view of one of his sculpture heads, where the painting process and surface texture of the sculptures is apparent. For more information about Crudelle-Janello’s work, you can visit this previous blog post which features his artist statement.

Anthony Janello's Studio