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More on Northern’s march show, From, Johnson

Artists included in From, Johnson:

Daniel Arlein, Brooklyn, NY
Avantika Bawa, Portland, Oregon
Jenny Buffington, Shorewood, IL
Ingrid Burrington, Baltimore, MD
Scott Marvel Cassidy, Los Angeles, CA
Ariel Churnin, Johnson, VT
Thomas Cummins, San Antonio, TX
Janet Hassinger, Houston, TX
Harrison Haynes, Durham, NC
James Horgan, Cambridge, MA
Laura Kaufman, Hudson Valley, NY
Ji Eun Kim, Cheyenne, WY
Jong Sun Lee, Rockville, MD
Caitlin MacBride, Brooklyn, NY
Sharon Madanes, Chicago, IL
Rose Nestler, Brooklyn, NY
Ruben Quesada, Lubbock, TX, in collaboration with Jonathan Bohr Heinen
Nathan Rayman, Kentfield, CA
Alexis Semtner, Brooklyn, NY

More photos of pieces below:

Thomas Cummins‘ beautiful photo of bustling Johnson, Vermont on a snowy night.

Caitlin MacBride

Ingrid Burrington

Janet Hassinger

Ariel Churnin

Scott Marvel Cassidy

Avantika Bawa

Rose Nestler

Jong Sun Lee

Sharon Madanes

Ji Eun Kim

Ruben Quesada in collaboration with Jonathan Bohr Heinen

Since December, I’ve been hard at work organizing and curating this month’s group show at Northern. I met all the artists during my stay at The Vermont Studio Center this past November and December. From the Press Release:

For the month of March, Northern is pleased to present, From, Johnson, a group show exhibiting the works of 19 artists from across the country.

Each of the 19 artists included in From, Johnson met for the first time this past November at The Vermont Studio Center, a residency for visual artists and writers located in Johnson, Vermont. A play on words between the name of the small town where the artists lived and worked for a month and the influential Pop-Artist and ‘Father of Mail Art,’ Ray Edward Johnson, From, Johnson is about making connections — connections between artists, connections through the act of sending art via the United States Postal Service, and connections between the disparate works themselves.

Images of the show:

Nathan Rayman

Laura Kaufman

Harrison Haynes

Jenny Buffington

Daniel Arlein (This photo only shows the landscape painting partially extended)

Alexis Semtner

James Horgan

Northern hosted an amazing show of two young, local artists this past month. The opening was truly an event to behold with costumed creatures drumming in circles (think Show Biz comes alive) as well as a lot of attractive, hip kids. The information from the press release is pasted below along with some photos of the opening for your enjoyment.

For the month of January, Northern is pleased to exhibit the work of two Olympia based artists, Joel Allen Davenport and Ryan Converse. The opening reception for the artists was Sunday, January 10 from 4p -7pm. The show ran through January.

Statements provided by the artists:

Joel Allen Davenport

Warm Ghosts is a on-going project of former Denver, CO resident and more recently Olympia, WA space cadet, Joel Davenport. Mostly working in watercolor and ink mediums, he has been meditatively crafting psychedelic, visceral pieces that inhabit their own dimension with their own set of rules, unique characters, waveform patterns, and inspirations while still existing on the same plane.

Inspired by all things obsolete, living or dead, and especially cultural, occult, and religious transcending experiences, Warm Ghosts embraces all forms and spectrum of conversation with the artwork from intricate doodles, a trip that explores earth’s culture through flowing black lines and bursts of color or simply being cute. Warm Ghosts’ goal is to unconditionally love, converse, collaborate or, at the very least, interact with you.

Ryan Converse

I have begun to think of my work as an act of mythopoeia.  I think of each piece I create in relation to my body of work as a whole. With this show I present maps, photos, scaled models and artifacts from a place I call the Valley of the Leafling. Each piece is a viewing portal, which I use to look through to this world and understand it more completely. I choose to work in a variety of mediums to represent this place through as many viewpoints as possible. I have found many old mythologies that match with my subconscious creations, most notably the archetype of the green man, or the foliate head, a figure that represents rebirth, which has appeared in many cultures throughout the ages. I hope that for a time you can suspend your disbelief and gaze upon this valley with unclouded eyes.

Joel Allen Davenport:

Ryan Converse (creature costumes also by Ryan):

The holidays are over, which means that school is gearing back up for winter quarter. Classes start tomorrow and I’ll be teaching another section of foundation drawing as well as a revised and improved printmaking course focusing on relief applications. Should be fun but exhausting. The studio is fully booked and I’m going to have to train a bunch of new studio assistants this quarter as well, which (done well) requires the same amount of preparation and instruction as teaching another class. This quarter will be the busiest I’ve ever seen in the studio and it’s only going to get busier this coming spring quarter.

Exhibits at Northern are already planned through April. We’ll have the install for this month’s show later this week featuring two young local artists’ psychedelic ink drawings and cardboard/ papier mache constructions. February will feature the work of four Evergreen photography interns. In March, I’m curating a group show of  several rad folks I met at Vermont Studio Center, which should prove exciting.  In April, we’ll be showing  the work of multi-talented indie stalwart Rachel Blumberg and an another Portland based artist. Whew. I’m already four months into 2010.

I’m also applying for several teaching positions around the country as well as more residencies. The application season comes in three parts: The first tier of highly desired positions closes around the 15th of the month, with some having already closed in December. These jobs are for those folks who already have several years of teaching experience and are looking for lateral or upward career movements into higher tier research universities or well regarded liberal arts colleges. The second tier closes in the middle of February, allowing those new to the job market or those with less experience to attend the annual College Art Association Career Fair in mid February. Many of these institutions are looking for entry level positions like lecturers, adjuncts and assistant professors in foundations areas or newly developed departments. Usually these schools are located in rather undesirable areas of the country for liberal, culturally sensitive artist types. Basically, they’re the jobs that will work you to death and make you question if you want to continue to pursue a career in academia. The third tier opens up in March and April and runs through May/June. These are the positions that open up through the academic shuffle resulting from first and second tier hires and they’re usually one year visiting positions while the college plans a national search for a full time hire. And then there’s the emergency hires during the summer months, the unofficial fourth tier. These hires result from sudden funds being released to college and other unforeseen circumstances that cause a temporary position to open up or be created entirely. Usually, By June or July, the vast majority of job seekers have been so thoroughly rejected that fewer people even bother to apply during these months. The pick-up and move-your-life in the matter of weeks is also a factor, so for the more flexible, less experienced academic job seekers, this is a prime market.

I will not be attending the career fair this year and probably won’t again until I present a paper or participate in a discussion panel, which is on my list of things to do before I die.

The rule of 2010 is Work.

And if work fails, there’s always Portland.

This is embarrassingly late. November ran away with me to Johnson, Vermont while an outstanding print show by University of Tennessee graduate students and friends decked the walls at Northern. The show, titled “Furhaus” featured the work of printmakers Veronica Siehl, Daniel Maw, Ben Fox-McCord and Caitlin Wheeler. “Furhaus” presented various approaches to contemporary print, from ethereal to ephemeral, tied together by the use of screen-printing techniques, craftsmanship and attention to detail. Photos of the show are below! Be sure to check out the artists’ websites too!

Veronica Siehl:

Daniel Maw:

Ben Fox-McCord:

Caitlin Wheeler:

For the month of September, Northern is hosting an amazing photography exhibit featuring hundreds of images by artists Aylin Güngör, Tara Jane ONeil and Themba Lewis. The opening was a couple weeks ago and was very well attended. We’re having a closing reception this Friday with musical guests Mt. Erie, Karl Blau, Tara Jane O’Neil (one of the featured artists) and No Kids. Should be an amazing event. Biographies of September’s artists are found below along with photos of the install!

Aylin Güngör (Istanbul)
Aylin Güngör lives on the Asian side of Istanbul, where she is editor-in-chief of BANT Magazine (http://bant.tv/) and a radio host. Her photography combines documentation of Istanbul’s punk arts and music scene (including photos of foreign musicians like Marnie Stern, Xiu Xiu, Deerhoof, Gang Gang Dance, etc) with candid portraiture and blown-out landscapes. Forgoing digital cameras for the light play of film, Alyin’s photos appear almost as if shot in slow motion. This is her first exhibition in the USA.

Tara Jane ONeil (Portland)
Tara Jane ONeil is an accomplished visual artist whose paintings and drawings have exhibited worldwide, and appeared on several record covers and in numerous publications; two books of her artwork have been published, Who Takes A Feather (Map Press, Japan, 2003) and Wings. Strings. Meridians: A Blighted Bestiary (Yeti, 2007). She recently completed her 5th full-length album, A Ways Away, released on K Records. Over the course of the past many years and numerous continents TJO has photographically recorded scenes and absurdities with no real intention of exhibiting them. Now is the time.

Themba Lewis (Olympia)
Themba Lewis started taking pictures of his friends skateboarding in the late 1980’s in Indonesia. Since that time he has struggled to combine disparate interests, resulting in an incomprehensible life-plan. His photographs document the last few years, including scenes from post-communist Eastern Europe, Sudanese refugee gang life in Cairo, music festivals in England, recording sessions, arson and global industrial decline. This is Themba’s first photo show in Olympia since 2003.

Arrington de Dionyso pretty much usurped Olympia’s July. He had an excellent exhibit at Northern throughout the month, officially moved back to Olympia after several years in Portland, played a series of guerrilla house shows with his new band and performed at the closing reception of “Root and Crown.”

The photographs below are from a generator powered performance outside at Olympia’s free flowing artesian well on July 15.

The closing reception and performance at Northern on July 24 involved an interactive element via overhead projectors and hand colored gels, which visitors were encouraged to move around and rearrange.

On Sunday, Northern had its official grand opening. The work of PJ Sykes and Sarah Cass adorned the walls and the Olympia Free Choir sang a few songs for the occasion.  With the massive help of Mariella and Dirk, the walls were painted and the work was hung and secured just in time for the doors to open. The event was well attended and everyone responded positively to the work. I think everything came together rather well; it’s a fitting tribute to fandom and the perfect first show for the gallery.

From the press release:

“Photographers Sarah Cass and PJ Sykes shoot band portraits and rock shows. Sarah Cass, based simultaneously out of Olympia, Denver and New York City, photographs portraiture of underground and popular independent acts while Richmond, Virginia’s PJ Sykes prefers to capture candid shots of punk and guitar driven rock bands. Sykes’s gritty, black and white photographs contrast sharply against Cass’s poppy, saturated color palette. Both artists have had their work published extensively in magazines such as Spin, Paste and Skyscraper among many others. The show will run through the month of June.”

Check out their work!