Visitation, 2009
7 layer/14 impression silk screen
25 x 33 inches
edition  of 25

Found, Gowanus, 2009
oil, pastel and wallpaper
18 x 22 inches

Along the Way, 2008
pastel on paper
31.25x 69.25 inches

Horizontal Triptych II, 2009
oil on linen
30 x 36 inches

Book, 2008
7 layer/14 impression silk screen
25 x 33

Artist Statement
The complexity of the art world is curious, it has spawned many different artists in so many directions in the last century. Looking back I discovered that the direction I related to is “. . .free art from the burden of object.” — Kasimir Malevich. I appreciate the pure and simple aesthetic and I have always related to a spontaneous approach to painting and printmaking.

Website
http://www.artbrooklyn.com

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Arroz con Pollo

Theories of Evolution and Connection

Hen Diagram

Adaptation Module One

Artist Statement
Drawing is my way to explore ideas and develop an understanding of concepts that seem remote or abstract. When I juxtapose different ideas in a drawing, it allows me to think about those ideas and the relationships between them.

“Evolution + Connections” was prompted by last year’s food shortages and riots, in Haiti and elsewhere. The idea grew when I began to think about: what we think of as food; how we grow food to feed to animals that we think of as food; what animals eat; and the evolutionary and other connections between humans and other animals. Children often refer to how “chickens evolved from the dinosaur” and I’m interested in the way chickens are singled out, when there are so many more connections that can be made. We learn about food chains, but on closer examination those chains turn into webs, with many layers of cooperation and competition.

The drawings too have many layers, some with more obvious narrative content than others. Ultimately each drawing evolves from the initial idea and travels a path that follows its own internal logic.

Website
http://rejinleys.com/

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Centerpiece

Multiple Leaf Print

Leaf Relief

Pile of Maples

Ginkgo Leaf Circle

Artist Statement
In 2007, while walking home from my studio on a rainy Fall day and looking down at sidewalks covered with leaves, it occurred to me that the damp, resilient surface of a recently fallen leaf might be able to hold the image of a small, circular copper plate I had recently finished etching. Soon afterwards, I began to experiment with printing on fallen leaves collected from the streets and parks around Brooklyn. As a result, I created an initial series of single and multiple leaf print arrangements using circular copper plate etchings and Plexiglas plates in various combinations to print etchings, monotypes and monoprints directly on the leaves. Several of the arrangements contained leaves with no prints on them at all and some I attached to small branches and suspended with fishing wire to create three-dimensional leaf mobiles.

In 2008, I continued collecting leaves, and began to print monotypes on paper, monotypes directly on leaves, and soft ground etchings of leaves on leaves, while continuing to create new leaf arrangements and mobiles. By the Spring of 2009, I started collecting hundreds of Samara seeds produced by budding Maple Trees and used them to create new monotypes.

I am interested in how the use of the leaves and Samara seeds to make prints on paper removes the plants from their usual context and imbues them with a permanence that does not exist in the natural world. I use multiple plates and colors, along with carefully executed arrangements, endeavoring to make intricate, multi-layered images and patterns that transcend the singular identity of the individual leaf or seed. Yet, somehow I am preserving the memory of each plant’s passage through the world, even while interrupting nature’s intent.

I am also interested in the process of how the leaves are transformed into art objects. I use the botanist’s method of drying and flattening the leaves to preserve them, but they are not chemically treated. Interestingly, a similar technique is used by printmakers to dry and flatten dampened paper after printing. Dried plants can last for hundreds of years, but they have a limited life span. Eventually, the leaves I’ve used will decompose, but the decomposition is designed to be an ongoing and evolving feature of the artwork and functions as a metaphor for life as well as for art.

By using a leaf that has fallen from a tree in November or a seed that has fallen from a Maple Tree in May, I endeavor to capture a moment in the growth and life cycle of a tree and to convey its transient beauty. It is perhaps this ongoing transformation through the inexorable passage of time, this mirroring of life, that has the greatest effect on me.

Biography
Jessica Baker lives and works in Brooklyn, where she collects her materials from the streets and parks of Brooklyn, and creates all of her own prints on a table-top etching press in her studio near the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Her artwork has been presented in solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States and internationally.

Jessica will create her first installation, Seasonal Fall, opening December 4, 2009 in the window of the Soapbox Gallery in Brookyn. From June – August of 2009, Jessica’s work was featured in the exhibit The Nature of Being curated by the Flanders Art Gallery in Raleigh, NC for the Greenhill Center for the Arts in Greensboro, NC. From January – March of 2009, Jessica’s prints and leaf prints were featured in the exhibition Ancient Echoes in Contemporary Printmaking at the Hofstra University Museum in Long Island, NY. In 2008, Jessica’s mixed media leaf work and circular prints were featured in two solo exhibitions, Leaf Circle Line at the Lifebridge Foundation in Rosendale, NY and Leaf & Circle, at the Prospect Park Audubon Center at the Boathouse in Brooklyn, NY. In 2007 and 2008, her work was exhibited at the Galería Nacional and the Dar(t)do Gallery in San José, Costa Rica, the Flanders Art Gallery in Raleigh, NC, the College of Notre Dame of Maryland’s Gormley Gallery in Baltimore, MD, the George Washington Carver Gallery at the Magnolia Tree Earth Center in Brooklyn, NY, the Monroe Center for the Arts in Hoboken, NJ, the JMS Gallery in Philadelphia, PA and the Arlington Art Gallery in Poughkeepsie, NY. In 2006, Jessica’s work was featured in a traveling exhibition, Four Points of View: Figuration in Printmaking, presented at the Galería Naciona in San José, Costa Rica and the Dutchess Community College’s Washington Art Gallery in Poughkeepsie, NY.

In 2007, Jessica was awarded membership in the National Association of Women Artists (NAWA). In the past five years, Jessica has been awarded three artistic residencies at Weir Farm in CT, Skagway National Historic Site in Alaska, and The David and Julia White Artists’ Colony in Costa Rica. In May 2005, she was awarded an etching fellowship at the Women’s Studio Workshop in Rosendale, NY.  Her work has been collected privately and is also in a number of public collections.

Website

http://www.jessicabaker.net

Upcoming Exhibit
Seasonal Fall, will be presented by the Soapbox Gallery at 636 Dean St. between Carlton & Vanderbilt Avenues in Brooklyn.  It can be viewed daily from 12 – 10 p.m., December 4 – 17.  During the opening reception on Dec. 6 from 4 – 7 p.m., attendees are invited into the gallery for refreshments and an exhibit of additional artwork by Baker, as well as the related sculptural work of Soapbox Gallery founder, Jim Greenfield.

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“Honey I Shrunk Red Hook” at Lucky Gallery is a collaboration between Luis Blackaller and Andy Cavatorta, who aim to start a creative discussion about Red Hook, the inhabitants and folklore. The mission of this project is to bring together a diverse mix of members of the Red Hook community to use art and gallery space as communication devices. Blackaller and Cavatorta will create a cardboard model of the streets surrounding Lucky Gallery, and build a collection of photorealistic dolls representing Red Hook dwellers.

“Red Hook has an air of mystery that I can’t find anywhere else in New York,” explains Blackaller. “It feels somewhat uncharted, perhaps separated as it is from the New York comprehensive subway network. When thinking about making art for Red Hook, I immediately feel like using this art as an excuse to get closer to the people in it, and learn about the place from them hopefully helping them learn from each other in the process.”

The closing reception on Saturday, August 29, will feature a short film projected outside the gallery featuring highlights from the opening, the exhibition and interviews. The photorealistic dolls of Red Hook inhabitants will be given to their rightful owners and there will be live music from local musicians. Food and drink will be provided.

August 8th to August 30th, Lucky Gallery
Closing reception on Saturday, August 29, from 6-10 PM

Luis Blackaller is an artist from Mexico city with an interest in culture, technology and media. He graduated with honors as a Mathematician in the National Autonomous University of Mexico. He has worked as a Designer, Art Director and Motion Graphics Artist in the Mexican film industry for 10 years. He recently graduated with a Master of Science Degree at the MIT Media Lab under the mentorship of John Maeda, where he explored online creative social systems and their relationship with artistic expression and communication.

Andy Cavatorta can’t stop making things: robots, bikes, art, music, software and films. Sometimes the robots make more music, the software makes more art and the bikes shoot movies. He is currently developing musical robots and large-scale performances and installation with Ensemble Robot. Cavatorta is currently a graduate student at the MIT Media Lab.

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title: relativity-6
medium: Japanese pigment/metal-leaf/sumi-ink on wood panel
dimension: h60” w24”

title: vicissitude
2009
medium: collagraph
dimension: about h24” w36”

title: relativity-twisty
2008-2009
medium: PAINTING(Japanese pigment/metal-leaf/sumi-ink on canvas)
dimension: h8” w10”

Artist Statement

I was born in 1978 and raised in Japan. After obtaining a BFA at Tama Art University in Japanese Painting Fine Arts in 2005, I moved to New York City 2007.

I have been studying Painting since I was a child under the instruction of a private teacher. During this time, I was passionate about many kinds of art, such as mixed media, printmaking, collage, sculpture and glass. More recently, as my artistic abilities have further developed, I have focused my energies on painting, printmaking and sculpture. The theme of my art is “HUMAN FEELING: emotional life.” The roots of my art lies in organic abstraction – I am fascinated by human emotions – for example, hope, sadness, confusion and love. I am also particularly interested in the relationships or connections that exist in our minds between ideas and images such as color, sound, rhythm and movement.

My artwork is based on a traditional Japanese painting method. Primarily, I work with Sumi ink, pigments and metal leaf (gold, silver, copper and aluminum). Even when working with a two-dimensional work, I strive to create rich textures, reflection and space by using many layers of ink, metal leaf and pigment thus allowing me to capture the feeling of a three-dimensional piece. As a result of this process of layering materials, I have been able to create interesting surfaces and textures. Another important aspect in my artwork is the composition of metal which creates shifting colors. The fact that metal can change color on its own as time goes by compliments the theme of my work.

Website

http://www.mariatanikawa.com/

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