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Artist Derek Larson Examines the Decline of Malls, Animation, & Factory Conditions in ADA Gallery Exhibit

John Donegan | April 26, 2018

Topics: ADA Gallery, animation, art, Conveyors, Derek Larson, paintings

Shopping malls were once the most popular social spaces in America, from their rise in the late 1950s to the golden age in the 1990s, up until their ever-rapid decay as online shopping began to take its place, malls played a major role in shaping our culture. Teenagers spent their days, not on their phones, but roaming the sticky floors and hanging in the food courts, and malls were sprawling with the hustle and bustle of hurried shoppers around the holidays in step with cheery jingles playing through speakers.

Most of America has left shopping malls behind and now consider it an errand instead of a fun afternoon activity, and while they may have gone into decline across the country, local artist Derek Larson finds new inspiration with them.

In his latest exhibit Conveyors, on display at ADA Gallery, Larson looks at the decline of shopping malls, delving into the cogs running these now ghost-town social spaces, with his motorized paintings which operate on conveyor belts and rollers which move in front of and behind various paintings. With this latest series, Larson also highlights factory conditions, autoimmune diseases, and American animation.

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“Malls were designed to be limitless landscapes of choice for consumers to have an experience- {now} just add pretzel smells, music, a carousel and voilà you’re now working in a factory except you’re not earning money you spend it!” Larson said.

The exhibit features a set of works that detail another paragraph to Larson’s personal statement against the grossly autonomous ends left scattered and barren from the remnants of an industry that carries across multiple domains. And with an estimated 25 percent of malls closing nationwide by 2022, Larson’s work may serve as a harbinger of a growing epidemic.  

A Seattle native, Larson begins his dissection, bringing to life the outlying beauty he grew up in. “The conveyor paintings are about a number of things for me, though {mainly} the colors remind me of childhood, like mossy trees and scummy buildings in the Pacific Northwest,” he said.

The canvases move like the background of a traditional animation and suggest factory automation through their hardware and stripped down construction. As Larson moves to the finer points of the work, he highlights the factory conditions he started out working at in high school, driving forklifts and packing trucks.

“The machinery behind the paintings is very heavy and overbuilt, acting like roller conveyors, and certain types of machinery bring back strong memories for me,” he said.” He continues with the fabric as “like those old-style hand dryers”, later clarifying as the “cloth ones”, exemplifying a persuasion to detail hinged on childhood recollections.

Receiving his MFA from the Yale School of Art and participating in a number of exhibitions worldwide, Larson combines traditional forms like painting and minimal composition with three-dimensional abstractions. And with prior experience as a video editor at PBS, Larson’s work combines traditional and modern digital techniques of painting and animation, in paintings that are intensely colorful, glowing, minimalist compositions on wooden panels yet expansive in its abstract progressions.

“Factory jobs are a big political and economic topic, these paintings hint at some of these topics by combining tractor parts, motors, conveyor belts, and fabric, which is clothing to suggest bodies and shopping,” Larson said of his work.

Most notably, was his fascinating take on the immune system, in which he responded to his Crohn’s Disease diagnosis with inspiration, forced to learn the inner workings, only to find the same mold cast.

“I’m mainly interested in autoimmune diseases {since} basically it’s your immune system attacking healthy cells, which usually results in minor or sometimes major inflammatory problems. It’s also an interesting metaphor for systems malfunctioning.” Larson said.

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His latest venture, “Très Mall“, is a 90-minute animation video series taking place in an abandoned department store in Savannah, Georgia, a grimey yet tasteful nostalgia where an artist, ‘Jon’ decides to call home. It features cameos by writers covering topics in art, activism, philosophy and the environment.

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“With Très Mall, the main character lives in a department store like in the movie Mannequin, but more depressing,” he said. Larson builds each episode upon rubbled remains and favored memories that are relatable to many people, utilizing “Acrylic on dura-lar screen prints” and other relic technologies, all intended to mimic the traditional cel animation Larson’s character relishes upon in a modern age

The overarching theme, and perhaps the one time I’ll ever make such an easy connection between body tissues and factory belts, is a fixation on the factory system Larson forewarns of, ever present, each time you go in and buy something.

“When you look at the design and machinery behind an experience, it becomes clear what’s expected of you and free will begins to fade away,” Larson said.  

Larson’s animation Très Mall“ will also be screening in NYC Times Square via Chashama in addition to ADA Gallery and his solo exhibit Conveyors will run at the West Broad Street gallery until this Sat., April 28.

RVA Mag First Fridays Picks January 2018

Amy David | January 5, 2018

Topics: 68 Home, ADA Gallery, art, Atlas gallery, Candela Books + Gallery, Dogtown Dance Theatre, Fresh Richmond, Future Studio, Gallery5, Guards and Flags, Maven Made, Page Bond Gallery, RVA ARt, RVA First Fridays, rva streetwear, Suin & Selene, Vagabond, vcu, VCU Sculpture Department, VCUarts

From the  Terracotta Army: Legacy of the First Emperor of China making its way to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts this fall, to Pueblo artist Virgil Ortiz‘ figurative ceramic works retelling the story of his ancestors’ rebellion against Spanish colonizers in 1680 in the “Hear my Voice” exhibit, to VCU’s announcement of their forthcoming Insititute of Contemporary Art, and our ever-growing number of murals, Richmond’s arts scene was booming in 2017. To kick 2018 off to a great start, RVA First Fridays returns this month with a slew of emerging talented artists, new exhibits, fashion showcases, artisan markets, and more.

RVA Mag has rounded up a handful of our top picks for this month’s First Fridays Artwalk and there should be a little something in there for everyone this go around.

Dogtown Dance Theatre

Made by RVA’s RVA Creative Market

Opens Sat. Jan. 6

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In an effort to support Richmond entrepreneurs and local artisans, the Manchester dance theatre has partnered with events website Unlockingrva and Made by RVA to host a market for Richmonders to shop local products and support local shop makers, creators, artists, crafters, and bakers. 109 W. 15th St. 

Candela Books & Gallery

Science As Muse 

 Exhibit runs Jan. 5 – Feb. 17

Caleb Charland, “Fruit Battery Still Life (Citrus),” Archival Pigment Print, 32 x 40 inches Courtesy of Sasha Wolf Projects

For their first show of 2018, Candela Books & Gallery will feature eight artists in the photography exhibit, Science As Muse. The artists, which include,  Walter Chappell, Caleb Charland, Rose-Lynn Fisher, Pam Fox, Daniel Kariko, Michael Rauner, Robert Shults, and Susan Worsham, all use science as their inspiration to base their photographic works around. Some of the artists use equipment made possible by modern science while others have create work by applying the scientific method, and some have simply documented the worlds within scientists practice their craft, each telling a story with their photos. 214 W. Broad St. 

Pam Fox, “Windsock,” 1999-2002. Gelatin Silver Print, 20 x 16 inches

Art 180
Future Studio Opening
Opening reception Jan. 5

Photo Credit: Future Studio program

In partnership with the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU and the VCuarts Department of Sculpture & Extended Media, Art180 will feature its first “Future Studio”, showcasing artwork by high-schoolers in the Future Studio program. The 10-week free program provides Richmond teens with hands-on experience creating art and other media in VCU’s Sculpture department. The Future Studio program also gives teens the opportunity to visit the ICA building, access to portfolio workshops, lectures, free materials, and a chance to have their work showcased in Art 180’s Atlas gallery.

Gallery5
Gold for A Silver Situation
Fri. Jan. 5-Jan. 25

This Friday, Gallery5’s “Gold For A Silver Situation” opens, featuring the work of 12 Richmond female artists. Curated by fellow local artist Katie McBride, the exhibit aims to break gender barriers, and highlight the many talented female illustrators and artists making significant contributions to their field, yet still, are too often seen or viewed as an afterthought to male artists in their field.

The show includes the art of Cathryn Virginia, Holly Camp, Melissa Duffy, Ally Hodges, Brooke Inman, Meena Khalili, and,  Mary Chiaramonte,  Victoria Borges,  Clara Cline, Kamille Jackson, Amelia Blair Langford, along with McBride, whose known for her design of the 2016 Richmond Folk Fest poster.

Art by Mary Chiarmonte

“Female illustrators are not an afterthought. Walk in and see 50 pieces of amazing art and understand that these people should be first in your mind for a big, crazy, stunning, dramatic oil painting, or super smart conceptual think-piece, or a portrait, or whatever it is,” said McBride, told RVA Mag in a recent interview about the new exhibit.

You can view a catalog of each of the artists’ work here. Gold For A Silver Situation opens tonight at 7 pm. Music kicks off at 8 pm with Elizabeth Owens, Slurry, Georgie Isaacs, and Deau Eyes. Other vendors will also be at Gallery5 so make sure you stop by Gallery’5 membership table, Belle Isle Moonshine, “Interconnection”, a series of Multimedia Collages, and Portraits of Richmond Icons by Courtney Lebow, and  Becky Whitson, who will be selling floral headpieces and fine art.

Page Bond Gallery
Glow Glimmer Sparkle Shine
Exhibit runs until Jan. 13

 Image result for page bond rva mag

You still have a few weeks left to check out Page Bond Gallery’s Glow Glimmer Sparkle Shine exhibit featuring 26 artists which range from paintings to ceramics to abstract work.

Sculptural ceramics artist Piero Fenci is among those showcasing his work, which resembles ancient architecture, armor, and industrial machinery. Fenci describes it as “loosely rendered reinventions of the past” that reveal “a heritage of [his] own passions.” The artist has been a professor at Stephen F. Austin State University in Texas since 1975 and he founded the first university program in contemporary ceramic art in northern Mexico at la Universidad Autonoma de Chihuahua in 2004.

Ross Browne, a Richmond native and figurative painter,  is displaying his dream-like portraits, which fuse together fact and  “imagined mythology” to challenge “preconceived notions of the shared human experience”. The artist also incorporates nature such as birds, land, and cityscapes into his artwork to convey “the struggles of identity, power, and self-actualization.”

You can see their work and the work of the following artists at Page Bond Gallery in this exhibit: Participating artists include: Isabelle Abbot, Will Berry, Karen Blair, Sanford Bond, Robin Braun, Amy Chan, Charlotte Culot, Clark Derbes, Sean Donlon, Isa Newby Gagarin, Sarah Irvin, Harris Johnson, Becky Joye, B. Millner, Sarah Mizer, Jaydan Moore, Matthew Langley, Tim O’Kane, Corey Pemberton, Curtis Ripley, Fiona Ross, Nancy Murphy Spicer, Leigh Suggs, and Julie Wolfe. 1625 W. Main St.

ADA Gallery
Bruce Wilhelm: Next
Exhibit runs Fri. Jan. 5-Jan. 28

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ADA Gallery presents Richmond-based artist Bruce Wilhelm’s solo exhibit, Next, featuring his abstract works. A VCU graduate, Wilhelm has received two Virginia Museum Fellowship Grants and has showcased his work at ADA Gallery since 2005. The artist is also the co-founder of Philly’s Grizzly Grizzly gallery. 228 W. Broad St. 7-9 PM.

Sediment Arts
GenderFail
Exhibit runs Fri. Jan 5-Jan. 21

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Opening tonight is Sediment Arts storefront exhibit, GenderFail, a publishing and program initiative founded by Brett Suemnicht. The exhibit will feature a multimedia installation of publications, prints, and select programming focused on perspectives of queer and transgender people as well as people of color. The aim is to “build up, reinforce and open opportunities for creative projects focusing on printed matter.”

The featured works are from the GenderFail Archive Project in the form of a reading room with select titles from the GenderFail library.  The selections will be archived on the site and presented at the gallery as installations on sculptures commissioned from Richmond-based artists. The collaborative sculptural displays were created by artists Hallie McNeill, Evan Galbicka and Colin Klockner. GenderFail will be open Saturdays and Sundays from 1-6 pm and tonight’s opening will run from 6-9 pm. 208 E. Grace St. 

68 Home
 The Zodiac Collections
Exhibit opens Fri. Jan. 5

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 68 Home, a used and locally made furniture and home decor store and art gallery, will open First Fridays this month with “The Zodiac Collections”, a complete astrology-inspired exhibit.

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There will be $5 card readings by @snakeoil, online jewelry boutique Sun and Selene will be there selling their products, along with Maven Made, a local company selling all natural, ethically-sourced beauty, home, and wellness products, and local custom-flag shop Guards and Flags. 5 W. Broad St.

Threat Count Shirts
Cotton to Canvas: Champ Era Street Calculus

This Friday, Thread Count Shirts, a local custom brand t-shirt and apparel business, will have a pop-up shop showcasing local designer Champ Era’s latest collection, Street Calculus. 6-10 PM. 209 E. Broad St. 

Fresh Richmond
Pop Up Shop
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Fresh Richmond is hosting a Pop-Up Shop for their First Fridays of the New Year. The shop will feature clothing from Sky Mission Clothing Co., artwork made using water, fire, and air by SABartStudio, jewelry and gemstones by The RAW Aura, homade lotions by Nature’s Booty, and a DJ set by DJ Lady Syren and Neili Neil. 5-8:30 PM. 213 E. Broad St.

 

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Artwork by featured artist Shaylen Amanda Broughton

Vagabond
 Smoochie Jankins 1st Fridays Party!

Vagabond will throw an artist pop-up in The Rabbit Hole tonight at 9 PM featuring art and design from Jessica Camilli, Kamala Bhagat, Liberatus Jewelry, with music by Smoochie Jankins. Led by Mark Ingraham on the trumpet, the band is rounded out with Garen Dorsey (Sax/ Keys), Macon Mann (Keys), Kelli Strawbridge (Drums), Nekoro Thabiti Williams (PBR, Drums) and Derek Goodall, (drums) which is bound to get you out of your house braving the cold weather to hear these awesome musicians play. 700 E. Broad St. 

Check out all the RVA First Fridays happenings here.

 

RVA Mag First Friday Picks November 2017

Angie Huckstep | November 2, 2017

Topics: 1708 Gallery, ADA Gallery, Candela Books and Gallery, InLight Richmond, Richmond art galleries, RVA ARt, RVA First Fridays, Sediment Arts, Todd Hale, VALET Gallery

With fall quietly approaching and school back in session for many Richmond students, now is the perfect time to gather friends and family for a fun night out. So let’s get out there and wander amongst the many artistic offerings available tomorrow night for First Fridays!

First Fridays is Richmond’s monthly art walk event, which showcases artwork from local artists, food from local vendors, and the various talents from people throughout the community. Here are RVA Mag’s top picks for RVA First Fridays for November:

1708 Gallery: InLight Richmond

1708 Gallery has done it again! The wondrous light-based art and performance festival will celebrate its 10th anniversary this year in the city’s Arts and Cultural District. The InLight festival has grown in magnificence and spectacle over this time, and is assuredly the not-to-miss, interactive art event of the fall season. This year’s festival draws its theme from the 1901 Electric Carnival that took place on Broad Street, notably featuring an enlivened replica of the Eiffel Tower. We cannot wait to see just how InLight 2017 participants will play with this theme, and transform the cityscape into a mercurial, illuminated wonderland.

Initiated on the premise of offering a public art exhibition to the community, InLight has more than succeeded in providing Richmond the chance to experience contemporary art and artists outside of the gallery setting. Major highlights of the event incorporate various light-studded performances, sculpture and video installations, participatory projects for attendees and of course the marvelous Community Lantern Parade, which encourages one and all to make lanterns and join in an artful procession. The event will feature the contributions of over 40 artists and performers in this stellar night of brilliance and festivities.   

 

The Community Lantern Parade is scheduled to gather at 7:00pm at Henry and W. Broad Street, and begins at 7:30pm, running the stretch of West Broad between Belvidere and Foushee Streets. For those who wish to participate, 1708 Gallery will also have a lantern making station starting at 6:00pm at their new Night Lights Interactive Zone (Henry and West Broad Street). An InLight 2017 Food Court with eats and beverages, along with many local restaurants offering InLight specials, will be available to fuel your experience.

[IMAGES: installation from InLight 2014: Woodrow Collective: Joan Biddle, Kristi Tortoritis, Hannah Kirkpatrick, Treehouse, photo by Terry Brown; from Inlight 2016, Andy Diaz Hope and Jon Bernson, photo by Terry Brown]

 

Candela: Kahn & Selsnick, 100 Views of the Drowning World

Candela Gallery offered a sneak peak of Kahn & Selsnick’s 100 Views of the Drowning World at the Current Art Fair this past month, exhibiting one of the large-scale archival pigment prints, as well as showing off the comprehensive publication that accompanies the project. From these teasers alone, one can tell this exhibition is a definite class act, carried by dark, yet whimsical conceptual grounds.

These arch-topped prints follow the narrative of an itinerant acting troupe, the Truppe Fledermaus, as they stage various performances in far-ranging locations from England to Japan. The absurdist style and manner of these performances “are as apt to commemorate the passing of an unusual cloud as they are to be found documenting their own attempts to flee the rising waters of a warming planet, or using black humor to comment upon the extinction of bats or other animals.” The accompanying book is beautifully presented as an unbound publication, inviting readers to consider the text in any order of their choosing—thus, opening minds to the possibilities of non-linear experience and story-building in both fiction and reality.

Artists Nicholas Kahn and Richard Selesnick have worked collaboratively since the 1980’s, and have participated in over 100 solo and group exhibitions worldwide. Their collaborative projects are expansive, comprehensive, and founded with strong conceptual bases, and often include multiple platforms of expression. In its totality, the Truppe Fledermaus narrative includes 100 Views of the Drowning World, a number of posters and banners, installations, and two additional photo series. This exhibit will be on view until Dec. 23rd, 2017.

 

Ada: Jared Lindsay Clark, Builder Bildet

Watch for Ada artist Derek Larson as a participating artist with InLight 2017! A repeat exhibitor at Ada since 2014, the gallery represented Larson at last year’s Untitled Art Fair in Miami Beach, FL. This multi-media artist will show some of his new animations inside the gallery as well.

The main gallery features Jared Lindsay Clark’s solo show, Bilder Bildet. This exhibition includes a number of his ‘kitschbild’ assemblages as well as a debut of his new oil paintings and gouaches. His glossy, conglomerate assemblages blur bounds of painting and sculpture as they teem with various collectibles, found objects and detritus bound in glossy resin coatings. Many of these appear as fantastic split geodes of bright, kitsch culture that has dripped into our pop-social world. Some include found paintings or publications that the sculptures’ fused structures seem to abscond or envelop.

Builder Bidet will be Clark’s first return to painting since receiving his masters from VCU fifteen years ago. These works echo some of the volumetric explorations found in his kitschbild assemblages, looking again into the formal play of mid-twentieth century modernist aesthetics.

Opening is from 7-9pm, this exhibit runs through November 25th.

For more information visit:

www.adagallery.com

 

VALET Gallery: Katya Villano, Blue Litmus Works

Baltimore based artist Katya Villano will be showing new paintings in Blue Litmus Works at VALET Gallery. In many of these recent paintings, Villano masks figures into their environments using the obscuring mid-tones of their surroundings. The representational situations and encounters in each work seem to wash or flow across the canvas, and are yet held by the boldness of Villano’s painterly mark making.

As a trans lesbian artist, Villano’s works explore the fluidity of femininity in the trans body. Each painting offers a “venue of fluidity” where “color, sensation, womanhood and power need no declarations or definitive engagements.” The work focuses on relationships between shame, desire and contradictory truths. Villano’s color palette alone evidences how these compositions “reject myths of purity,” as the show’s title also connotes thoughts of discerning the unknown properties of mixed solutions.

For more information visit:

http://katyavillano.com/

 

SEDIMENT: Chino Amobi, Weak Images

Along with their regular gallery programming, SEDIMENT has also begun to curate storefront feature exhibitions as a new experimental exhibition format. As part of these, Chino Amobi’s Weak Images debuts this Friday. Weak Images is a multimedia installation based off of the Italian philosopher, Giorgio Agamben’s concept of Weak Images, concerning questions of defining an image’s essence and the visibility of concrete images.

Chino Amobi is from born in Tuscaloosa, AL, and currently resides in Richmond. He is a co-founder of the global collective Non Worldwide and is currently pursuing an MFA in Graphic Design at Virginia Commonwealth University. A noted musician as well as visual artist, Chino will also be performing at the Advocates for Youth Benefit Show at Strange Matter this Friday. Weak Images will remain installed at SEDIMENT through Nov. 19th.

For more information visit:

http://www.sedimentarts.org/

https://chinoamobi.bandcamp.com/

 

Studio/Gallery 6: Todd Hale

Studio/Gallery 6 will hold an open studio of works by gallery owner, Todd Hale. A multidisciplinary artist to say the least, Hale will feature a number of colorful new acrylic/paper collages on panel board in resin coating. These compositions are especially bright—some entangle the entire panel, while others seem to float in black space. Their cut-paper, fauvist aesthetic makes for exciting, in your face conglomerate forms and spaces that slip in and out of themselves.

Studio/Gallery 6 will open doors at 6pm

For more information visit:

toddhale.com

Art Sponsored by Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art 

Current offers unique contemporary art fair for experienced and novice collectors this weekend

Brad Kutner | October 19, 2016

Topics: 1708 Gallery, ADA Gallery, Candela Books + Gallery, contemporary art in Richmond, Current, Glave Kocen Gallery, Page Bond Gallery, Quirk Gallery, Reynolds Gallery, scotts addition

Richmond’s first contemporary art fair is hitting the scene on October 20. Current is a brain child of several local gallery owners and directors including 1708 Gallery, ADA gallery, Candela Books + Gallery, Glave Kocen Gallery, Page Bond Gallery, Quirk Gallery, and Reynolds Gallery.
[Read more…] about Current offers unique contemporary art fair for experienced and novice collectors this weekend

Fantasy meets art in ADA Gallery’s Dungeons & Dragons-inspired ‘Geo Necro’ exhibit

Amy David | June 6, 2016

Topics: ADA Gallery, art, Dungeons & Dragons, fantasy, Geo Necro, magic, role-playing, RVA ARt

Monsters, wizards, and dungeon masters converge at ADA Gallery’s latest exhibit, “Geo Necro”, where art meets fantasy.
[Read more…] about Fantasy meets art in ADA Gallery’s Dungeons & Dragons-inspired ‘Geo Necro’ exhibit

RVA Mag’s First Friday picks 4/1

Amy David | April 1, 2016

Topics: ADA Gallery, Black Iris, Gallery5, Mod&Soul, RVA fashion, RVA First Fridays. rva art, rva music, Studio 23, VisArts

Richmond’s bustling arts scene continues to develop and flourish with amazing painters, sculptors, musicians, designers, and artists of all kinds, but once a month the city offers us a really great treat with RVA First Fridays.
[Read more…] about RVA Mag’s First Friday picks 4/1

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