Three's Company
Michelle Andrade, John Weston, Michelle Wiener
September 27 – October 19, 2014
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 27, 2014, 7 – 10 pm
Special Collaborative Drawing Event: October 5, 1 – 4PM
Exhibition open noon - 5 pm on Saturday and Sunday
Whether positive or negative, the number three has significance in our culture. Artists Michelle Andrade, John Weston and Michelle Wiener propose an exhibition exploring collaboration within a group of three. Each artist comes from a similar educational background, given that they all attended graduate school together. But each artist has a singular approach and practice within the fields of drawing and painting. As individual artists, Andrade, Weston and Wiener have isolating studio practices resulting in long periods of solitude. Three’s Company proposes a more social way of working. The exhibition space will be divided into three different realms. The first of the three will showcase individual discrete works. For the second section the artists will make an in situ wall drawing. The final area will display works made during social drawing events within the span of the exhibition, reinforcing the collaborative drawing theme. Through these three components, this exhibition will focus on three artists working as one. The connective tissues of text, pop culture, and pattern play hinge these artists’ unique practices providing an overlapping ground on which to build collaborative work. These people genuinely enjoy each other’s work and each other’s company.
Michelle Andrade’s work is a journalistic exploration into the everyday sprawl of the mundane. Brightly colored, whimsical drawings draw the viewer in, but a closer look reveals her personal anxieties, struggles, and insecurities. The fragmented phrases that run through her drawings come from her own thoughts as well as conversations and interactions with others. Taken out of context, these dark and humorous thoughts and phrases, juxtaposed with a playful aesthetic become accessible. That which would traditionally be deemed personal and uncomfortable allows the viewer to locate themselves in the narratives woven into her diaristic journey.
John Weston’s recent work puts a perverse spin on the theme of decoration. While borrowing liberally from patterns in decorative textiles and optical illusions, the paintings also feature stylized figures on the top of patterned backgrounds creating a hybridized image. The figures are erotically charged, and allude to the iconic images of underground comics and psychedelic posters.
Michelle Wiener explores topics such as the representation of women in popular culture; specifically film, in her paintings and drawings. Through the sampling of text from nineteenth and twentieth century literature, as well as the philosophical works of Satre, Camus and Beauvoir, Wiener examines how female archetypes have not changed since The Epic of Gilgamesh. Her compositions include a vast amount of negative space as well as no cast shadows, making the viewer conclude that the subjects exist within a vacuous imaginary space.