Realities of Memories | Kerry Adams
Downstairs Back BOX

“Since our lives are made up of finite time, the way that time is spent, accumulated, or valued is important. Time between tending to responsibilities often slips by unrecorded or undervalued. Although this time is often viewed as insignificant, it can house our thoughts, our dreams, and the day-to-day moments that become a large portion of our lives and identities. If we remember nothing of these periods, or are left with vague traces of the past then what of this time and of ourselves has been lost? In my work I aim to make this time and these traces visible.” – Kerry Adams

Kerry Adams was born and raised in Central New Jersey. She first learned about sculpture and installation art through making in the way that seemed most natural to her and began making large-scale multi-media concept-based installations while still in high school. In 2004, she received her BFA in sculpture from Rhode Island School of Design and in 2009 she received her MFA from Maryland Institute College of Art. Kerry has exhibited her work in solo and group shows and as a grant recipient.

Pyre | Ann Wood
Upstairs BOX

Ann Wood’s work generally incorporates two- and three-dimensional pieces into immediate and dramatic environments that border on installation. These environments have a Rococo visual appeal and dramatically reference topiaries, bouquets, and desserts as well as historical painting and sculpture. While they initially seem “pretty” and look as if they might taste “yummy”, they tend to slowly reveal a disturbing underbelly-there are both hidden and obvious vignettes of death, deception, and decay woven throughout (and you definitely would not want to eat anything after a second look). Themes of decadence and over-indulgence quickly become sickening. Animals are frozen in a moment of ultimate humiliation, covered with what appears to be frosting, flowers, and bows. While the gooey, almost edible quality of the environment may be inviting, it is also easy to imagine the work as a dangerous and baited trap. This is further enhanced by the fact that the animals “trapped” in the goo are taxidermy mannequins serving as subtle reminders of a violent, undignified death. The work twists the idea of monument into a feminine, animal-shaped super-cake that simultaneously reminds the viewer of the discordant ideas of nurture and humiliation.

Ann Wood was born and raised in Northern California (Eureka). Wood received a BFA in Art with an emphasis on painting from California State University at Chico. She earned a MFA in painting from the University of Texas at San Antonio. Her wok has been included in exhibitions at venues across Texas including the Dallas Center for Contemporary Art, The University of Teas at San Antonio Gallery, Blue Star Contemporary Art Museum (San Antonio), Anya Tish Gallery, and Avis Frank. Recent solo exhibitions of her work have been shown at the Galveston Arts Center, Lawndale Art Center (Houston), and Women and Their Work, (Austin). She will also have a solo show at Kirk Hopper Fine Art in Dallas this July. Her work has been reviewed in several publications including Artl!es, The Austin Chronicle, The Houston Chronicle, and The Dallas Morning News. In 2010 she was interviewed on NPR for The Front Row radio show. Her exhibition Violent Delights at Women and their Work was declared one of the top 10 art moments in Austin for 2012 by both the Austin Chronicle and the Austinist. She lives and works in Galveston, Texas.

A Universal Picture | Shelby Shadwell
Window BOX

Shelby Shadwell choses to draw the black plastic trash bags and cockroaches as much for aesthetic reasons as for the contents or connotations the materials may carry. Formally, there is a palpable tension between representation and abstraction in the work, as the folds in the plastic / skeletons and the light and shadow shapes assume a various ephemeral entities, sometimes portrait-like, invoking Rorschach. For Shadwell, the work is a continuation of a metaphysical dialogue about the visible versus the hidden and the valuable versus the disposable in art and a broader cultural context. Observational drawing is the most direct and meditative way for Shadwell to have this conversation with the viewer.

Shelby Shadwell in 2003 he received his BFA from Washington University School of Fine Art in St. Louis, where he studied printmaking and drawing as a Kenneth E. Hudson Scholar. He accepted a full fellowship to attend Southern Illinois University Carbondale and went on to graduate with an MFA in printmaking and drawing in 2006. Shadwell actively exhibits across the nation and was recently featured in the International Drawing Annual 5 and 6 publications through the Manifest Creative Research Gallery and Drawing Center in Cincinnatti, OH. Shelby was one of three artists to receive a Visual Arts Fellowship from the Wyoming Arts Council in 2010, and he was an artist-in-residence at the Center for Land Use Interpretation in Wendover, UT in the summer of 2011 with a group exhibition at the Center for Contemporary Arts in Santa Fe in December 2012. Shelby is looking forward to multiple solo exhibitions coming up including at Manifest in February of 2013. Shadwell is currently an Assistant Professor in the Art Department at the University of Wyoming, and he has greatly enjoyed teaching and making artwork in Laramie over the past five years.

Also on view…

a gods eye OUTPOST | Kate Kendall
Installation BOX