smoke, sand, stars in your eyes
david onri anderson
artist statement
I make work that is small and quiet, at the same time bold and hard edged. Quietly courageous as my good friend once said. I do not want to make a spectacle to impress you, I do not want to prove anything to you. I want to make a space for you to dwell, with all your emotions, thoughts, and perspective. I want us to have a meeting point in my work, where we can talk heart to heart and unearth feelings and ideas that our language and culture suppress. I want to show you a wonderful place that I go to often. I use images like candles, paper lanterns and plants to talk about ideas concerning the body, mortality, love and loneliness, and the constant burning in order to live.
biography
David Onri Anderson (b. 1993, Nashville, TN) is an artist living and working in Nashville, TN. He loves nature and cooking. He graduated from Watkins College of Art in 2016. Anderson’s work has been exhibited by Patrick Painter Gallery (Los Angeles, CA), Zieher Smith Gallery (Manhattan, NY), David Lusk Gallery (Nashville, TN), Chicago Art Book Fair (Chicago, IL), Atlanta Contemporary (Atlanta, GA), Elephant Gallery (Nashville, TN), among others. He will have a solo exhibition at Patrick Painter Gallery in March 2019. Anderson is co-curator of mild climate, and founder/ head curator of The Electric Shed in Nashville, TN.
lauren taylor
artist statement
1. In a four-term analogy, the word “face” alludes to a corresponding feature of a rock– something already in existence to which the figure can be compared.
Baby’s on fire, and all the laughing boys are bitching. Waiting for paintings, ooooohh oh ohh ooh the plot is so bewitching ♪
2. The word “face” cannot perform the act of metaphorical resemblance, because no original term exists as a stand-in for it. The catachrestic effect of a rock’s “face” turns the perspective metaphor into an identity. (“Let me at ’em, let me at ’em!!” Crash! Bang!! Craashhhh! Whooosh “Ahhhhh!”)
Abject props instigating a sense of [either] intimacy, or perversion.
Bones snip snap! Take your time, she’s only burning. This kind of experience is necessary for her learning ♪
4. The figure now performs the function of a “proper” term, even though it is “improper” in context. When we speak of faces on rocks, sad puppy eyes, or speaking daggers, we do not create nice things based on reality so much as bootleg forms that distort logical apprehension. These stand-ins are about absence as much as presence.
All my feelings feel like bootleg feelings.
biography
Lauren Taylor (b. 1992, Nashville, TN) is an interdisciplinary artist living and working in Brooklyn, NYC. She received her BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2014. Her work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally by Freddy (Harris, NY), bahamas biennale (Detroit, MI), Andrew Rafacz Gallery (Chicago, IL), Paris, London, Hong Kong (Chicago, IL), Green Gallery (Milwaukee, WI), Syndicate at Harbinger Projects (Reykjavík, Iceland), Hosting Projects (Venice, CA), Red Zone (Los Angeles, CA), mild climate (Nashville, TN), among others. Taylor's work will be included in a forthcoming exhibition at SafeGallery (Brooklyn, NY) in November 2018.