May 2021 Exhibitions

May 18, 2021 Donna Carr

Carol Lambert, *Perseverance*, 2020, Soft ground etching on Somerset 250 gsm paper, 8 x 10, Edition of 8

MAY 2021
CENTER GALLERY
Perseverance | Carol Lambert

Perseverance is about getting through life, especially the hard parts. In 19 etchings, mostly in color, we see characters responding to situations with strength, patience, energy, imagination, and sometimes resignation. In other words, they are very much like us.

Screen Shot 2021-05-14 at 12.27.16 PM.png — Portrait of the artist, courtesy the artist

Carol Lambert studied art at the American College (now the American University) in Paris, and in 1969 earned her BA in Art and Art History at Brown University. She completed an MA in Counseling Psychology though Goddard College in 1973, and a PhD in Clinical Psychology at Fielding Graduate Institute in 1999. From 2000 to 2015 she continued her training in painting, drawing, and printmaking at several schools, including Grand Central Academy and the Art Students League in New York. In 2016 she began attending workshops at Crown Point Press in San Francisco and has concentrated on intaglio printmaking since then. She has lived in Alaska since 1979.

carollambertarts.com

Natalie Baxter, *House of Bread,* 2021, Fabric, found quilt, graphic t-shirt, laundry bag, dish towels, fabric, cotton batting, 44 x 66 inches

MAY 2021
NORTH GALLERY
Homefront | Natalie Baxter

In the past year, our homes have simultaneously become bunkers and battlefields. An oversized housecoat, plush assault rifles, quilts, and show ribbons make up the work in Homefront, an exhibition by Natalie Baxter that explores the complexities unveiled by the pandemic.

Screen Shot 2021-05-14 at 12.50.52 PM.png — Portrait of the artist, courtesy the artist

Natalie Baxter (b. 1985, Lexington, Kentucky) explores concepts of place-identity, nostalgic americana, and gender stereotypes through sculptures that playfully push controversial issues. Natalie received her MFA from the University of Kentucky in 2012 and a BA in Fine Art from the University of the South in Sewanee, TN in 2007. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums internationally with recent shows at Intersect SOFA Chicago with Elijah Wheat Showroom (Newburgh, NY), Birmingham Museum of Art (Birmingham, AL), Spring/Break Art Show with Gloria’s (New York, NY), Material Art Fair with Beverly’s (Mexico City, MX), Institute 193 (Lexington, KY), Yale University (New Haven, CT), and Brandeis University (Waltham, MA). She has been an artist in residency at the Wassaic Project, a fellowship recipient at the Vermont Studio Center, and twice awarded the Queens Art Fund Grant. Press for Baxter’s work includes, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Hyperallergic, The Guardian, and Bomb Magazine. She is currently a resident at The Wassaic Project in Wassaic, NY.

nataliebaxter.com

Sharon Trager, *Coffeehouse Sketch #1*, Graphite on paper, 8 x 10 inches

MAY 2021
SOUTH GALLERY
A Daily Practice – Coffeehouse Sketches | Sharon Trager

Anonymous, trying not to disturb my subject’s space, I am looking at light, shadow, form, gesture, movement. I draw, making a distinct effort to be sensitive to myself while keeping a concentrated observational focus on what I see. It is a practice, therefore results vary but I am most satisfied when I achieve a sensitivity of character and spirit in the drawing.

Screen Shot 2021-05-14 at 12.38.06 PM.png — Portrait of the artist, courtesy the artist

Sharon is an Anchorage based artist. She received a BFA from Eastern Michigan University and had a long career as an art educator.

Her mixed media collage work and painting have been exhibited in several of the All Alaska Biennial exhibits and various juried exhibitions.

The past several years have been devoted to advancing her proficiency in figurative work with a concentration in classical painting and drawing.

She is active in several live model drawing and painting groups here in town and continues to work with master artists in the field.

sharontrager.com

Virtual Exhibition Tour

Three Series | Sheila Wyne

November 17, 2020 Karinna Gomez

NOVEMBER 2020
Three Series | Sheila Wyne

Sheila Wyne presents 3 ongoing series that explore our past, present and future connections to our changing environment.

Found and manipulated signage, create future stratifications.
Facial casts and found objects explore our current reactions.
Mixed media drawings document our past relationships with the land and current dilemmas.

Sheila Wyne is a visual artist based in Anchorage. Her studio work has been shown across the state, the Lower 48 and overseas. Her work is in permanent collections of the Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau and Pratt Museums. She has designed over 20 public artworks.

Wyne has also worked as a set designer with theatre companies in Alaska and the Northwest. She is a Core Member of The Light Brigade – an independent group of artists who design time-based, site-specific art interventions on the local landscape and built environment.

Wyne has been awarded a national NEA/TCG Fellowship in set design, a Rasmuson Artist Fellowship, a Boochever Fellowship and the Alex Combs Artist Award. She has also received grants from Alaska State Council on the Arts, the NASE Development Program, the Rasmuson Foundation, the Andy Warhol and Rockefeller Foundations. She has received the Governor’s Award for Individual Artist.

sheilawyne.com

Artist Q&A:

Can you tell us a little about your background?

My training starts with a degree in literature rather than in visual art. This approach has provided me with a much broader exposure to theories and movements not readily apparent in visual art history. It trained me to digest information and concepts from a different perspective.

After college, I moved to Alaska where my personal interest in art began. I discovered my background worked well with how I approached art making. I continued training by taking art courses at the University of Alaska Anchorage. My choice of courses followed my own interests within the visual art as well as practical skills I desired to acquire.

I also began to get acquainted with the regional arts community. I worked for more mature artists to learn their skills and to learn the practical nature of just how people could survive as an artist in our American culture.

For the first few years, I had to move my studio 7 times. As a sculptor, this was always highly disruptive. I knew that I wanted to make Alaska my home base. My goal was ownership of a studio. Once I found the studio compound in Spenard, it became a hub for art gatherings and my community expanded.

Can you describe a little about each of the series of work on display in the gallery this month?

Ingenerare by Sheila Wyne installed in the UAA Engineering and Industry building. — *Ingenerare* by Sheila Wyne installed in the UAA Engineering and Industry building.

The Strata Series is born from a large public artwork in UAA’s Engineering and Industry building. Typically an art process starts from small works to larger works. Here it was the opposite. I started large (Ingenerare / 12’ x 14’). I really enjoyed working on that piece, incorporating signage from our built environment. I wanted to revisit the process on a smaller scale and see what would develop. I had come back from a 21 day rafting trip through the Grand Canyon where the strata of geological time constantly surrounded me.

The Affectus Series is ongoing. Every so often, I create another ‘portrait’ that visually speaks to states of mind, disposition, feelings and mood. The horse collars are the framing device that speaks to what we are in harness to - in this case, some of our present responses to climate change.

The Drawn and Quartered Series documents some of our past choices and events. Some works expose a history of colonial neglect of the land and other species. Other works are reminders of the beauty and mystery of nature—from large natural events to the smallest species.

What led you to creating this work?

Much of these series were made during the pandemic. I’ve found the pandemic event to be a kind of warmup for a much larger, more complex event. It’s been a useful time to contemplate the much larger issue of climate change that will effect everything. Every species, every landscape.

Do you often work on multiple series at the same time?

I usually have several works going in the studio at the same time. I find it useful to be able to spin to another work when I hit a problem. This ‘pin ball’ art process allows the problem to rest in the back of my mind while I work on another piece. Usually when I then go back to the problem, I’ve found new ways to resolve it.

Typically, I don’t work on one series exclusively. However, the Strata Series is the exception to this rule. I created that series during the pandemic.

What are you working on now? 

Currently I am a finalist in 2 public art opportunities. So I’m refining concepts, 3D modeling and getting estimates for construction.

Is there anything else that you would like to share with the IGCA community?

My creative work reflects a personal view that an artist’s perspective is applicable in many venues. My pursuits as an artist include visual art, public art projects, set design, neighborhood-initiated environmental design and grass roots community art support. Just as moving through a day requires different combinations of muscle and intent, so too, my various artistic pursuits require flexibility in the imaginative process.

My own studio work, the most solitary of my creative pursuits, is similar to walking backwards. I cannot directly observe my progress toward a destination. I “see” where I’ve “been” through the trail left from assembling, painting, reading, writing and conversation. This trail grows clearer as I move into the unknown. By observing these markers, I eventually sense my arrival when the last view strikes my internal eye as a destination. When successful, this artistic mode can lead me beyond my own limited cartography to a surprising landscape. But it is always risky. There are times that I never reach a destination and find myself simply wandering in the wilderness. But it is there, within this process, that I make the discoveries that can lead to what I desire. To bear witness to what cannot be said and hopefully give voice through a visual poetry to what cannot be seen.

The media I use are as wide-ranging as the scale, scope and emotional content of my pursuits. No material is off limits. Everything is available for the creative act. The key is to follow the nerve of one’s own being and look around for the material that best serves each exploration. Looking, and sometimes waiting, till the right thing or moment arrives are crucial for me. My satisfaction is to unite disparate objects. I look for visual metaphors that embody life’s journey – the search, the thresholds, the pauses for reflection, the trials and tribulations found in daily living. My instincts in art making are similar to the Medieval alchemist, an allusive hope of turning the lead of the familiar into the gold of something that transcends what we assume that we know.

Sheila Wyne Strata #1 Repurposed signage 38” x 54” x 1”

Sheila Wyne Strata #2 Repurposed signage 69” x 45” x 1”

Sheila Wyne Strata #3 Repurposed signage 38” x 54” x 1”

Sheila Wyne Strata #4 Found and manipulated signage 98” x 57” x 6”

Sheila Wyne Strata #5 Found and manipulated signage 69” x 45” x 6”

Sheila Wyne Strata #6 Repurposed signage 41” x 50” x 8”

Sheila Wyne Strata #7 Repurposed signage 41” x 50” x 6”

Sheila Wyne So Much, So Little Time Cast and manipulated found objects, text

Sheila Wyne Myopic Cast and manipulated found objects, text 24” x 18” x 6”

Sheila Wyne Attachments Cast and manipulated found objects, text

Sheila Wyne Aura 23” x 18” x 6” Cast and manipulated found objects, text

Sheila Wyne Chrysalis Cast and manipulated found objects, text

Sheila Wyne Resurrection From The Inscrutable Series Mixed Media 22” x 22” x 5”

Sheila Wyne Another Life From The Inscrutable Series Mixed Media 22” x 22” x 5”

Sheila Wyne Turnagain Arm Fire From the Exercise in Atmosphere Series Mixed Media

Sheila Wyne Amchitka #1 Mixed Media 2’6” x 2’6”

Sheila Wyne Amchitka #2 2’6” x 2’6” Mixed Media

Sheila Wyne Project Chariot #1 2’6” x 2’6” Mixed Media

Sheila Wyne Project Chariot #2 2’6” x 2’6” Mixed Media

Virtual Exhibition Tour

IGCA -, Anchorage, AK, United States.

Borean Lines | David Hansen

October 21, 2020 Karinna Gomez

OCTOBER 2020
CENTER GALLERY
Borean Lines | David Hansen

Artist Q&A:

Can you tell us a little about your background?

I grew up in downtown Anchorage. I went to school on the East Coast and West Coast, but kept coming back to Alaska. Growing up in the environment of Anchorage gave me an opportunity to have the freedom to explore unconventional ways of building, doing, and being than you might have in a rural setting, or fully urban setting. You still have the connection to industry and art. There is the freedom of the rural, but the information and materials that come along with being in a city. It is the space and environment that keeps bringing me back, paired with the inherit wildness of the individuals who live here.

How do you think your work as both a wildland firefighter and architect influences your art?

I spend summers working as a Wildland Firefighter. This work influences me as an architect and artist. The reason I like architecture is the same reason I do art. It is the communication of one’s soul that drives art. My growing up with art was my means of learning and understanding the world. I was able to learn more about academics. This was my foray into architecture. From an early age I was showing understanding of learning by creating art to demonstrate my ideas. This was a direct tie to going into architecture.

Working as a wildland firefighter, we put a year’s worth of work into 5 months. This intensity parces away unnecessary aspects of life. For example, a wildland firefighter's pants are cut short, sitting just below the top of the boot. While it looks silly it keeps the cuffs from dragging in the mud or getting caught on sticks while a tree is falling. This willingness to remove any hindrances to functionality transfers to my art and architecture. Functionality and usefulness take precedence over fashion and convention. If it’s not working, you get rid of it in a direct way. There is a pragmatism embedded in my work as an artist that comes from my work as a firefighter.

Can you describe your installation Borean Lines?

This piece is a mirror of my experience with Anchorage, in which a rural birch tree and an industrial conveyor belt makes sense to me. The scale of the tree and the width and material qualities of the conveyor belt are in balance. Both objects come from within 45 miles of the other. The conveyor belt allows me to play with the rigidity of the birch tree. Birch are amazing, they are the first tree to come back after a disturbance. They are a hardwood, but they grow quickly. In a high wind, they have an expressive way of bending and moving- rather than breaking. This piece is about the qualities of birch tree brought to the extreme.

What are you working on now, or alternatively, what do you want to be working on next?

This sculpture is titled “Borean Lines”. I would like to explore this further in a set of pieces that explore the expressiveness of the material, in the sense of the place. I am currently working on a long term study of Alaskan winters that track the passage of time and the palette of light that we experience in the winter months.

Virtual Exhibition Tour

Anthropocene | Invitational Group Exhibition Curated by John Coyne

August 18, 2020 Karinna Gomez

AUGUST 2020
CENTER AND SOUTH GALLERIES
Anthropocene | Invitational group exhibition curated by John Coyne

Anthropocene: the current geological age, viewed as the period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment. Extreme weather, dying oceans, extinction of species and novel viruses, this show explores the ramifications of our out-sized impact on the natural world. We are all under the sway of the Anthropocene, and the artists in this exhibit offer their unique approaches and perspectives on this phenomenon.

Sandra Talbot | Third Nature: Divining the Scientific Archive

July 18, 2020 Karinna Gomez

Sandra Talbot. Invaders Invading. Digital imagery printed on glass. 15.6 x 21.6 inches. From archived imagery taken during a scientific expedition to Simeonof Island, Shumagin Island group, July-August 2014.

JULY 2020
NORTH GALLERY
Third Nature: Divining the Scientific Archive | Sandra Talbot

Archives of scientific activities and expeditions can be viewed simultaneously by both artists and scientists as repositories of knowledge, ways to satisfy the desire for order and control, and as mirrors of ourselves, of the collector, and of culture and society. In Third Nature: Divining the Scientific Archive, I leverage archived science-made materials and imagery gathered during my own scientific expeditions to remote treeless islands of southwestern Alaska and the Aleutian Island Archipelago. The work explores the impact of scientific expeditions—including the mid-18th century Bering Expedition—and subsequent colonial expansion on the ecology of these harsh but beautiful geographies.

Artist Statement
The dichotomy between the science and art worldviews provides a gateway through which both artists and scientists can explore a personal and collective relationship with the world via the platform of the archive. Scientists (like me) and artists (like me) can leverage scientific collections—fossil compendia, field notebooks, nautical logs, herbaria sheets, genetic data and imagery, or the myriad other objects collected or created during scientific activities and expeditions—to generate knowledge, and archives of these collections can be viewed simultaneously as repositories of knowledge, ways to satisfy the desire for order and control, and as mirrors of ourselves, of the collector, and of culture and society.

For the past thirty years, I participated in scientific expeditions to treeless, windswept islands of Alaska’s Aleutian Island Archipelago and allied island groups. Landfall was made on a number of those same islands during the ill-fated 1741 Second Kamchatkan Expedition (also known as the Bering Expedition). This experience provided an unparalleled opportunity to place imagery emerging from archives generated via my own lived experience straddling the 20th and 21st centuries within the context of archived records and the lived experience of 18th century scientific explorers. My artistic research tracks document and imagery archives from the voyage of the packet boat, St. Peter—which carried Captain Commander Bering’s crew from Kamchatka to southeast Alaska and, after many trials, including sickness and death of the Commander, back to Kamchatka—during 1741-1742. My own field research activities and archives—mostly materials from botanical expeditions conducted between 1988 and 2019—span much of that 18th century track, and I use in my art-making those archived science-made materials to explore the impact of scientific expeditions and subsequent colonial expansion on the species and indigenous people that occupied and continue to occupy these remote treeless islands. In an example of ArtScience, I leverage insight emerging from art-making, science-making and my own lived experience to erect and test a new hypothesis to solve a mystery that has puzzled nine generations of biologists exploring these same harsh but beautiful geographies.