Hyper-America: Cookies, Wires & Landscapes New Exhibit at TAG Gallery November 29 - December 24, 2011

Featuring John Clendening, Cameey McGilvray, Joan Vaupen

Opening Reception: Saturday, December 3, 2011, 5-8 PM

John Clendening, The Lake at Sundown, 2011, oil on panel, 24 x 18 in.

American Landscapes
John Clendening
Combining still life images with landscapes in a form he calls the “Stillscape”, artist John Clendening forges a connection between the traditions of American landscape painting and those of European still life. As the former Smithsonian Chief of Design, Clendening has an intrinsic relationship with American art and history. His current show, American Landscapes, surveys American national parks, including Zion, Joshua Tree, Snow Canyon, and Indian Canyon. He reveals how the natural world can inspire on any scale, bringing the majestic together with the commonplace, juxtaposing monumental natural imagery with traditional still-life imagery. From stunning mountain peaks to crates of apples on a desk, John Clendening’s work emphasizes how the smallest detail is ultimately just as important as the large whole.

Camey McGilvray, Haywire 2011 Acrylic, wire and wood 36 x 26 x 6 in

WIred, Camey McGilvray

In WIRED, Sculptor Camey McGilvray challenges the multi-faceted, scattered, high-speed nature of contemporary culture. Using wires and wood in her kinetic constructions, McGilvray shows that twenty-four hour access to information is the blessing and curse of our time. A constant stream of communication may allow us to do more, send more, and process more, but ultimately, will expect more of us in return. While being wired informs our personal energy, it also limits the depth of our connections. By capturing individual slices of life in hyperdrive, McGilvray’s sculptures force us to realize that despite the benefits, digital communication is no substitute for the quality of an unedited, face-to-face interaction. While more words reach, fewer touch.

Joan Vaupen, Red Fortune Cookie, 2011, Plexiglass and mixed media, 12 x 12 x 6 in.

Fortune, Joan Vaupen

Fortune Cookies. Plexiglass. What do they have in common? Mixed-media artist Joan Vaupen revels in the two, in her new exhibit, Fortune at TAG Gallery. Vaupen brings the kitschy cookie into the realm of 21st century art - molding the the soft plastic of plexiglas into the hardened, sensual shapes of that frustrating, sweet paradox: the fortune cookie. We want to eat it, but we don’t want to eat it. We want to open it, and we want to keep it closed. The circuitous forms of Vaupen’s plexiglas cookies simultaneously hide and reveal, are feminine yet hard. Larger than life, they suspend themselves from the wall, requesting us to open them and discover the platitudes of life. Fortune forces us to recognize that even though the unknown shall always be unknown . . . it will always be enticing.

John Clendening, Josephine Vandergun, Camey McGilvray March 30 – April 24, 2010

Reception: Saturday, April 3, 5-8pm

JOHN CLENDENING
Painter John Clendening is showing his "Chinatown Market" series at TAG Gallery.

Although Clendening's exhibit consists of new paintings, his idea for this series started thirty years ago in New York City in Chinatown where the artist was inspired by trips through streets where New Yorkers buy fruit and vegetables from Chinese vendors selling from sidewalk carts.
In addition, he is showing some works from his "Apple Orchard" series, which also started around thirty years ago. As with the Chinatown Series, the Apple Orchard paintings were inspired by visits to special locations. Clendening traveled through Virginia apple country to places like Serryville, Madison or Winchester where the orchard farmers sit crates and bushel baskets on the sides of county roads. However, none were actually painted in plein air -- Clendening says every painting in the apple series was painted in the studio from real apples.


JOSEPHINE VANDERGUN
Sculptor and painter Josephine Vandergun grew up in the Netherlands where she attended several art academies. She went on to study painting in London for two years before moving to California in 1998. That's when she developed a passion for sculpture after working with master sculptor Jonathan Bickhardt who encouraged her to discover different and new materials like acrylic, sand, marble, and iron casting, in addition to traditional bronze.

Vandergun's sculptures explore the beauty and emotion of the human figure with captivating results. Vandergun's works have been shown at galleries in West Hollywood, Santa Monica, the Netherlands and Spain.

CAMEY McGILVRAY
TAG Gallery will be exhibiting wood and metal sculptures by Camey McGilvray.

McGilvray studied at St. Lawrence University, The Art Students' League, the New School in New York City, and at the University of the Americas in Mexico City. Her work has been exhibited in galleries across the country including Pen and Brush Gallery in New York City, Schomberg Gallery in Santa Monica, and the Frederick Wiseman Gallery of Art in Malibu, and she co-founded the Abbot Kinney Art Gallery in Venice, California. Her sculptures are featured in a movie to be released later this year: "The Truth is Always Complicated."

Using wood and metal to create abstract, contemporary sculptures, McGilvray's work is evocative rather than representational and relies on shape and placement of the component pieces, shadow, color and texture to convey a story or emotion. Using multiple components that are geometric, abstract or figurative McGilvray creates a product that requires the viewer to go beyond the parts to see the whole.

For example, "Bride Descending a staircase (Homage to Marcel Duchamp)" includes all of the characteristic features of McGilvray's sculpture: components that are geometric, abstract, and figurative. The inspiration for this piece is Duchamp's 1913 avant-guard painting "Nude Descending a Staircase" in which a graceful movement of the figure emerges from apparent chaos. Like the painting, McGilvray's goal is to use the array of shapes and colors to create a coherent pattern which tells a story and evokes feelings from the viewer.