ColorSpace by J Clayton
ColorSpace
Curated by Karen Azarnia
Project Space: Michelle Bolinger
RAC Garden: Michelle Grabner + Brad Killam
October 19 – November 24, 2012
Reception: Sunday, October 21, 3 – 6pm
Conversation with architect Thomas Jacobs + the artists at 4pm
J Clayton’s non-objective paintings celebrate color, while demonstrating a nuanced understanding of formal spatial relationships. Working in acrylic on raw canvas – an unforgiving medium – Clayton paints series of color spots marking points in space, establishing both structure and pathways of movement. Drawing upon her experience as an architect, she uses color as structure to create tension between apparent stability and potential dissolution. These color-space paintings are a reflection of an internal world mapped from a lifetime of gathering information, processing data, recognizing patterns and solving problems. For Clayton, her art making practice is her “way of thinking about the world.”
In the project space, RAC is pleased to present work by Michelle Bolinger. Intimate in scale, these recent paintings investigate elements of space, and the ways we interact with that space. Incorporating “faux architecture” as a structural element, Bolinger is interested in the balance between concrete geometry and atmosphere. While her older works reference landscape directly, often incorporating natural elements such as a raindrop or shell, recently Bolinger has started thinking about the works as islands. Specifically they are domestic, geographic, and cultural islands in which the drawing, density and trace of marks become an interwoven tangle of space.
Extended through March 30, 2013
With Noguchi’s influence in mind, Michelle Grabner and Brad Killam, a married couple who have collaborated on artworks and exhibitions since 1993, have created a single work to display within the Riverside Art Center garden. In a recent conversation with the artists, Killam noted: “The garden has a history with ceramic works, a few trees, crushed rock ground surface and a busy suburban location… a contemplative cube, made from wood and concrete, makes sense in that space.”
Public Conversation: Sunday, October 21st, 4pm
The Freeark Gallery will hold a public conversation with the exhibiting artists and architect Thomas Jacobs during the reception. The intersection of painting, architecture, and the formal investigation of space will be discussed.
J Clayton is a California non-objective painter, who lives and works in San Francisco’s Potrero / Mission arts district. • MFA in Studio | School of the Art Institute of Chicago • BA in Art / Art History | Rice University •
Chicago-based artist Michelle Bollinger received her MFA from the University of Washington, Seattle, and her BFA from Indiana University, Bloomington. Currently a visiting professor at the University of South Florida, Tampa the artist has exhibited widely including Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago, IL: Regina Rex, Brooklyn, NY: the Chicago Cultural Center, IL: Roots and Culture, Chicago, IL: and most recently at the Sonnenschien Gallery, Lake Forest College, IL.
Michelle Grabner received her MFA from Northwestern University in 1990. She is Professor and Chair of Painting and Drawing at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a regular contributor to Artforum, Art-Agenda and X-tra. She has exhibited nationally and internationally including Musée d´art Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg; Tate St. Ives, UK; Stadtgalerie, Keil; Kunsthalle, Bern; Daimler Contemporary, Berlin; Midway, Minneapolis; Rocket, London; INOVA, Milwaukee; Southfirst, Brooklyn; Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, MI; The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; The Milwaukee Art Museum among others. The Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland is developing a survey exhibition of her work for scheduled for fall 2013. Brad Killam received his MFA from University of Illinois Chicago in 1993. He is currently Associate Professor of Art at College of DuPage. He has exhibited regularly in the United States and Europe since 1993, most recently at INOVA, Milwaukee, Gallery 16, San Francisco, Leo Koenig Projekte, NY, Julius Caesar, Chicago and Tanzschule Projects, Munich. Together Michelle Grabner and Brad Killam operate the artist space, The Suburban in Oak Park, IL and the kunsthalle, Poor Farm Exhibitions in Northeastern Wisconsin.
Tom Jacobs has been recognized by the national American Institute of Architects as 2012 Young Architect for his “tireless dedication and devotion to the practice of architecture, to his clients, team members, and students,” noting that “his guidance and aspiration for the profession is infectious.” He first joined Krueck+Sexton Architects in 1997 after receiving his Diploma of Architecture from the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich in 1995. From 1999 to 2002, Tom worked for Herzog and deMeuron in Basel and San Francisco on the New de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park, returning to K+S in 2002. Instrumental to many of the firm’s award-winning projects, Tom has served as Project Architect on such well-known projects as the Herman Miller Chicago Showroom, the Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies, and 1100 First Street in Washington DC.