Exhibited 11/4/23 - 1/21/24

Working across a variety of media and disciplinary perspectives, the artists explore INTERDEPENDENCE as a state of becoming, examining the body, nature, the cosmos, and memory patterns – tugging at the complex web of interconnections, power dynamics, and mutual resilience that shape our lives and the world around us. 

My work draws upon the imagery of nature, the sciences, and the cosmos but it is not limited to a conventional reading of these realms. It imagines that the depths of the ocean reach into outer space, that through an organic prism, vision can fluctuate between the micro- and macroscopic. My practice is devoted to the natural world and its curiosities. It has been my inspiration and a place that I find meditative and complex but also mysterious. It has allowed me to continuously know more about the world we live in.

My work pushes boundaries by exploring the limits of my medium. My goal is to honor the history of beadwork, while investigating new possibilities of form, movement, and meaning.

I believe that anything can be beaded, and I believe that beads can express the same depth of emotion that has been captured in paintings and sculptures for millenia.

Clarissa Fortier

Indian Creek

Acrylic on Canvas

36 x 48 in

My most recent paintings depict the landscape as a space where contrasts intersect and accumulate. I am interested in the juxtaposition between areas of chaos and rest, vast space colliding with dense and tangled forms. Repeating rhythms and shapes create a continuity in nature that suddenly empties into the blue space above the horizon. Walking through the landscape overwhelms my senses and painting is the way I make sense of the spaces I inhabit. The onslaught of images and sensations I experience in the world are reflected in the surface of my paintings.

Rochelle Johnson

Console

Oil on Canvas

30 x 20 in

The black female body has endured criticism and marginalization throughout history.  That negativity can be challenged if we embrace the beauty of the black female body and her strength over time and culture. I am a black woman and have spent my life examining my body in the mirror.   I’ve longed to see the beauty around me figured in art, and my black body is my subject matter. 

The Blue World Series manifests an alternative world free from the categories of race and color that confine us.  It envisions a world within which the body can be viewed fully in the light and presence of beauty without preconception.

I find uncommon nuances in everyday occurrences and unlikely intersections. Noting the change in density of a shadow when one overlaps another or how a shadow cast upon undulating surfaces distorts and morphs perspective. The power of multiples as a unit versus the fragility of an individual piece. The repetition of lines throughout our surroundings specifically parallels or in a grid formation. The obscurity of transparent layers.

With these observations in mind, I make ceramic objects, both functional and sculptural. My functional objects are hand built and feature subtle variations of a limited color palette. Each object's surface explores bold linear patterns, such as hatching, grids, and checkerboards. My sculptural work is installation-based and totally process driven. Pulling from my background in painting and drawing, this work explores the power of multiples: pattern, rhythm, and repetition. Made of numerous clay parts, each part is a result of body movement, the installation becomes a record of time and meditation that is centered on components as marks.

My work explores the microcosms found in nature. By infusing the physical world with my own touch, I project meanings and memories onto my surroundings. My work is influenced by my background in photography. My process starts with taking an image of something miniscule that I find in nature and magnifying it until it is only recognizable as patterns and textures.

Mila Rossi

Gray Blue

Photography and acrylic on canvas

24 x 24 in