THE BUILD UP: HEATHER RAMSDALE, GABRIELA SALAZAR, SARA SCHNECKLOTH, LEIGH VAN DUZER
EXHIBITION DATES: NOV. 5 - DEC. 4, 2011
Fowler Arts Collective is pleased to present The Build Up, an exhibition of new work by Heather Ramsdale, Gabriela Salazar, Sara Schneckloth, and Leigh Van Duzer.
Working across mediums including sculpture, photography, site-sensitive installation, and drawing, the common thread through The Build Up is the transformation of visible structures and the investigation of infrastructure. With source materials including found objects, walls, the studio space, and new home construction, each artist is drawn to the built environment with a curiosity about how things are made and how to surpass functionality. There is a sense of attachment to breaking down and reshaping personal objects in order to create new relationships to them, as well as a studied approach to the labor of literally building walls, first with stones, then with pencil. Some of the work translates photographic imagery to sculptural object, or referent to drawing, as a way to discuss the possibilities of dimensionality in a print. Site-sensitive installation responds to the gallery's unique history, by transferring images directly onto the walls and floorboards of the exhibition space. The artists bring the process of building into the studio and the exhibition space to address this primary human motive.
Please join us for The Build Up's opening reception on Saturday, November 5th from 6-9 pm. RSVP on Facebook! The exhibition will be on view from November 5th to December 4th. During the exhibition, Fowler will have open gallery hours on Saturdays and Sundays from 12pm to 6pm (closed November 26th and 27th). During other times, the exhibition can be viewed by appointment. Contact us here to make an appointment.
Fowler is located in the historic Greenpoint Terminal building on the East River waterfront at 67 West Street, Brooklyn, NY 11222.
Heather Ramsdale's interests encompass the intrigue of personal objects and the peculiarity of interior spaces. In her recent sculptural work she aims to build connections between the physical and intangible world. She earned an MFA degree from the University of Pennsylvania and is the recipient of two Pollock-Krasner Foundation fellowships for residencies in upstate New York and Vermont. Ramsdale is also a Joan Mitchell Foundation Award nominee.
Through sculpture, drawing, writing, and site interventions, Gabriela Salazar investigates the relationship between human-made spaces and structures and the unpredictable or invisible forces that act upon them. By engaging with existing materials and sites, she brings out new associations between the found, the altered, and the made. Salazar received an MFA from Rhode Island School of Design (2009), and a BA from Yale University (2003), and has been in residence at the Vermont Studio Center (2006), the MacDowell Colony (2009) and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (2011).
Sara Schneckloth works in a variety of media to explore the potential of contemporary drawing practice. Her recent large scale drawings emerge from a period of work in southwest France where she was drawn to the region's hand-built stone walls. Her mark-making process centers on translating structure, layering, stability and grace from three dimensions to two, and back again. Schneckloth holds an MFA from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and she has received numerous fellowships and awards. Schneckloth's drawings have been shown widely throughout the US, France, and South Africa.
In her recent work, Leigh Van Duzer transforms photographic prints into three-dimensional sculptures that engage the viewer in a corporeal manner. Her interest in the conceptual and material flexibility of images has expanded into re-forming architectural structures in site-sensitive installations. Van Duzer received her MFA from the University of Pennsylvania in 2010, and her BA from Hampshire College in 2001. She has been awarded the Daisy Soros Prize to attend the Salzburg International Summer Academy of Fine Arts in Austria. She has also received fellowships from the Vermont Studio Center and the Hambidge Center.