FIXING THE SKY

An exhibition featuring artwork by Nicole Pietrantoni, Amy Sacksteder, Helen Dennis, and Island Projects

Viewing Dates: February 10-12, 2011

Opening Reception: Thursday, February 10, 7-10pm, featuring music by HOOL

Brunch:Saturday, February 12, 11-1pm

Location: Brick & Mortar, 54 Knickerbocker Ave. #4B Brooklyn, New York

Contact: For more information contact Helen Dennis at (646) 319-7035 or Nicole Pietrantoni +354 588 7576 or nicole.pietrantoni@gmail.com. High resolution images available upon request.

FIXING THE SKY
This exhibition brings together the work of Nicole Pietrantoni, Amy Sacksteder, and Helen Dennis, as well as the collaborative work of Island Projects (Nicole Pietrantoni and Amy Sacksteder). Fixing the Sky reflects the artistsʼ experiences traveling in Iceland. Iceland is often perceived as a remote location covered with lava fields, volcanoes, and glaciers. While this sublime landscape attracts thousands of adventurous tourists to the island every year, it also attracts a large group of international artists interested not only in the islandʼs natural beauty but also its unique geo-political and ecological situation. The work in Fixing the Sky uses Icelandʼs beauty as a jumping-off point to explore humansʼ interaction with nature. In each of the works, one finds a heightened awareness of our effect on the natural environment and the environmentʼs effect on us.

ABOUT THE WORK
Nicole Pietranoni’s Build Your Own Landscape series uses cast shadows created by screenprinting onto acrylic panels combined with found objects. This body of work examines the complex relationship between human beings and nature, particularly the layers of narratives and histories that shape the way in which one pictures and frames the natural world. Combining digital and traditional printmaking techniques, these investigations culminate in installations, works on paper, and site-specific art.

Amy Sacksteder’s paintings, drawings, and photographs are incorporated into installations that reconcile vitality and mortality. She distills momentous experiences found in nature (e.g., the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the recent volcanic eruption in Iceland) into and through the artwork, which in turn offers a place for mourning and celebration – a platform to explore and engage the tension between vitality and mortality.

Helen Dennis uses a combination of drawing and photography, creating images by holding back light through layers of drawings. Experiencing long summer days and an unfamiliar orientation of the sun in Iceland, Dennis’ awareness of natural light became acute. Using light on photo-sensitive paper, she reflects on the vastness of nature and the fast-growing natural changes in the landscape, which are echoed in rapid developments of the man- made world.

Island Projects is Nicole Pietrantoni and Amy Sacksteder. The two artists met in Iceland in 2010 while attending artist residencies in Reykjavik. Their collaborative work stems from common themes in their individual studio practices, which mutually examine human interaction with nature. With Pietrantoni’s background in printmaking and Sacksteder’s background in drawing and painting, the artists employ an array of media to create installations that incorporate everything from digital prints and inkjet transparencies to cyanotypes and drawings.
www.islandprojects.org

ABOUT THE BAND
HOOL is Brett Hool and John Kibler. HOOL has played in office parking garages, shipping containers, hospital rooms, industrial lofts, haylofts, storm drains, abandoned covents, in the quiet canyons of California, under the autumn leaves of western New York, and on sheep farms in the green heart of Holland.
www.hoolishness.com

ARTISTS BIOGRAPHIES
Nicole Pietrantoni is an American artist working in Reykjavik, Iceland, where she is a Fulbright Scholar and recipient of a Leifur Eiriksson Foundation Fellowship. She is creating work at the Icelandic Printmakerʼs Association, a studio in Reykjavik, and will also be traveling to several artist residencies across the island including SÍM, Gamla Skólí Residency in Hrísey, and the Akureyri Artists Studio. She received her MA and MFA with Honors in Printmaking at the University of Iowa and received her undergraduate degree at Vanderbilt University. She is the recipient of a Margaret Stonewall Wooldridge Hamblet Fellowship, a residency from the Ora Lerman Charitable Trust, and a public art commission from the University of Iowa Hospital. Her works have been included in numerous solo and group exhibitions in the U.S. and abroad.
www.nicole-pietrantoni.com

Amy Sacksteder’s recent paintings, drawings and installations examine ephemerality and transience. She often incorporates the landscape, individual histories, and current events to depict ambiguous icons and narratives. Her work has been cited on contemporary art websites, published in journals such as New American Paintings, and has been featured in solo and group exhibitions nationally and internationally. She has attended artist residencies in Illinois, Newfoundland, Southern France, Philadelphia, Budapest and Reykjavík. Sacksteder is part of the collaborative team Island Projects with Nicole Pietrantoni, who she met and began working with in Iceland in 2010. Sacksteder received her MFA from Northern Illinois University in 2004. She lives and works in Ypsilanti, Michigan, where she is an Assistant Professor of Art at Eastern Michigan University.
www.amysacksteder.com

Helen Dennis is originally from the UK and now resides in Brooklyn. She earned her BA (Honors) at the University of the Creative Arts in Canterbury, UK and received her MFA from Hunter College, NY. She has been awarded a fellowship from Aljira Center for Contemporary Art and a photographic fellowship from The International House, NYC. Helen has traveled to art residencies in Beijing, Cyprus, and most recently Iceland. She has participated in various exhibitions worldwide and in the US with the support of Queens Council on the Arts, Kent County Council, New Jersey State Council on the Arts and South East Arts UK. Helen’s public art installations have been commissioned by the Downtown Alliance of New York, and NoLongerEmpty.
www.helendennis.com

Ice Above, Fire Below | color transparencies, thread, cyanotypes and lithographs | dimensions variable  (this installation approximately 96″ wide) | 2010, in collaboration with Nicole Pietrantoni, SÍM House, Reykjavík, Iceland.

Friday night was the opening of the residents’ exhibition, dubbed  The Supreme Council of Higher Beings.  There was some great work in the show and Mark was involved in an exciting collaboration/interactive music and sound-based performance with our friends Jan and Beer.  It turned the opening into a party.  A lot of people showed up and the residents received great feedback about all of the work, including an interactive Venn diagram connecting artists and related people in Iceland by Rebecca Key.

One of the best outcomes of this November residency has been meeting and and beginning  a collaborative partnership with American artist Nicole Pietrantoni.  She is in Iceland for a year on a Fulbright fellowship and a Leifur Eiriksson Foundation grant. This installation was our first collaborative endeavor.

We traveled with our friends Chris and Mary to Chicago this last weekend to attend my opening at Northeastern Illinois University, see our friend Julie, and see some art.  I also had the opportunity to take more unobstructed installation images of my show.

Here are some images from my solo exhibition We are running… at Northeastern Illinois University’s Fine Arts Center Gallery.  Much of this work appeared in my recent exhibition in at Pterodactyl in Philadelphia, but the postcard installation with the bottle of ash is new.  The postcards are manipulated exhibition announcements from both solo exhibitions, mounted on Scrabble tile trays.  The bottle contains sea glass and volcanic ash from the base of  the Eyjafjallajökull volcano that erupted in Iceland this year.  Exhibition details follow the images.

Amy Sacksteder: We are running…

October 4th-October 29th

The work included in this project is derived from the last moments of Amelia Earhart’s life and is used as a springboard to examine and confront mortality. The title is an excerpt of Earhart’s last words. The work is also influenced by the artists’s June 2010 residency in Iceland.

Artist Talk: Friday October 29th, 11am
Reception: Friday October 15th, 6-9pm

The Fine Arts Center Gallery
Northeastern Illinois University
5500 N St. Louis Ave
Chicago, IL 60625

The Gallery is located on the NEIU campus inside the Salme Harju Steinberg Fine Arts Center. Park in the lot the west side of campus via the entrances Foster or Bryn Mawr Avenues.

Directions here.

To see invividual images of pieces in the show, visit this page on my website.

In addition to my solo show, We are running… (just installed…phew!) at Northeastern Illinois University’s Fine Arts Center Gallery (more on that soon), I currently have work featured in some other group shows:

1) Sub Terrain at Work Gallery in Ann Arbor.  Here’s more info, and a great review of the show, highlighting the works of friends Amanda Thatch and Ryan Molloy.

2) Interrupted Landscapes at Champion Contemporary in Austin.  My pieces are in the wonderful company of work by Scott Hocking, Lori Nix and a host of other fantastic artists.  This is  the gallery’s debut exhibition and the space looks great.  Check out the installation images from the show.  My work, the Object Lesson panels are to the far right in the installation image below.

3) With/Drawn, an international contemporary drawing exhibition, hosted by The Drawing Room in Budapest.  That’s my piece way back there over David’s right shoulder (he’s the fellow holding the paper).  In Hungary, it’s practice to have the curator or another prominent person read a prepared statement about the exhibition.

I got to go to the opening of Sub Terrain, and I’m happy to  hear the other openings were successful too!

I have some work in an upcoming show curated by Andrew Thompson (drawings and an installation). Here’s a sneak peak of a new installation in the show, with exhibition info to follow.

Museum, Monument (where we can go to save ourselves), transparency collage, sand, painted plaster and foam islands maquette, transparencies on projector, 2009-10

Sub Terrain

What lies below the surface of the physical, the perceptible, and the quantifiable? Invisible forces of the subconscious simmer until they come to a head in subtle circumstances of serendipity or in violent disruption, sparring with the perceived logic of life.

Sub Terrain is an all-media exhibition that invites artists to give vision to the invisible and explore the landscape of the immaterial and its convergence with the physical realm.

Artists:
Debra Broz, Mira Burack, Ginger Chase, Susan Evans, Rachel Frank, Matt Frieburghaus, Lauren Harlowe, Megan Heeres, Melissa Jones, Julie Lambert, Amanda Lechner, Ryan Molloy, Barbara Neri, Manisha Patel, Judy Rushin, Audrey Russell, Amy Sacksteder, Madeline Stillwell, Cedric Tai, Sally Schluter-Tardella, Amanda Thatch, Christopher Ulivo, B.J. Vogt, Scotty Wagner and Morgan Morel, Graem Whyte, Audra Wolowiec.

Work: Ann Arbor, 306 State Street, Ann Arbor, MI

Exhibition runs September 10th – October 5th
Opening Reception: September 10th 6-9 pm

Come out to the opening if you can!

Here are a few more shots from the show and last night’s opening.  I really like the way the space was lit.  Cheers to the good folks at Pterodactyl for pulling together the new side gallery (in which my show is situated) in under a week and for putting on a lovely opening.

Here are images from my show Our Improbable Existence at Pterodactyl in Philly.  Here is more info about the show.  The show was made possible by the support of the Philadelphia Art Hotel.  To see individual pieces, peruse recent blog posts or visit my website.  Off to the opening!

Here is the press release for my show at Pterodactyl sponsored by the Philadelphia Art Hotel.  Install Thursday, opening Friday.  I’m pasting the text below for better readability. Here’s hoping the five people I know in Philly and the rest of the city make it out to the opening!

The Philadelphia Art Hotel and Pterodactyl present an exhibition:

Amy Sacksteder – Our Improbable Existence

August 13th, 2010
8pm
3237 Amber St.
5th Floor North
Philadelphia, PA 19134

Amy Sacksteder attempts to reconcile vitality and mortality (and the accompanying celebrations and mournings that reality elicit), both her own and with that of others’. To quote Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, “we try as best we can to do justice to the tremendousness of our improbable existence.” She thus distills momentous experiences into and through her artwork, which in turn, becomes a place for mourning and celebration; a place to explore and engage the tension between vitality and mortality. Her work has been sited on contemporary art blogs such as my love for you is a stampede of horses, and has been published in New American Paintings. Amy Sacksteder exhibits regularly nationally and internationally. She has attended residencies through the Ragdale Foundation in Illinois, the Pouch Cove Foundation in Newfoundland, the Residential Art Centre of Cantagal in France, and the Hungarian Multicultural Center in Budapest.

Most recently, she attended a residency program through the Association of Icelandic Visual Artists (SÍM) in Reykjavík to prepare for a solo exhibition at Northeastern Illinois University in the fall. She will return to Iceland in November to continue the research and creative work she began there in June. Amy Sacksteder received her MFA from Northern Illinois University in 2004. She lives and works in Ypsilanti, Michigan, where she is an Assistant Professor of Art at Eastern Michigan University.

Here are some images from our group show, SKIPTI / SWAP at the end of the residency at SÍM.  On Monday we installed the show, had the opening, followed by a picnic in the garden, and de-installed the show.  Then I had to pack and say my goodbyes.  What a day!

Also, in addition to the drawings I made at the residency, I worked on a couple of photo-based projects and along with many of the other artists, became quite the collector of maps, stamps, postcards (new and vintage) and objects from the land such as shells, stones, sea glass, lava rocks and the like.

On Sunday I did a photo shoot of one of the Amelia Earhart islands in the Icelandic landscape set against the sea.  Here are a few images from that shoot.  I wonder what they’ll become when they grow up?

I am, once again, so grateful for this phenomenal residency and the opportunity to see breathtaking sights in a remarkable country, make work unimpeded, and become friends with such a fantastic group of artists.