ART ONSITE was a pilot program to match artist installations with vacant and nontraditional spaces in downtown Iowa City. It was a collaboration between Public Space One and the IC Downtown District.
JULY 2021
103 E. College St.
Gyan Shrosbree
”Behind the Scene”
I do not work from direct references, but mostly the memory of looking and examining. Memories spark other memories, and the feelings that come up create new events in paint. Sometimes I draw to find images, and use the drawings as points of reference. I tend to reduce the image to an iconic, flat shape that can be infinitely generated. Something recognizable repeats itself, moving into abstraction or representing something that it is not, such as a part of the architecture, the environment or landscape.
gyanshrosbree.com // @gyanshrosbree
JUNE 2021
16 S. Clinton St.
Artwork by Pranav Prakash
click the image below to read more about each piece:
103 E. College St.
Hilary Nelson
”Three Easy Payments”
My work is often made up of leftovers, scraps of consumption in one way or another, so the possibility of showing in a space that has been left behind for the time being was very exciting to me. These pieces are like possible posters, merchandising, or advertisements for products that don’t exist, for things you would never need. they act as portals, leaky borders between opposites like earthly / extraterrestrial, degrading / being built, discarding / collecting, living / inorganic. In a vacant storefront this work would feel both at home and out of place, a contradiction I love.
PREVIOUS INSTALLATIONS:
MAY 2020
Jonathan Tanner Thomas | Life, Death, and In Between (Triptych): "Time Is the Longest Distance Between Two People", "Time Is On My Side", and "Luncheonette"
This installation represents the culmination of four years of work on a series of large-format, mixed-media paintings of recognizable cultural icons rendered in a style reminiscent of Pop Art. The paintings were composed to appear to as unified figures, but upon closer inspection are "atomized", i.e. composed of thousands of small reflective circles, color-blind dot patterns, and other sacred geometry shapes, reflecting my interest in the deceptively smooth appearance of our physical reality, which in actuality is composed of a nearly infinite number of discreet units. More broadly, this installation reflects some of the existential questions about the transitory nature of life and continual transformation that many of us were forced to confront this year during the pandemic. The frames for these paintings were made by local artist and woodworker Ben Mosher and myself using recycled materials.
jonathantannerthomas.com
APRIL 2020
Gail Ray | Spring
Experiments in plotting -- a new form of printmaking.
@gailrayaia
Jeremy Chen | Patient Waiting: A Requiem
The current and past precariousness of the world both globally and locally lead me to think about how we care for our most vulnerable but also our perceptions of who is vulnerable or invulnerable.
Adriana DeRosa | When Something Shatters
When Something Shatters is a meditative forest for viewers to sit and contemplate their relationships and purpose on Earth. Through multimedia approaches of sewing, embroidery, mold-making, video, and photography, I encourage my viewers to see their relationships with those that have passed on through a cosmic and timeless lens. Utilizing 4 of the 5 senses, I want my viewers to become a part of the work and project their own experiences onto the piece. I investigate how smell, tactile softness, and shadow can aid viewers in achieving the feeling of peace. This piece serves as a place for people who have lost someone to sit and reflect and/or speak with their loved ones.
Grief is like a shattered glass: it feels impossible to repair what's been broken. It’s a tiresome and daunting task, and with the loss of one, others can feel like they’ve lost themselves. It’s like trying to put a circle into a triangle, it just doesn’t fit anymore.
Artist info: www.adrianaderosa.com + @bevelcut_shawti
presented in collaboration with the Iowa City Downtown District