Artists

Akintola Hanif. In our hopes and efforts to revitalize this community we are over looking the current residents and identifiers that make the valley what it is today. So much of what is pure and untainted is being replaced by the generic and non-specific. Green buildings are also overshadowing a lot of the culture and sub-cultures that exist here and art based projects that don’t seem to speak directly to or for the needs of this areas original inhabitants. My hope is to shed a little light on these things/people in hopes that we will include them in our efforts.


Andrea DeFelice. My process is about creating conceptual works inspired from personal experiences and associations. I lost half of my hearing ten years ago, which has prompted much of my interest towards the subjects of my recent work. I am fascinated with human behavior in the relationship to sudden change and conditioning, learning and adapting, the physical senses, politics, communication, devices, science, and technology. Among my most important concerns in my artistic process is to inspire perceptiveness and bring about controversy over surrounding influences and experiences.

Beatrice Coron. Travel to Uncharted Territories, can be outward or inward. To me the wildest territory is still within and the exploration of inner space is what shapes each self, yet inner space does not exclude the outside. The inner remains in constant negotiation with the outer.  That negotiation between your self and other selves can only take place through the medium of Identity. Identity is the passport that you show to everyone who questions or challenges your presence in the world. 




Chris Burns. Soles of the Movement is a multi-media installation that uses shoes as a medium to document the important history of the Civil Rights Movement. Shoes are symbolic of African Americans relentless struggle against oppression through protest marches, sit-ins, and other forms creative resistance. For the past five years I have collected old shoes from friends, family members and the generosity of many others in an effort to re-tell the story of one of history’s most significant movements for social change. I have assembled these shoes to honor the memories and legacy of thousands of the known and unknown soldiers of the Movement. 








Evonne Davis. I propose to create a sight specific sculptural installation that includes repurposed railroad spikes and sand box sand. Similar to the frames created to contain sod for the “Hey Dad Whatcha’ Doin’ Home So Early” installation, shallow frames will be built, lined with plastic and filled with sandbox sand. This will create a conceptual “canvas.” Rows of railroad spikes, originating from the disused tracks that run through the meadowlands, will be placed in the frames on the sand. Although this project is completely new it is rooted with the work Collecting Dusk.






Kathleen Heron. Entropy is my driving force.  That’s not a contradiction in terms!  I embrace the inevitable deterioration of physical materials.  (Keep papers near the dripping pipe and the moldy walls in my basement studio, hastening the process.)  Then go back and make it archival, for those who want to arrest what is inevitable.  Put assemblages outside in the weather – perfect!





Rebecca Major. The viewer becomes the detective and discovers the "fire" behind an old vent, salvaged from the recently demolished Westinghouse factory, and a column with an opening at eye level revealing a video looping within.  The video, encased within the column, brings to mind the character in Edgar Allen Poe's "The Tell Tale Heart", where life is hidden within a hermetic seal.  The video playfully depicts a female character in the vein of Emma Peel and Irma Vep, who seems to be on an archeological or spy mission. In her wanderings she collects and investigates found objects in the midst of industrial urban ruins






Robert Lach. I am an inveterate explorer of urban decay. My work examines the relationship between “the discarded object” and the process of making art through the mediums of photography, mixed media assemblage, sculpture and installation. I use scavenged materials from New Jersey’s post industrial landscape to create two and three dimensional forms. By-gone architecture, adventure, and documenting deterioration all play a role in my art of discovery. The inspiration is in the hunt; spontaneity and surprises fuel my passion. I keep going outside to explore what’s going on inside. 


Seung Ae Kim. My vocabulary of works draws from many different sources, including the memory of growing up in a suburb of Seoul that was undergoing socio-economic changes as the city developed in the 1970s and 1980s. I have come to appreciate the transitions even as I am in a constant state of transformation as I continue to adjust to the challenges that every day brings.
 




Shani Peters. In this time of economic collapse and political firsts most of us, myself included, are being forced to re-evaluate old notions of security, social status, and most all encompassing: the future.  We find ourselves balancing unparalleled enthusiasm and interest in politics with old distrust, and the stress and despair of financial uncertainty.  Will the ‘hope’ and ‘change’ of the campaign paraphernalia bring us through, or will it _____? 

Kevin Darmanie. My work is about finding ways to in-cooperate the discipline of critical art theory and the techniques of fine art into the medium of comic illustration to better express the narrative of a conceived comic character storyline. Each work is a small episode or footnote in a larger epic. The story is expanded to include large works, bookmaking, murals and installations. The viewer can ‘enter’ the tale any number of ways and at any given point. This approach to storytelling is not obliged to a beginning or to an ending. 

Lisa G Westheimer. My work is a reflection upon sacred ritual, religious faith and social activism as applied to Post 9/11 America.  This reflection is best expressed in the ceramic medium using abstraction, asymmetry and imperfection as primary compositional elements.  We live imperfect lives in an unpredictable world just beyond the cusp of a new millennium. 



Filmmakers Mavinga Petrasch & LaNa Jones Jules partner with artists and Sight Specific creators Terry Boddie & Lorena La Grassa to document their evolving projects, and their vision of contemporary art as a core vehicle to promote new directions and neighborhood revitalization. One such project is the exhibition, Uncharted Territory, which features works of art designed specifically for various spaces in the community. The filmmakers will investigate those particular spaces and in addition they will feature the artists selected for the Uncharted Territory exhibition and the inspiration behind their work.








Suzanne Broughel. “Post-racial” is a current buzzword, yet inequalities persist.  I search out this narrative in the most prosaic materials. I’m particularly interested in examining whiteness – its dependence on an “other” and issues such as white skin privilege and white guilt. I use household items to convey the personal voice from which the strongest dialogue on race begins. 




Nichole Frocheur. She Said Yes is a product of a current period of upheaval in my life. It is about reclaiming my identity as an individual and seeing myself as an individual for the first time in several years. The images in the project include a number of self-portraits in varying stages of clarity and images of the environment that surrounds us that stress the temporary nature of place, home and the natural world. For me, and as shown in the work: the past is over, the present is the only thing I can be certain of, and the future is too uncertain to prepare for. 

Michael C. Malbrough. Struggle, hope, and opportunity commonly draw us together. In the midst of a crippled economy, and the promise brought by our new leader and the face of our nation, we are urged by a mixture of fear and optimism to face our deepest fears and our most soaring visions of the future. In an area like the Central Valley Arts District, where culture, history, promise and neglect meet in such palpable contrast, one wonders what the amalgam of our corporate inner-worlds would create were they to have the opportunity to clash, merge, struggle and rest with one another.


Patrick Grenier. The artwork I produce integrates everyday life with critical observations to unveil the influence of dominant cultural forms on our collective psyche. By juxtaposing socio-cultural situations with a particular site or space, I strive to stimulate discussion and challenge hegemonic forces. There is hope in the air and the inauguration of the first African-American President is a remarkable moment, which reminds me of the poetic saying, “It is darkest before the dawn.”


                 Jeff Campbell. Night has a transforming effect on a landscape.  The identity of the landscapes becomes lost in the confusion of looking at a scene that we are used to seeing, literally in a different light.  The Commonplace becomes strange and alien.  The absence of the presence of people adds to this effect, creating an almost dreamlike image.  In essence, I use the inherent qualities of night to create an image that  evokes the feeling  of entering into uncharted territory both visually and psychologically.



Lisa Marie Bronson. Regardless of the discipline I am working within, my artwork makes connections between everyday reality and nommo, the immanent ground of Being that underlies that reality.  This piece creates space and time for people to meditate on their hearts’ desires, inviting them to speak to their own interior space and listen for a reply.



Stephanie Dinkins. A storefront installation commissioned to give away books (instead of selling them) and encourage the free exchange of ideas.   On the surface, this endeavor will be art-based advocacy for literacy; yet, at its core, the piece will be a call to value and honor one’s particular knowledge(s), no matter how they were acquired.