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April Issue 2009
Artspace in
Raleigh, NC, Features Works by Sarah Powers, Rachel Herrick and
Susan Parrish
Artspace in Raleigh, NC, will present several new exhibits including: Recreation, featuring works by Sarah Powers and Rachel Herrick, on view in the Upfront Gallery from Apr. 3 - 25, 2009, and Creation Cries, featuring works by Susan Parrish in the Lobby Gallery, from Apr. 3 - 25, 2009.
Recreation is an exhibit that pays homage to the sweaty world of organized adult recreational sports. Artists Sarah Powers and Rachel Herrick collaborated on work that explores the idiosyncrasies of play and competition and the general absurdity of grown-ups playing sports. They tapped into the hyper-graphic style and color combinations associated with professional sports to create their works, repurposing the actual equipment in some of their pieces. The ridiculous rule-oriented nature of sports construction is illustrated through repetitive, linear imagery.
Sarah Powers & Rachel Herrick
Conceptually, Powers and Herrick were interested in the contrast between the relaxed, improvised sports of their childhoods and the increasingly competitive, over-accessorized sports that came with growing up. They realized that while the intent of recreational sports remains largely the same (exercise, friends, fun), the delivery and protocol have changed drastically. As kids they had sweatpants, ratty sneakers, and hand-me-down gloves; as adults they find themselves awash in sweat-wicking shirts, therapeutic braces, $300 rackets, and innumerable liniments for aches and pains. Somewhere between childhood and adulthood, sports became about having the right gear with a coordinating outfit.
Rachel Herrick is an artist based in Fuquay-Varina, NC, whose mixed media work focuses on cultural landscapes and communication. Her work has been exhibited across the US at venues including The Collectors Gallery in Raleigh, Vision Gallery in Atlantic Beach, The William Penn Foundation in Philadelphia, and recently in the Fayetteville Museum of Art. Originally from Maine, Herrick has a BA in Writing from Methodist University. She has worked at Visual Art Exchange since 2006, first at their Exhibitions Director and currently as Programs Director.
Sarah Powers is an artists based in Raleigh, whose mixed media work focuses on industrial and rural landscapes and landscape details. Her work has been featured in galleries across the US including Rhode Island's risd I works, The Sarah Doyle Gallery at Brown University, and in NC at The Collectors Gallery, and Vision Gallery. She was awarded a United Arts Council of Raleigh and Wake County Regional Project Grant and was selected as one of 12 artists working on The Bain Project, a multi-media installation scheduled for May 2009. Powers is a graduate of Rhode Island School of Design.
Susan Farrar Parrish
In Creation Cries, Susan Farrar Parrish seeks to express her growing concern and awareness of our symbiotic bond with the Earth. Her work, both paintings and ceramics, has long been inspired by nature. Parrish notes that at this time in her life, as an artist and as a person on the Earth, she is interested in expanding her own relationship to the Earth from the role of an admirer to that of a supporter. Quoting Chief Seattle (Seathl), Parrish notes, "We are part of the Earth and it is part of us ...the Earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the Earth... Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself."
Parrish's work in clay has evolved over many years into forms that are sculptural and painterly. Creating this body of ceramics led her back to painting, where her art career began years ago. In the past year her work as been exhibited in shows in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Miami. Two new books were released in 2008 that feature ceramics by Parrish - 500 Plates and Platters and Surface Design for Ceramics.
For further information
check our NC Institutional Gallery listings, call 919/821-2787
or visit (www.artspacenc.org).
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