Please join us on Friday, September 2 from 7-11 PM for an open studio party to see what our Hotbox 2016 resident artists have created!

ARTIST BIOS:

Kayle Karbowski (b. 1992, Chicago IL) is an earthling, feminist, Scorpio (Pisces moon, Aries rising) and cultural producer that was born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago. Suspicious of the western coming-of-age mythology, Karbowski utilizes queer narrative structures to deconstruct and reconstruct the infinite ways in which we can create –or stumble upon our identities.  Feminine archetypes, mysticism, science fiction and suburban culture come together in her work as her personal history and future become abstracted. Through video, performance and sculpture, these semi-fictions present themselves as portals or mirrors into a world where the logic of the universe is as poetic and magical as it is “real”. Karbowski received her BFA from the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design in 2015 and currently lives and works in Milwaukee, WI. She is a co-founder of Milwaukee collective, After School Special, and their co-run gallery, The Lunchbox.

During her residency, Kayle Karbowski will investigate the idea of feminine power and the disruption of patriarchal forms through an experimental film and large-scale fiber work. The film will consist of multiple vignettes from a single day following characters based off of queer or feminist identities. They find their lives intertwined after the collision of two supermassive black holes causes a gravitational wave that disrupts the space-time of Earth. The artist will film in and around Austin and host a recorded participatory improv session loosely guided by the film’s script. Karbowski’s fiber work will be created from a still image from the film made during her time at MASS.

Leah Shirley  (b. 1988, Austin, TX) is a multi-disciplinary artist based in New York, NY. Her work explores themes of the feminine, vibrational energy, the sublime, and alchemy. Her investigations are a way to find herself reflected in the elements and examine her connection to them as a living being. Her work serves as altars to their process— monuments to time, transformation, and the interconnectivity of all things. She received a BFA in Photography from Columbia College Chicago in 2011 and her work has been exhibited nationally.

Leah Shirley’s work is an investigation of the self, rooted in ritual processes. As an Austin native returning home, Shirley will spend her residency rediscovering the landscape of her childhood. She will make large-scale altar-like sculptures using locally sourced materials such as limestone and marble, metal, cyanotypes on leather, and cast-resin. Immersive colored-light will bathe the sculptures, activating and charging them within the gallery. Photographs of the sculptures installed in the hill country where she grew up will accompany the work in the gallery installation. Together, the sculptures and photographs will be a tribute to the transformative heat and expansive environment of her birthplace.

Opening Reception: Friday, November 4th, 7-10pm

MASS is pleased to present Understory, a group exhibition featuring four Texas-based artists who employ narrative in their creative practice. Lee Baxter Davis, Hollis Hammonds, Trenton Doyle Hancock, and Alyssa Taylor Wendt will exhibit a mix of drawings, collage, photography, video, sculpture, and installation. Each artist calls on different inspirations: childhood memories, religious and historical interpretations, film and poetic influences, fiction and fantasy, personal mythology, commonplace language, everyday thoughts, and typical conversations. Understory is on view at MASS from November 4 – December 10, 2016, with an opening reception Friday, November 4th, 7-10pm.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Lee Baxter Davis was born at Bryan, Texas on the 20th of October in 1939. He enlisted in the regular army out of high school. Afterwards he attended college and graduated with a master’s degree from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. His best friend in both undergraduate and graduate school was James Surls. Lee taught fine art graphics at East Texas State University, now Texas A&M Commerce, for over thirty years. He was full professor and was chairman of printmaking and later taught advanced drawing and figure drawing. Now retired, Davis is a deacon serving at St William the Confessor Catholic Church, Greenville, Texas. He has been married to his college sweetheart over 50 years ago. They have two adult children and ten grandchildren. He works in his studio at home. His prints and drawings have been exhibited throughout the United States and are included in the permanent collections here and there. Recently an article concerning his work and recalling his teaching style has appeared in Nat Brut Magazine.

Hollis Hammonds is a Kentucky born artist who has been living and working in Austin, Texas since 2007. Her work crosses media from drawing to sculptural installation and has been exhibited throughout the U.S. including solo exhibitions at Redux Contemporary Art Center in Charleston, SC; the Dishman Art Museum in Beaumont, TX; the Reed Gallery at the University of Cincinnati in OH; the Museum of Art at Southern Mississippi University in Hattiesburg, MS; the Hiestand Galleries at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio; Texas Tech University in Lubbock, TX; and at Women and Their Work gallery in Austin, TX. She is the author of Drawing Structure: Conceptual and Observational Techniques, and has had her creative work published in New American Paintings, Manifest’s International Drawing Annual, and Uppercase Magazine. She was recently an artist in residence at McColl Center for Art + Innovation, and is the Chair of the Department of Visual Studies at St. Edward’s University in Austin, TX.

Trenton Doyle Hancock was born in 1974 in Oklahoma City, OK.  Raised in Paris, Texas, Hancock earned his BFA from Texas A&M University, Commerce and his MFA from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University, Philadelphia.  Hancock was featured in the 2000 and 2002 Whitney Biennial exhibitions, becoming one of the youngest artists in history to participate in this prestigious survey.  His work has been the subject of one-person exhibitions at The Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston; The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, TX; The Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami; Institute for Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; The University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum, Tampa; The Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah and Atlanta; The Weatherspoon Museum, Greensboro; Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln; Canzani Center Gallery, The Columbus School of Art and Design, OH; Olympic Sculpture Park at the Seattle Art Museum, WA; The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh; and Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

Hancock’s work is in the permanent collections of several prestigious museums, including the Brooklyn Museum, NY; Baltimore Museum of Art, MD; Columbus Museum of Art, OH; The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu; The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, New York; Dallas Museum of Art, TX; High Museum of Art, Atlanta; Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, Peekskill; Kemper Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, TX;  Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; Museo di arte moderna e contemporanea, Trento, Italy; Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Museum of Modern Art, New York; New Orleans Museum of Art, LA; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA; Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln; Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; University of Texas at Austin Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art, TX; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, VA; Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; Wexner Center for the Arts at the Ohio State University, Columbus; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and the Wichita State University, Ulrich Museum of Art, KS.  The recipient of numerous awards, Trenton Doyle Hancock lives and works in Houston, TX.

Alyssa Taylor Wendt (b. 1969, New York City) works as a multimedia artist and filmmaker in Austin, Texas and Detroit, Michigan. Earning her MFA from Bard College, she constructs both films and installations that speak about monuments, spiritualism, ritual, performance and animism using video, sculpture, soundscapes, staged photography and interactive performances. Showing in both national and international exhibitions, she has also performed at The Museum of Art and Design in New York, envoy gallery, The Fusebox Festival and Deitch Projects and completed residencies in Iceland and Norway. She just completed her first feature film, HAINT which she wrote, directed, produced and production designed herself. The piece is currently being developed into a multichannel video work and she has numerous upcoming shows, with Dimension Gallery, Third Man Records, MASS Gallery and the new ICOSA collective in Austin. 

Join us this weekend for a BIG HOLIDAY BLOWOUT plus the last chance to check out our final 2016 exhibition—Understory—a group exhibition featuring Texas-based artists Lee Baxter Davis, Hollis Hammonds, Trenton Doyle Hancock, and Alyssa Taylor Wendt.

Had your eye on a one-of-a-kind artwork in our 12 x 12 bin? Need some reading material for that journey home to see the folks? Take advantage of 20% off EVERYTHING in our shop and as an extra special treat on Saturday from 12-5pm we will be spinning vinyl and slinging eggnog to put you in the holiday spirit! 

Rural Kingdoms, an exhibit of all new paintings and other works from Will Gaynor and Adam Young. This collection of work sees to expand the visual implications of both the words “rural” and “kingdom” – to imply that rural is more than just a place outside of town, but can be somewhere far away from even the slightest constructs of a traditional landscape – a place you can only get to from traveling your own thoughts. Maybe your kingdom has no castle – or maybe it’s in a butterfly sanctuary, or a knot in an old tree – maybe it’s a desert hallucination or it could just be a broke down barn on the side of two lane highway.

In addition to their paintings, Gaynor and Young are collaborating with Austin florist and artist, Erin Knipp, on a large scale, immersive walk-in installation within the gallery. The structure will combine the unique imagery and aesthetics in the artists’ works in an effort to create an ethereal sanctuary, befallen to, and at the same time, glorified by nature.  

Will Gaynor is an artist living in Austin, Texas – originally from Southwestern Virginia. His artwork is an interpretation of stories and experiences retold to create an ongoing personal and visual, canonical folktale. Gaynor’s primary influences for the work in this exhibition were American folk art, Indian miniature painting and experiences in nature that are best shared through symbols and color.

Adam Young is a self taught artist , woodworker and metalworker from southwest Louisiana. His artwork draws from many sources. His youth in the wooded-swamplands of his boyhood home, his curiosity of the natural world, as well as musical heros, historical truths and local lore, and the art of storytelling all play parts in the work. His work has been shown at various galleries in Austin including Common House, Bearded Lady, Camp Fig, The Yellowjacket Social Club and at the Webb Gallery in Waxahatchie, Tx. Adam works and lives in Austin with his wife Rachel and their daughter Magnolia who equally inspire his work.

Join Rural Kingdoms artists Will Gaynor and Adam Young this Saturday for an afternoon of making and an evening of film screenings.  At 3pm makers of all ages are invited to draw shapes on scrap wood which MASS and the artists will provide.  The artists will cut the shapes out of the wood and provide supplies for participants to decorate.  From 5-8 pm Will and Adam will show a selection of films streamed from http://folkstreams.net.  Open to all ages, BYOB. 

OPENING RECEPTION: Saturday, April 1st 7-10 pm

HOUSE SHOW!  is group exhibition / installation created by the current collective members of MASS Gallery. The gallery has been transformed into a nearly functional, life-size house to showcase artwork and objects created, collected, and curated by members of MASS. This show poses an alternative approach to the MASS collective’s typical curatorial practice. By showcasing artwork and objects from their personal collection, HOUSE SHOW! provides a unique window into the interests, tastes, and obessions that make MASS tick.

Opening Reception Friday, June 16 7-10pm.

MASS Gallery is pleased to present Shampoo Effect, featuring work by Yevgeniya Baras, Morgan Blair, Kari Cholnoky, Scott Eastwood, Charlotte Hallberg, Christian Newby, Lauren Silva, Jennifer Sullivan, and Rachel Williams. Utilizing fabric, jewelry, paper maché, airbrush, fur, collage, prints, and rope, these nine artists continuously work beyond the limits of traditional painting through their wide interpretations of media, format and substrate. Shampoo Effect will be on view from June 16 – July 22.

Join Hotbox resident Henry Smith in celebrating the grand re-opening of The Swirl: De-luxe Soft Serve — at a brand new location! Just down the hall from MASS Gallery — 8pm!

UNFILTERED Music Showcase, presented by Human Influence — 8pm-12am

Join us Friday, September 1st for Live “Artisanal” t-shirt printing! BYOTee, or get one for free *while supplies last*. On the MASS Gallery deck — 7-10pm

DAILY, IN A NIMBLE SEA, is an anagram of “BAILEY ISLAND, MAINE,” where a tiny stretch of coastline is incessantly transformed by the interactions of fog, sun, and tides. When the tide goes out, a rocky field of seaweed is revealed. To walk across it is to traverse the ocean floorin the open air. It is a magical place, and for seven summers Austin artist Barry Stone watched his girls grow and change against this backdrop. Photographs put a feeble defense against the passage of time: the still image halts the waves from breaking, only to paradoxically heighten our awareness of their inevitable movement forward. 

These pictures were made with a digital camera. The code from the digital photographs also forms a kind of picture, expressed as a field of symbols. In this volume sections of code are sequenced alongside the photographic images they were extracted from. These symbols, like an anagram, can be rearranged and purposely disordered, resulting ingestural aberrations or glitches to create alternate versions of the original digital capture. 

This creates a picture book representing a fantasy of fatherhood, endless horizons, and malleable realities. 

Join MASS for a book signing with the artist. Come grab a beer! Check out the book! See the STAYCATION exhibit! Come hang out!

Join artist Ryan Cronk for a brief artist talk and hands-on workshop of screen printing on November 18th from 11am-1pm at Mass Gallery. 

Make a screen print to take home and take part in making a giant monotype screen print that relates to the work the artist is showing at MASS gallery’s “Staycation 2: What in the world?”

The artist wants your participation in making the screen prints! Send him images of gems that you would like printed, then visit MASS gallery on November 18th to help print your image along with other community members.

Join artists Rebecca Marino and Bethany Johnson for a conversation centering around the research and inspiration behind their current artworks. 

Marino and Johnson’s works — currently on display at MASS Gallery — are generated out of an interest in the sciences, and represent a distillation of learning about various scientific technologies, current events, and theoretical concepts. 

In this pair of talks, Marino and Johnson will share interesting factual information from their research, as well as open up conversation around a learning-intensive, curiosity-driven artist practice. 

Johnson will be discussing her research into the astronomical pursuits of the McDonald Observatory, and the observatory’s interaction and outreach within the oil and gas industry in the neighboring Permian Basin. 

Marino will present on the history of experimentation in physics and the various ways we can apply these larger concepts such as energy, matter, and motion to our smaller domestic settings.

Opening Reception: Friday, November 10, 7-10 PM

MASS is pleased to present Staycation 2: What in the World?, an exhibition featuring 10 Austin-based artists whose works — from glitched landscapes and Ikea geology to CNC-routed naturalism and homespun science — articulate humanity’s complex relationship to the natural world.

Working in sculpture, photography, print-making, collage and video, the artists in Staycation 2 represent a snapshot of the breadth and diversity of Austin’s artistic talent.

The show includes work from: Ryan Cronk, Dave Culpepper, Bethany Johnson, TJ Lemanski, Rebecca Marino, Bucky Miller, Landon O’Brien, Rachael Starbuck, Barry Stone, and Ingrid Tremblay.

Staycation is the annual series of exhibitions at MASS based on studio visits with artists working in Austin, TX. The series is designed to broaden the curatorial practice of the collective, and give Austin-based artists more opportunities to show amongst their peers.

The show coincides with the East Austin Studio Tour and will include lectures, workshops and screenings organized by the artists in the show.

ARTISTS

Ryan Cronk was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, but grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He received his BFA from the School of The Museum of Fine Arts Boston in 2000. He received his MFA in printmaking from the University of Texas at Austin in 2010. He currently lives and works in Austin, TX.

David Culpepper received his BFA from VCU in 2010. He currently works at The Contemporary, installing and handling artworks. He is also a co-founder of Ink Tank and Free Beer Podcast. His recent solo exhibitions include Central Air at SOFA Gallery (2015), Wake Me When It’s Quittin’ Time at Co-Lab Projects (2014), and Walkathon for Whatever at Big Medium Bolm (2014). David was the recipient for Best Solo Show 2014-2015 from The Austin Critic’s Table Awards.

Bethany Johnson is an artist currently living in Austin, Texas. Johnson received her BA in studio art from the Kalamazoo College in Michigan in 2007 and MFA in Painting at The University of Texas at Austin in 2011. Her work has been exhibited nationally, is represented by Moody Gallery in Houston, and has appeared in New American Paintings, Hyperallergic, and Austin Chronicle. Johnson is a recipient of the Art League of Austin Scholarship, and has held residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, Denkmalschmiede Höfgen in Germany, and the Soaring Gardens Artist Retreat in Pennsylvania. Johnson joined Texas State University as an assistant professor this fall.

Reverence is not inate, it is learned, either directly through some authority or passively through prolonged environmental exposure. Like seepage or irradiation. The slow internalizing of the outside sometimes called equilibrium acclimation or adaptation has also been characterized as the genesis of myth. So then bioaccumulation and transfiguration are primarily matters of perspective, points on the same plane. Following that line, TJ Lemanski makes relics of cardboard, concrete, and insulation; tabernacles of tv screens; tapestries of industrialized rubber. TJ Lemanski lives, works, and makes work in Austin, TX. In addition to his individual studio practice, he is an active member of both the artist collective INK TANK and the podcast Free Beer.

Rebecca Marino is an Austin-based visual artist whose work focuses on cosmic perspective. She has been featured in TX National, grayDUCK Gallery, Art Palace and by the Humble Arts Foundation. For the past four years she has acted as co-director and curator for pump project, but recently took on the role of associate director for Texas State University galleries in San Marcos, Texas. Marino is also co-editor and co-founder of Conflict of Interest, an online publication highlighting literature and visual art in Texas.

Bucky Miller is an internationally exhibited artist and writer who was born in Phoenix in 1987. He has been a Russell Lee Endowed Presidential Scholar in Photography and William and Bettye Nowlin Endowed Presidential Fellow in Photography at the University of Texas, where he earned his MFA in studio art. He also has a BFA in Photography from Arizona State University. In 2015 he completed a residency in London as part of an exchange with the Royal College of Art Program in Sculpture. Prior to that he participated in the Little Brown Mushroom Camp for Socially Awkward Storytellers in St. Paul, Minnesota. His work has been featured in n+1 and Der Greif and he is a recurring contributor to The Believer Logger. His self-published book, The Picture of the Afghan Hound, was selected as one of Photo-Eye’s best photobooks of 2016. He is the recipient of the 2017 UMLAUF prize, for which he produced the paperback Grackle Actions. He currently teaches photography at both the University of Texas and Texas State University. Bucky has a small collection of miniature chairs. He currently resides in Austin.

Landon O’Brien received a BFA from the University of Texas. He lives and works in Austin and has appeared on an episode of Shipping Wars.

Rachael Starbuck (b. 1988, Miami, FL) is a sculptor who makes makes objects and videos that live in the space between distance and proximity, her work is negotiating intimacy, embodying longing and navigating the space between fluid bodies. She received her BFA in Sculpture + Extended Media from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2011 and her MFA from The University of Texas at Austin in 2017. Starbuck is a member of the artist collective MATERIAL GIRLS and has been a resident at ACRE Projects, The Contemporary Artists Center at Woodside, The Wassaic Project and The Vermont Studio Center. She has shown work in Richmond, VA, Providence, RI, Chicago, Austin, Houston, New York, London and Chiang Mai and is currently living and working in Austin, TX.

Barry Stone was born in Lubbock, Texas, and earned a BA in Biology and an MFA in Studio Art in Photography from the University of Texas at Austin. His work is represented by Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery in New York and Art Palace in Houston and is the founding member of the artist collective, Lakes Were Rivers. He is an Associate Professor and the Coordinator of the Photography Program at the School of Art and Design at Texas State University. His work has been nationally and internationally exhibited most recently at Center for Art and Media, (ZKM) in Karlsruhe, Germany, The Lianzhou Photography Festival in China, and with Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery in New York City. His photographs have been acquired by many collections including the Cleveland Clinic, Fidelity Mutual Corporation Collection, and the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. His work has been reviewed in many publications including Artforum, Artlies, Artnet, Washington City Paper, The New York Sun, TimeOut New York, and the New York Times.

Ingrid Tremblay is a French Canadian artist based in Austin, Texas. Her researches address the metonymic qualities of objects and the relations between material culture, nature, language, and experience. She is interested in the evocative power of objects, materials and sites in order to recall memories, to create narratives, or to generate affects. Nature and artificiality, machine-made and crafted, past and present are often combined or mirroring each other in her work. Ingrid Tremblay is an MFA candidate in Sculpture + Extended Media at The University of Texas at Austin. She has been awarded the College of Fine Arts Graduate School Recruitment Fellowship, The College of Fine Arts Summer Fellowship and she is a recipient of the Bourse Fonds de Recherche Québec Société et Culture. She additionally holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Concordia University (Montreal), a Bachelor of Science, and a Master of Speech-Language Pathology from the Université de Montréal. She completed residencies including Vermont Studio Center (USA), ACRE (USA), Terra Vivente Art Studio (Italy) and 59 Rivoli (France).

There are no longer binary machines: question-answer, masculine-feminine, man-animal, etc. This could be what a conversation is – simply the outline of a becoming.

-Gilles Deleuze and Claire Parnet, Dialogues

MASS Gallery is pleased to present Proxemics, an exhibition featuring six artists who wield the human body as a tool for communication through character creation, distortion, and documentation:  Ben Aqua (Austin, TX), Felipe Baeza (Brooklyn, NY), Xavier Schipani (Austin, TX), Silky Shoemaker (Oakland, CA), riel Sturchio (Austin, TX), and Jaimie Warren (Brooklyn, NY).

Bodies, selves, others, and other selves are presented in unrestricted and unapologetic forms. These figures take up space, and new contexts are laid bare. Representations transcend classic depictions of the human form, investigating perceptions of assumed, controlled, or reclaimed identity. In proximity to each other, the work in Proxemics examines how a body may be critiqued or claimed, presented or perceived.

Proxemics will be on view at MASS Gallery from January 19th through February 24th, with an opening party on January 19th from 7-10pm.

Stay tuned for additional exhibition related public events as part of MASS’ public programming series, Close Encounters.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Ben Aqua is a multidisciplinary artist based in Austin, Texas. Born in Brooklyn, New York, his visual work has been exhibited internationally and published in Rolling Stone, NPR, NYLON, SPIN, NME, Flaunt, Bloomberg Businessweek, OUT, ARKITIP, XLR8R, Beautiful/Decay, Rhizome, Hi-Fructose, JOGGING and Fecal Face. His music has been featured by Interview, The Creators Project, Mad Decent, DFA, VICE, Dummy Mag, FACT, Modular, URB, BUTT and Opening Ceremony. He also runs the experimental art & music label #FEELINGS.

Felipe Baeza, born in Guanajuato, Mexico, works primarily with painting and collage as a tool to create political spaces, Baeza’s recent projects consider how memory, migration and displacement work to create a state of hybridity and fugitivity. Utilizing his own biography to reflect on personal experiences and to explore the persistent effects of social institutions and cultural practices on the individual. Baeza’s art practice aims to imagine structures and possibilities for the self-emancipation of the hybrid-fugitive body that lives in/is persistently subjected to hostile conditions. He received his BFA from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in 2009, and is currently an 2018 MFA Candidate in the Painting/Printmaking program at Yale School of Art. Lives between Brooklyn, NY and New Haven, CT. He is the 2017 recipient of the The Robert Schoelkopf Memorial Traveling Fellowship and The Josef & Anni Albers Foundation Fellowship.

Xavier Schipani is an artist operating out of East Austin, Texas. His work explores urgent socio-political themes, with a specific focus on sex and gender and how society’s restrictive approach to these subjects causes dysfunction and incites fear. Actively inviting his audience to be turned on by his images, that often feature either literal or abstract representations of non-binary figures, creates an experimental atmosphere, where the sexual and gender norms are momentarily relaxed and a space for self-exploration appears.

Silky Shoemaker is a performer, visual artist, and community organizer living in Oakland, CA. She makes work that explores the absurdity and profundity of queer life and culture. Silky’s work has been seen in venues such as Arthouse at the Jones Center (Austin), The Warhol Museum (Pittsburgh), Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and Joe’s Pub (NYC) as well as punk houses and nursing homes around the world. Silky co-created GAYBIGAYGAY Queer Music Fest in Texas and also curated the world’s first Gay Wax Museum.

riel Sturchio was born in Maine and grew up in various parts of the state, experiencing both the solitude of the natural forests and the business of the small city of Portland. Riel received a BFA from Maine College of Art (2012) with concentrations in photography and art history. riel is currently pursuing an MFA at the University of Texas, Austin (2018) with practices in photography, sound art, bookmaking, video, and writing. riel Sturchio’s work revolves around the body, breath, language, and gender, which coalesces through includes photography, bookmaking, poetry, music, sound, and videography. riel’s current video installation utilizes spoken poetry, music, and the figure to complicate themes of touch, and communication. riel received a BFA in Photography from the Maine College of Art in Portland, ME (2012) and is currently an MFA candidate in Photography at the University of Austin, Texas (2018). Sturchio’s work has been widely supported by grants including the John Anson Kittredge Fund, The Maine Arts Commission, The Alexia Foundation, and Google, and has been exhibited in several venues, including most recently a two-person solo show called Body is a Bridge at the Visual Arts Center in Austin, Texas.

Jaimie Warren is a photographer and performance artist creating works both independently as well as collaboratively with youth and community groups. She was born in 1980 in Waukesha, Wisconsin and currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She is co-creator and co-director of the community-engaged and artist-led fake television show Whoop Dee Doo.

Recent solo exhibitions of Warren’s work have been presented in New York at The Hole, Higher Pictures and American Medium, and in California at Helmuth Projects and San Francisco Camerawork. Warren’s work has been highlighted in publications including The New York Times, artnet, ArtNews, New York Magazine, ArtFCity, FOAM, ArtForum and Dazed & Confused, among others.

Warren is a 2017 Brooklyn Arts Council SU-CASA Artist-in Residence, a 2016 Maker’s Muse Awardee, a 2015 fellow in Interdisciplinary Arts from the New York Foundation for the Arts and a 2015 Abrons AIRspace resident. She is the recipient of the 2014 Baum Award for An Emerging American Photographer, and she is the subject of a 2008 monograph published by Aperture. Warren is a featured artist in ART21’s documentary series “New York Close Up”, and she is the recipient of a United States Presidential Scholars Program Teacher Recognition Award.

MASS: CLOSE ENCOUNTERS presents a closing party for current exhibition Proxemics with a special performance by Austin-based performer p1nkstar, with special guest Y2K. Join us at MASS Gallery this Friday, February 23rd at 7 PM to get one last view of the exhibition and see some bodies in action!

ABOUT THE ARTISTS
p1nkstar (ur fav electr0nic pop superstar!!) performs futuristic multimedia live sets which include video transitions, projection mapping, hologram illusions, lights and choreographed numbers with backup dancers, outfit changes, guest performers, etc., all while singing catchy electropop songs about partying or being cute or sex! p1nkstar is the pop star of the post-queer-takeover future. p1nkstar was one of the headlining acts for the 2017 edition of gAyCL; other notable performances include OUTsider Fest 2018, ARTBASH 2017 by Austin Art Alliance, Y’all or Nothing (a SXSW showcase by Stargayzer Fest and Mouthfeel), and Magical Realness at the Museum of Human Achievement.

R U ready 2 Y2kiki? Yung Kwane (Y2K)  the desirous virus hacking her way into the motherboard of ATXs queer underground scene, reprogramming your hearts and minds to a vibration right in time with the bit rot of a nation swimming in adulation of glowing screens and its obsessive need for a glowing queen. Pushing the craft to new heights, Y2K has become known for her impressive projection mapping performances and innovative use of technology. A recognizable face in Austin’s burgeoning queer art scene, Yung Kwane can most often be found performing at underground events and queer parties.

ABOUT PROXEMICS
On view until February 24th, Proxemics is an exhibition featuring six artists who wield the human body as a tool for communication through character creation, distortion, and documentation:  Ben Aqua (Austin, TX), Felipe Baeza (Brooklyn, NY), Xavier Schipani (Austin, TX), Silky Shoemaker (Oakland, CA), riel Sturchio (Austin, TX), and Jaimie Warren (Brooklyn, NY).

Bodies, selves, others, and other selves are presented in unrestricted and unapologetic forms. These figures take up space, and new contexts are laid bare. Representations transcend classic depictions of the human form, investigating perceptions of assumed, controlled, or reclaimed identity. In proximity to each other, the work in Proxemics examines how a body may be critiqued or claimed, presented or perceived.

ABOUT CLOSE ENCOUNTERS
With each exhibition, MASS solicits artists to devise a program designed to provide new methods of engaging the public’s curiosity, inviting them to participate intellectually or physically with the exhibition space, as well as the artist’s work and concepts. Open and broad, this prompt can be approached in a multitude of ways: performance based, passive, or completely radical in execution or thought, and is designed to provide a new way of encountering and understanding the creative process.

MASS is extremely excited to announce we’ll be hosting Got it For Cheap Saturday, March 3, 2018 from 6-10pm! The event will feature over 700 local, national, and international artists and all of the work is available for $30 a piece!

Click here for the list of over 700 participating artists →

Got It For Cheap (GIFC) is a traveling art show curated by artists Charlie Roberts, Chris Rexroad and Jordan ‘Watts’ Watson, that features more than 750 participating artists from around the world. Well-known artists are displayed alongside a range of their up- and-coming contemporaries. The broad selection of works available are all originals, roughly the size of A4 (8,5×11″) and priced at the local equivalent of 30 USD. Since January of 2016 GIFC has held shows in at least 6 cities annually, and plan on increasing the number to 30 shows a year.

The goal of GIFC is to make buying original art accessible to all people and to give young artists a platform to both sell their work and be exposed to a worldwide audience. With each drawing priced at $30, GIFC allows the average person to participate in the contemporary art market. Young people get a chance to become first time collectors. Additionally, the low price allows the artist to loosen up, have fun and experiment with their art in ways that often get put aside when trying to produce longer and more involved work.

Since the beginning of GIFC, dozens of young artists have been discovered through the shows and the online presence, resulting in exhibitions at established galleries. With people lining up hours before the openings to be the first through the door and secure a particular artist, the shows offer an excitement and engagement from the public that isn’t often seen in the art world. The format of the show brings to mind the ‘Explore’ feed on Instagram with the stacks of drawings piled on tables. Social media has played a hand in the formation and communication of the project. It seems that in this screen-age, the desire to obtain original, material artworks have increased.

In 2017 GIFC has grown to include over 700 artists participating in 7 shows. Taking its cue from mixtape culture and the changing dynamics of the art industry in the Instagram age, the concept recognizes the value in young artists getting the exposure and connections these shows provide. For established artists GIFC is a chance to give their biggest fans a shot at buying a piece, increasing fan engagement and introducing their work to a new and excited audience.

Some notable artists that have taken part:
Nina Chanel Abney, Brad Phillips, Austin Lee, Chelsea Culprit, Ann Cathrin November Hoibo, Morgan Blair, Anna Bjerger, Anja Solenen, Anton Horfee, Christof Mascher, Morgan Blair, Kristy Luck and Drake Carr.

Opening Friday, March 30, 7-10pm

MASS + 1 is a group show of MASS members who have each invited a +1 to show alongside or collaborate with.

noun
noun: mass; plural noun: masses

1.

a coherent, typically large body of matter with no definite shape.

“a mass of curly hair”

synonyms: pile, heap; More

a large number of people or objects crowded together.

“a mass of cyclists”

synonyms: crowd, horde, large group, throng, host, troop, army, herd, flock, drove, swarm, mob, pack, press, crush, flood, multitude

“a mass of cyclists”

a large amount of material.

“a mass of conflicting evidence”

informal

a large quantity or amount of something.

“we get masses of homework”

any of the main portions in a painting or drawing that each have some unity in color, lighting, or some other quality.

“the masterly distribution of masses”

Featuring:

Ida Behjat + Alex Diamond

Andrea Calo + Eva Claycomb

Ted Carey + Maggie Mannell

Michelle Devereux + Shampane Hobo

Erin Gentry + Erica Nix

Jules Jones + Charlie Jones

Drew Liverman + Veronica Giavedoni

Rick Mansfield + Mark Kovitya

Scott Proctor + Rebeca Milton

Opening Reception Friday, May 25, 7-10pm

The exhibition Regional Fictions re-contextualizes this literary term to examine the lies, falsifications, and omissions present in the lore of a particular geographical region, particularly as it is taught to school age children. Text and installation-based works mine educational materials and methods of presentation to imagine what these items might look like from multiple “de-colonized” perspectives.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Julia Barbosa Landois is a multidisciplinary artist based in Houston, whose work has been featured in galleries, museums, and performance festivals in the USA, Latin America and Europe. Her awards include grants from Artpace and the Artist Foundation of San Antonio, as well as residencies at the Santa Fe Art Institute (USA), Lademoen Kunstnerverksteder (Norway), and Künstlerhaus Bethanien (Germany). Before her recent relocation to Houston, Barbosa Landois spent a decade in San Antonio working as a mercenary professor, youth arts instructor, preparator, gallery assistant, and math tutor. She holds a BFA from the University of Texas at San Antonio and MFA from the University of Pennsylvania. For more information, visit www.julialandois.com

Jamal Cyrus received his BFA from the University of Houston in 2004 and his MFA from the University of Pennsylvania in 2008. In 2005 he attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and in 2010 he was an Artist in Residence at Artpace San Antonio. Cyrus has won several awards, including the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award, the Artadia Houston Award, and the Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship. Currently based in Houston Texas, Cyrus’s work with deals with revisionist approaches to American history, particularly within the realm of Black politics and sound production. He is also a founding member of the artist collective Otabenga Jones & Associates. 

As part of the exhibition Regional Fictions, participating artist Julia Barbosa Landois will moderate a panel discussion addressing decolonization in educational settings.

How can educators facilitate decolonization as an internal, intellectual process, and how can art play an integral role? Our guests will discuss things like unpacking dominant historical narratives, fostering respect during difficult conversations, rethinking classroom power dynamics, and nurturing an environment of curiosity, justice, and love. Attendees will go home with educational materials and may win some art goodies from the Amplifier Foundation.

Panelists:

Maribel Valdez Gonzalez, M. Ed. leads the Education Amplifier program at Amplifier Foundation. The goal of the program is to support and amplify the voices of social change movements by creating meaningful ways for K-12 educators and students to engage with art. 

Antonio Valdez Gonzalez is a 7th and 8th-grade fine arts teacher for the San Antonio Independent School District and an active member of the Education Amplifier network.

Silvia Zuvieta-Rodriguez is a high school student and Advanced Leader with Youth Rise Texas. Youth Rise Texas is an Austin-based organization that cultivates youth as long-term leaders for justice by facilitating creative change work around criminalization and deportation.

Moderator:

Julia Barbosa Landois is a Houston-based artist and educator who has taught children, teens, college students, and elders. She currently works for Urban Harvest as a Garden Educator in public schools and will begin teaching at the University of Houston’s School of Art in the fall of 2018.

ABOUT CLOSE ENCOUNTERS
With each exhibition, MASS solicits artists to devise a program designed to provide new methods of engaging the public’s curiosity, inviting them to participate intellectually or physically with the exhibition space, as well as the artist’s work and concepts. Open and broad, this prompt can be approached in a multitude of ways: performance based, passive, or completely radical in execution or thought, and is designed to provide a new way of encountering and understanding the creative process.