November 7-17, 2017
Reception & Live Auction: Friday, November 17, 4-7 pm
Decommissioned firearms aren’t the most pliable artistic medium, but that hasn’t stopped faculty and students at Santa Fe Community College from reshaping them into stunning artworks. They’ve been hard at work bending, slicing, shredding and melting old guns into sculptures, jewelry and even apparel. This fall, the art will appear at a special reception, live auction and silent auction in support of art and welding scholarships at SFCC and the 501(c)3 non-partisan organization New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence (NMPGV), along with juried works by artists from across the world that reflect on gun violence prevention. The Guns to Art Benefit Show runs November 7-17 at form & concept, with a reception and live auction on Friday, November 17 from 4 to 7 pm.
“When we first started, people would slam doors in our faces,” says Miranda Viscoli, co-founder and co-president of NMPGV. “They’d say, ‘You guys are not going to take our guns.’ This event is a culmination of our efforts to shift the conversation towards responsible gun ownership and gun violence prevention.” In August 2016, NMPGV launched a gun buyback program that invited gun owners to anonymously turn in unwanted firearms to New Mexico law enforcement. The Santa Fe Community College Art Department offered to turn part of the stockpile into art, and a collaboration with the Colorado-based RAWTools project called “Guns to Gardens” transformed the guns into gardening tools. Creations from both programs will appear in the live and silent auctions at the Guns to Art benefit.
NMPGV formed in 2013, the year of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Not long after the tragedy, a group of concerned citizens came together to face some tough realities about gun violence in New Mexico. They learned that in 2013, the third leading cause of death for New Mexican children was homicide, with 74% of those deaths occurring by firearm. Faced with this troubling statistic and others like it, the group leapt into action, designing programs that could curb firearm injury and death and promote responsible gun ownership through public health, education, advocacy and public awareness efforts.
“Over the years, we’ve developed a multipronged approach to build trust in the community,” says Viscoli. “We know the police, we know local politicians on both sides of the aisle, we know the press, and we know community members.” The programs they’ve launched include Murals to End Gun Violence and the Student Pledge Against Gun Violence, both of which engage Santa Fe public school students. Since these initiatives started, there has been a 54% drop in local students bringing weapons to school. NMPGV also maintains an interactive map documenting incidents of gun-related violence and death in every New Mexico county. “Guns to Gardens” and the collaboration with Santa Fe Community College are also ongoing projects.
“We love the way NMPGV takes an intersectional approach to their projects and programs,” says Frank Rose, Gallery Director at form & concept. “Guns to Art brings so many of these local stories together, and also invites artists from across the world to express powerful viewpoints on gun violence prevention.” The Guns to Art Benefit Show opens November 7, coinciding with the launch of an online and in-gallery silent auction. Bidding for the silent auction will continue during the Guns to Art reception on November 17, and a live auction moderated by Jake Lovato will also take place at the event.
NMPGV, SFCC and form & concept would like to thank Mayor Javier Gonzales, the City of Santa Fe and Santa Fe Police Chief Patrick Gallagher for their support of this exhibition.
Learn more about the reception & live auction.
Enter the Guns to Art juried show.
435 S Guadalupe St, Santa Fe, NM 87501| 505.982.8111
]]>Anya Tish Gallery
anyatishgallery.com
anya@anyatishgallery.com
713.524.2299
FREEZE! Shannon Cannings • Corey Pickett | October 13 – November 11, 2017
Artists Reception: October 13, 6:00 – 8:30 pm
Artists Q&A and Walk-Through: October 14, 1:00 – 2:00 pm
Anya Tish Gallery is thrilled to present FREEZE!, a two-person exhibition featuring paintings and drawings by Shannon Cannings and soft sculptures by Corey Pickett. Through the lens of their own race and gender, both artists question the role of guns in our society in order to appeal for the re-evaluation of current gun legislation.
By looking past the veneer of consumerism, which has distorted and glorified the meaning of ‘gunplay’, Shannon Cannings’ oil paintings explore how toy guns normalize gun culture and create a tolerance for violent language and behavior from childhood. Using the candy-colored and eye-catching visuals of advertising, Cannings’ work draws attention to the juxtaposition of gun violence and the allegedly harmless children’s toy. Each painting is meticulously executed to spotlight the shiny, colored plastic of the gun and its glossy, light reflecting packaging to create an almost irresistible product. Cannings’ works are the product of a mother’s meditation on the convoluted messages of advertising and a response to the controversy surrounding gun control.
In place of gunmetal and steel, Corey Pickett’s immense gun sculptures are stuffed with foam and upholstered in a mélange of versicolor patterns. Pickett draws inspiration from his research of the middle passage and uses Victorian and Dutch textiles to visually reference the past conditions of African-Americans. The artist states “Initially these objects were in response to gun violence towards African-Americans; however, my work has expanded to gun violence against all humans”. Pickett’s ebullient soft sculptures transpose the issue of gun violence to create a comfortable and secure environment in which to contemplate the role of guns in our society.
Shannon Cannings earned her Master of Fine Arts from Syracuse University, New York, and has since exhibited her work across the United States in museums and institutions including Art Museum of Southeast Texas, Beaumont, TX and Tyler Museum of Art, Tyler, TX. In 2001, she was selected to represent the West Texas region in the Texas Biennale. Her work has been featured in print and online publications including New American Paintings and the Houston Press, and Glasstire.
Corey Pickett received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2000 and his Master of Education in 2008 from Eastern New Mexico University. In 2017 he is to receive his Master of Fine Arts from the Vermont College of Fine Art. Pickett has exhibited his work throughout the United States in institutions such as the National African American Museum and Cultural Center and is a recipient of the International Sculptural Center’s 2017 Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award.
Anya Tish Gallery . 4411 Montrose Blvd. . Houston Texas 77006 . 713.524.2299 . anyatishgallery.com . anya@anyatishgallery.combest Running shoes | Vans Shoes That Change Color in the Sun: UV Era Ink Stacked & More – Fitforhealth News
]]>Seventy-two years ago, American pilots dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. To this day, historians debate whether, as the U.S. maintained, the bombings were necessary to end World War II in the Pacific Theater, or whether, as some critics hold, they constituted war crimes.
Visual artist Yukiyo Kawano and choreographer Meshi Chavez are the creators of “Suspended Moment,” a multidisciplinary performance work they developed with composer Lisa DeGrace and poet Allison Cobb.
Kawano is from Hiroshima; Chavez grew up in Albuquerque — close enough to the Manhattan Project to have a feel for the American side of this history. They’ve performed this work in places with strong ties to atomic history, like Los Alamos, New Mexico, the Hanford Site, and are now bringing it to Portland for a fifth incarnation.
Chavez’s practice is based in the Japanese performance style butoh. You may have seen it performed by dancers in white makeup, moving with infinitesimal slowness. But Chavez’s style is something more kinetic and stately. In some sequences, he puts himself through organic contortions, twisting and spinning almost out of control. Others are direct references to everyday activities on either side of the Pacific.
Here are some highlights of the conversation.
]]>At the center of the performance is a life-sized sculpture of the bomb dropped on Nagasaki in 1945, created by the artist Yukiyo Kawano. Yuki was born and raised in Hiroshima, a third-generation atomic bomb survivor. She creates her sculptures from WWII-era kimonos that belonged to her grandmother, and sews them together with her hair, melding the DNA of generations of atomic bomb survivors.
co-sponsored by
Los Alamos History Museum, Los Alamos/Japan Project, and Los Alamos County Library System. Funded in part by a grant from the New Mexico Intervention Fund of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Additional Funding: Kawano has received a Career Opportunity Grant award from the Oregon Arts Commission.
The performance takes place from 4-5:30 p.m. at Historic Fuller Lodge, 2132 Central Ave., Los Alamos, NM 87544.Nike air jordan Sneakers | 【海外近日発売予定】 サウスパーク × アディダス オリジナルス キャンパス 80S “タオリー” (GZ9177) – スニーカーウォーズ
]]>Corey Pickett: Blank Cartridge
Reception: July 8, 6:00 to 8:00 pm.m
Blank Cartridge is an exhibition of provocative new sculptures by Clovis based-artist Corey Pickett. This series of artworks serves as an appeal for “common-sense” gun laws and the re-evaluation of current gun legislation.
Pickett is concerned with the enormous amount of gun violence that takes place on a daily basis and, as a black man, he has a level of fear that is predicated on the current socio-political climate of America and the nation’s gun laws. The premise of his work is to initiate dialogue among the many perspectives related to gun rights with the hope that a reasonable mediation can be reached. His guns are surrogates for the real thing.
“Initially these objects were in response to gun violence towards African-Americans; however, my work has expanded to gun violence against all humans. My goal is for my practice to be a medium of activism through interdisciplinary methods and community collaborations,” says Pickett. “My practice has extended to the community through neighborhood art camps and community art projects. This community participation along with my reimagined ready-mades is an attempt to bring about cultural sensitivity and cross-cultural awareness. I’m convinced that people are more receptive to new and alternative theories concerning social change when they are comfortable and less threatened.”
ABOUT THE ARTIST
In addition to being a working artist, Pickett is currently Director of The Jaye Rock Cultural Center in Clovis, NM, which he also founded. He received his Master of Education in 2008 and his Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2000 from Eastern New Mexico University. He will receive his MFA in 2017 from the Vermont College of Fine Art, Vermont. He has exhibited his work in cities throughout the US and is a recipient of the International Sculpture Center’s 2017 Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award.
Follow this link to learn more and listen to the interview.
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