Greg Leshe
Ground-over Skies
Main Gallery
October 23 – December 11, 2010
Opening Reception October 23, 7-10 PM
Closing Reception December 11, 7-10

“My work is autobiographical and explores the intricate links between memory, the body, and self-performance. My videos, photographs and recent drawings are from a series recalling specific, core impressions from my actual past. The memories I am attracted to and invariably address are of formative experiences with family, aviation, manual labor, masculinity, alcoholism, violence and obsession. In these works I attempt to revisit and occupy my subjective past through a process of assigning myself nostalgic, symbolically connected tasks to laboriously perform and record. Performing task work based on manual, body dependent, often repetitive actions to fulfill some undefined goal is meditative, and reveals an alternative, physical, exterior view of my psychic terrain. Recalling memories through performance is my way of formalizing and reshaping unsettled past experiences. Ritualizing a process for remembering is important to me in extending self-knowledge through acceptance of a past and current life.

Finally, my work is about flying and rotating, and crashing, and raging, and fighting, and loosing and loss. It is about showing up, and building, and constructing, and hoping, and lighting up, and fearing burning up, and burning up, and being killed, and recovering from being killed, and recovering, my memory, my self.

Greg Leshé – 2010″

Greg Leshé was born in Natchitoches, Louisiana and grew up in northern New Jersey. His solo exhibitions include, “Personal Gravity” at the Jersey City Museum, NJ and “Personal Radar” at Exhibit A Gallery, NY. He received his BFA from Alfred University, and his MA from New York University and the International Center of Photography. His honors include “Distinguished Artist” and “Highest Merit” awards from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts for Photography in 1992-93, and an Individual Artist Fellowship Award in Interdisciplinary Performance in 2001. Greg was an artist in residence at the Newark Museum’s Arts Workshop Program in 2004. He was featured in a group exhibition entitled, “20 Years In”, at the International Center of Photography in fall 2006, which celebrated the 20 year photography program between New York University and the International Center of Photography. He is currently showing large portrait works on bus kiosks in Jamaica, New York, serving as documents of “life”
interacting with “Jamaica Beach Truck,” a collaborative project with installation artist, Ryan Roa, which was part of Jamaica Flux 2010, a biannual exhibition curated by Heng-Gil Han.  He originated and advocated for a statewide exhibition addressing the subject of Sprawl and Development in New Jersey, which opened at the Jersey City Museum in June 2008. Greg lives and works in South Orange, NJ.

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Irys Schenker
You’re a Big Girl Now
Liminal Space
October 23 – December 11, 2010
Opening Reception October 23, 7-10 PM
Closing Reception December 11, 7-10

Romance, humor, history, color, pattern and texture are words associated with Irys Schenker’s work.  Schenker interrogates notions of drawing and sculpture, juxtaposing and blending various media: cardboard, hand-drawing, collage and other 3D elements.  Using her childhood image as a starting point, the works in this show investigate and invigorate the emotional life of a child observed through the privileged vantage point of adulthood.

This solo exhibition of Schenker’s work features a small number of densely worked “sculpture/drawing hybrids,” one of which, Big Girl is a 7ft tall pencil drawing of a girl.  Her clothing is patterned from photographs shot by the artist on various European trips. Hanging slightly away from the wall the drawing is anchored to the floor by her cardboard shoes and a braided paper staff.

Taken in succession, these works compose a trilogy in the stages of a life, from barbed innocence, to early lessons of sex, food and literature, on to the pain of consciousness in the world of power, loyalty and the risks of self knowledge. Big Girl represents the breaking into exuberance, wild accomplishment and the self-promoting power of romance, humor, history and adventure.

Irys Schenker received her MFA from the School of Visual Arts and recently was chosen for the AIM Program at the Bronx Museum of the Arts. Her work in the AIM show, “How Soon is Now?” was reviewed both in Time Out NY and The New York Times.  Irys is also a Yaddo fellow and a former Aferro Studio resident.

Noted exhibitions have been at the Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art, The Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art, Snug Harbor, White Columns in NYC and at Kappatos Gallery in Athens, Greece. The Newark Public Library recently acquired an artist book which was included in the show, “More Than Words, Artist Books from the Special Collections” in January 2009. Her work is in private collections in United States, Greece and Israel.

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Anonda Bell and Tara de la Garza
Ripe: Conceived & Perceived
Project Room
October 23 – December 11, 2010
Opening Reception October 23, 7-10 PM
Closing Reception December 11, 7-10

Drawing on various sources of inspiration, from history to popular culture, the artists Anonda Bell and Tara de la Garza are questioning underlying assumptions about motherhood, and critique the myths and taboos of this fundamental act. Referencing their personal experiences (the  artists were pregnant or gave birth in the lead up to this exhibition), the multi media artworks will address various themes associated with the gestational and post partum experience.

Tara de la Garza explores perceived and implied fears/taboos associated with the journey into motherhood. She is interested in depicting women who, like herself, do not conform to the perceived stereotypical norms of the gentle, passive and nurturing female, one whose exclusive raison d’être is to procreate.  Normally working with toxic materials, such as oil and spray paint, de la Garza has chosen the more gentle mediums of ink and watercolor to present her journey.

Anonda Bell has created a large format, almost three dimensional work on paper which consists of a series of haphazardly conflated impressions of pregnancy and motherhood. The drawing’s composition mimics the vivid, irrational and exhausting hormone induced dreams of the various stages of pregnancy and the post partum period, with colliding elements that do not follow any kind of linear narrative. Juxtaposed within the drawing are references to women of history who defined by their motherhood status, through to references of the artists’ experience of giving birth to her first child.

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ALL OF IT
Dahlia Elsayed
Main Gallery
9/11/10-10/2/10
Opening Reception September 11, 2010, 7-10 PM

Dahlia Elsayed’s painting process is closely linked with writing and in this show the artist performs a kind of editing and revision to selected works from the past decade. In arranging and re-arranging over 100 paintings, the  works take on altered meanings, with each work serving as a line in a humorous, anxious and lusty epic poem.  

Dahlia Elsayed combines text and imagery to create visually narrative paintings that document internal and external geographies. Her work, influenced by conceptual art, comics, and landscape painting, is informed by autobiography and environment, to create illustrated documents of places and memories.  

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What a girl wants, what a girl needs: The Aphrodite Project
Project Room
9/11/10-10/2/10
Opening Reception September 11, 2010, 7-10 PM
Purse Hacking Workshop with Johana Moscoso, Maria Jiminez and Norene Leddy, September 25, 1-3 PM

Started by Norene Leddy in 2000, The Aphrodite Project consists of three multifaceted artworks: Sanctuary, Platforms, and Kestos Imas.Platforms and Kestos Imas are social sculpture projects: interactive, wearable devices that are a conceptual homage to the cult of the Greekgoddess of love, Aphrodite, practical objects for contemporary sex workers, and vehicles for public dialogue. Using both high and lowtechnology, these projects draw on innovations made by venerated courtesans from antiquity to improve conditions of 21st century women.

Norene Leddy’s work examines how technology is used in relationship to marginalized populations. Recent projects include working with sex workers and inner-city girls to explore ways that high and low technology can be used for protection and self expression, from the latest in GPS and mobile software to simple DIY kits made up of electronics from Radio Shack. In addition to drawing, video, sculpture and installation; related performances and workshops are frequently part of her artistic practice. Upcoming shows this fall and spring include the Longwood Arts Center in the Bronx and IDEA Space in Colorado. She was an Aferro studio resident.

The Aphrodite Project Team:
Artist, Project Lead: Norene Leddy
Tech Lead: Andrew Milmoe
Tech Lead: Ed B. Lepow
Community Advisor: Melissa Gira Grant
Interns 2009-2010: Johana Moscoso, Maria Jimenez

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One’s Own Room: Endless Connection II
Hyo Jeong Nam
Liminal Space
9/11/10-10/2/10
Opening Reception September 11, 2010, 7-10 PM

My most recent work is thread hanging installations and drawings which explore the cycle of life, especially from a female view point. Needle works as well as thread tying thread works are time consuming and tedious work, with the simple, repeating process as a metaphor for the daily chore of domestic, female life. Compared to the simple process, the finished works resemble natural figures and evoke spirituality.

Hyo Jeong Nam was born in Seoul, Korea. She received B.F.A at Kyonggi University, Korea, and then moved to NY to take a M.F.A degree at Pratt Institute. After graduating, she had many group shows and solo show such as at Kips gallery in Chelsea, Gallery Satori, Space Womb, SICA, Brooklyn Art Council, Alphan Gallery. Recently she had a solo show at chashama Times Square Gallery. She was an Aferro studio resident.

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   Jonathan Franco

Video Melee
Main Gallery and New Media Room
May 1 – May 28, 2010
Opening Reception/Melee May 1, 7-10 PM,
featuring a new performance piece by Kelly Ann Pinho,
“breakfast is just time for chewing Cocoa Puffs and/or wishing you were still asleep”

A totally uncurated free for all. Artists are invited to bring moving imagery, either pre-recorded or created live, as well as the means to display it.

Details here

See images here

Artists expressing intent include:

BELLO, Katrina
BIGELOW, Alan
BOREK, Joanne
BROWN-OSORNE, Tyrone
CACOILO, Doris
CHAN, Karen Y.
CHAVEZ, Daniel
DRESSLER, Steven
FRANCO, Jonathan
GRANETT, Sarah
LEMEH42
LEPORE, Ann
LUVAAS, Lucinda
MAJOR, Rebecca
NARULA, Veru
PILLIS, Daniel
ROSSI, Steve
SMITH, Katie
ST BENNET, James
TAYLOR, Andaiye
THACKRAY, Amanda
WENTWORTH, Sara
WIDRO, Tilton
YORK, Samuel D.

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Ryan Roa
Lights, Camera, Action
Project Room
May 1 – May 28, 2010
Opening Reception May 1, 7-10 PM

One of the most striking artworks in Roa’s exhibition is Re-Form, a large steel cross mounted with police light bars that rotate and strobe. The lights creates a line that rotates around the space.

People today are constantly on the move, existing in a time influenced by technology; one of bigger, faster and more.  Western culture is best described by the gas station chain slogan, of Mobil, “on the run”.   Constantly inundated with massive amounts of information, individuals have grown to process information at amazingly high speeds.  Through this constant state of mass organized confusion, I wait for a break in time; a moment of peace, a chance to clear my head and separate society’s agendas from my own.

I am interested in the circular relationship that objects and images have to one another. Objects resemble and are processed spatially, while images represent and are processed visually. My work consists of sculptures, installations, images and videos. My concepts stem from observations of the world around me. I am constantly scanning my surroundings, fixating on things that seem to be in flux. My work is energized by ideas of change and conflict, placing an emphasis on the perceptual understanding of everyday things, and how they impact life.

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 Stephen Mishol

Tek’tanik
curated by Evonne M. Davis
March 13 – April 24, 2010
Opening Reception Saturday March 13, 7-10 PM
Main Gallery

Artists:

Kate Bonner, Tammy Renee Brackett, Kyle Coniglio, Lisa di Donato, Lisa Elmaleh, Dahlia Elsayed, Jacob Galle, Kelly S. Goff, Michelle Levante, Patrick Millard, Stephen Mishol, Matthew Nicolosi, Joan Pamboukes, K. Shelton, Dmitry Strakovsky, Kai Vierstra, Sue Zwick

Tectonic refers to large-scale processes that take place within the earth. This multi-site exhibition was provoked by the changeability of the internal environment, and the attendant reality that convictions change with the climate, relationships change as convictions do, and nothing is still.

Does the shape of our internal lives reflect the shape of the structures that surround us? 

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Nothing to See/Hear:
Ryan Schroeder
Project Room
March 13 – April 24, 2010
Opening Reception Saturday March 13, 7-10 PM

The urban environment as a whole, and specifically the evidence that remains from its consumer activity, is the basis of Ryan Schroeder’s aesthetic research. His work exists simultaneously in a state of creation and destruction, absorption and expansion. he was an Aferro Studio resident in 2008.

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The Identity Project:
Beatrice Coron
Liminal Space
March 13 – April 24, 2010
Opening Reception Saturday March 13, 7-10 PM

“Stories are written, and in my case, cut. I invent cities, worlds and situations. They are memories, associations of words, ideas, observations and thoughts that unfold in improbable juxtapositions. Each observer makes his or her own story in this accumulation of real or imaginary lives to remember the past and foresee the future. Whether automatic writing or premeditated scenes, images pass through words. The creative inspiration comes from a text, a poem, or from a concept that I reduce to a mere title, or an amalgam of deformed words. Part of the pleasure is finding words that are identical in French and in English: word play, translation add complexity and meaning.  In my graphic style, windows are used not to see out but in. The cutting blade traces labyrinths and poetic meandering. Shadows suggest danger but also opportunities for new adventures.” Beatrice Coron was an Aferro Studio Resident in 2008, and frequently gives workshops in the tri-state area.