Janice Sloane and Elisa Soliven
Open to the public:
Wednesday, March 22 - Friday, May 26, 2023
Opening reception:
Wednesday March 22 6-8 pm
Project: ARTspace is pleased to present Hands On, works by NYC based artists Janice Sloane and Elisa Soliven. Both artists engage abstract vocabularies to create metaphysical bodies and multifarious structures.
By examining the body and constructing abstract “figures” with India ink on paper and in clay, respectively, they each intuit their final compositions via process-based transformations. Elisa "feels" the body through the organic clay forms to “capture the talismanic essence of the human figure” and Janice unearths the meaning of the human form by assessing and discovering stories through her Rorschach-like drawings.
Janice describes her process as using the human form to reference the impermanence of the body, its transgression and transformation. Her latest works, "BodyType," are made using India ink on paper. These drawings are experiments with shapes. After she puts the initial forms down, she treats the preliminary stages of the work like a Rorschach test. Seeing into the shapes, she then discerns images of the body and elaborates from there. Sloane says, "The forms interact, are often erotic, have knives, piercings and/or tongues. I'm creating a dialogue among the male/female/indistinguishable bodies as they move, morph and connect."
The latest series of works by Elisa Soliven are figurative, also suggestive of architectural formations. This body of work is painted in various shades of blues, earth tones and grays, with the mosaic-like modules bringing color to the sculpture. By adding irregular pieces of fired clay that she builds the piece around, the material is melded into new structures. Soliven states, "This almost archaeological method often determines the shape, because I am working with unique pieces that have their own distinct forms. I unify them together into a whole, using the grid, transforming them into a singular, unified yet irregular body that conjures both man-made and geologic formations." Her sculptures serve as a recorded inquiry, capturing the talismanic essence of the human figure and more abstract connotations of love, loss and being human. The clay retains an immediacy via its hands-on working process, and it captures a sense of wonder in the ordinary. Ultimately, she aims to preserve a reimagined history. Transfiguring these quotidian monuments through archaeological accumulation of modeled layers of clay, and embedded ceramic, the familiar becomes a vessel for personal mythologies and social commentaries.
In Hands On, the artists find commonality in their expressions in two- and three-dimensions. Janice was drawn to Elisa's work, describing her "abstracted bodies, broken up, accommodating both geometric and organic impulses."
Like many artists, Janice has acted as an occasional curator throughout her career, notably for The Parlor Bushwick, which, along with Chuck Tisa and Rachel Phillips, was a gallery located in a townhouse for almost 8 years in the 2010s when Bushwick was a locus for a burgeoning artist community. The venue presented group exhibitions, and it was thee that Janice first encountered Elisa's works.
Janice Sloane is a multidisciplinary artist who was born and works in New York City. She has exhibited at Galeria La Refaccionaria, in Mexico City, MH Project, NYC, La Plataforma, Barcelona, Spain, Neue Galerie Graz, Austria, Czong Institute of Contemporary art, Gimpo, South Korea, Bullet Space, NYC, SPRING/BREAK ART SHOW, NY, El Centro de La Imagen, Mexico DF, White Box NYC, ZKM Center for Art and Media Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany, DESTE Foundation, Athens, Greece, Museo de Arte Carillo Gil Mexico DF, Museo Universitario del Chopo Mexico DF, among other spaces. She is a 2022 Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant recipient. Her work has been reviewed in The Coastal Post, Sensitive Skin Magazine, Milenio Supplemento Cultural, Mexico DF, The Herald, Mexico DF, Art New England, NY Times, Ethik & Unterrich, El Periodico del Arte and Harper’s Bazaar, Mexico. www.janicesloane.com
Elisa Soliven was born in New York City and lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Her work has been reviewed by Two Coats of Paint, Art Critical, and Hyperallergic. Soliven is co-founder of the Bushwick-based artist collective Underdonk. She received a BA from Bryn Mawr College and an MFA from Hunter College. She has exhibited her work at Hesse Flatow, Essex Flowers, Sunday Takeout in NYC and John Davis Gallery in Hudson, NY. She has been awarded residencies from The Elizabeth Murray Artist Residency, DNA Residency in Provincetown, MA, Jay House at Norte Maar, IMAR Residency in Lakeville, CT. www.elisasoliven.net
Wednesday, May 24, 6:30-8pm
Curator Paola Gallio conversation w the Artists
