IRREGULAr

artists

Rachel Davis

Paul Keir

Christina Tenaglia

Barbara Weissberger

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organized by

Natasha Sweeten

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Open to the public:

Thursday, November 21, 2024 - Friday, January 31, 2025

Open hours:

Monday - Friday, 11am - 5pm

Opening reception:

Thursday, November 21, 6-8pm

As artists, we challenge ourselves to court the unknown. The creative journey from idea to tangible object is rarely a straight shot, likely requiring us to recalibrate along the way. Irregularities are inevitable. This show brings together four artists who, each in their own way, embrace the messiness of making things. IRREGULAr is a celebration of trial and error, of flaws and accidents, and of what happens when we allow ourselves to accept the exceptions.

Rachel Davis collects prairie plants and cultivates her own homegrown specimens she then uses to concoct various dyes. Her colorful palette transforms swaths of repurposed cotton, silk, linen, hemp and wools with which she hand-stitches, folds, tears, sews and draws or prints her way to a form that meshes the natural world with the handmade.

Although Paul Keir considers his work “carefully calibrated” he admits his process is intuitive. His work is predicated on drawing and, with a focus on an economy of means, he chooses simple materials that are often found, repurposed and common to construction. Lastly, for the installation, Paul takes his time in deliberating the environment in which the work will be viewed.

Christina Tenaglia’s wood and clay constructions are tenaciously inventive. The accumulated and worked materials possess their own histories and imperfections, and with them Christina plays off notions of function/nonfunction, familiar/unnamable. Her work, intentionally simple, urges us to slow down and more carefully consider our use and understanding of the everyday.

Barbara Weissberger ‘s imaginative quilting merges a centuries-old domestic practice with the graphic world of today. Recognizable photographic images (candles, potatoes) emerge from cut and sewn shapes of clothing, the overall form irregular. Freed from their original functions, the old stitching, zippers and pockets evoke memories of the human bodies that once wore and created them.

Organizer Statement

I am drawn to the oddities in life, to the unexpected or unassumed. In art, these moments originate from vigorous, honest investigations into material and thinking. The artists in this show don’t shy away from unplanned consequences. How they choose to respond offers an invaluable glimpse into their creative processes.

Artist Bios:

Rachel Davis (b 1970) is an artist and educator based in the Chicago region. She has exhibited in national venues including the Holter Museum of Art in Helena, MT, Evergreen Galleries in Olympia, WA and the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, in Madison, WI. Rachel has been an artist in residence at Trout Lake Station – Center for Limnology, Vermont Studio Center and Ox-Bow School of Art. Her current work integrates textiles, painting and drawing and explores connections between the human and non-human world, with a focus on aquatic plants and landscapes.

artbumble.com, @art_bumble

Paul Keir (b 1960) has degrees from the University of Aberdeen and Edinburgh College of Art, where he also obtained his MFA. He makes walldrawings, paintings, objects, floorworks and drawings. Much of his work is centered on tensions between improvised and formal elements and is often characterized by a spareness and frankness of means. He taught at Edinburgh College of Art for many years and has been awarded a number of grants from the Scottish Arts Council and other bodies. He has undertaken residencies in Switzerland, UK and America, and has exhibited widely, in the UK and further afield. Earlier this year his work was included in Frontiers - Painting in Scotland Now, a survey exhibition at the Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh.

paul-keir-artist.co.uk, @paulkeirstudio

Christina Tenaglia (b 1975) is an artist and educator living and working in the Hudson Valley. She has received fellowships for residencies at MacDowell, I-Park and Catwalk and is a recipient of the W.K. Rose Fellowship in the Creative Arts, a NJ State Arts Council Fellowship Award for Sculpture and a purchase award grant from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her work has been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions including Thomas Park Gallery, New York and Seoul; the Al Held Foundation, Boiceville, NY with River Valley Arts Collective; NADA x Foreland, Catskill, NY with Heroes Gallery; Pamela Salisbury Gallery, Hudson, NY; Hesse Flatow, NY; LABspace, Hillsdale, NY; Opalka Gallery, Albany; NY; Teffia Primary, Tokyo, Japan; Fridman Gallery, Beacon, NY; The Samuel Dorsky Museum, New Paltz, NY; and Newark Museum, NJ among others. She has been reviewed and profiled in Hyperallergic, the Brooklyn Rail, Two Coats of Paint, Chronogram and other publications.

christinatenaglia.com, @christinatenaglia

Barbara Weissberger’s work has been supported by a Guggenheim Fellowship, numerous artist residencies in the US and abroad including Yaddo, MacDowell, Camargo, Bogliasco, Ucross, the Ragdale Foundation and VCCA. Her work has been exhibited at such venues as The Drawing Center, PS1/MoMA and White Columns, NYC; Hallwalls, Buffalo; Gridspace, Brooklyn; Silver Eye, The Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh; ADA Gallery, Richmond; and The Missoula Art Museum, Missoula. Her work has been written about in journals including Femme Art Review and The Heavy Collective. She is part of the collaborative duo ALDRICH + WEISSBERGER with painter Eleanor Aldrich. She received an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. She was born in New Jersey and lived in San Francisco and New York before moving to Pittsburgh. She divides her time between Pittsburgh, New York and Montana.

barbaraweissberger.net, @barbaraweissberger

Organizer Bio:

Natasha Sweeten (b 1969) grew up in Kentucky and southern Indiana and studied at the Cleveland Institute of Art (BFA) and Bard College (MFA). Her work has been included in various solo and group exhibitions, most recently Satchel Projects, New York City, and appeared in The New York Times, The Journal of Contemporary Painting and Art in America, among other publications. She is the recipient of a NYFA Fellowship in Painting and a PS 122 Space Fellowship as well as several artist residencies at MacDowell, the Vermont Studio Center and Yaddo. Collaborations with fellow artists and architects range from a flag flying on a Brooklyn rooftop to last summer’s homage to Gordon Matta-Clark’s Splitting, in which she cut her upstate garage in half. She lives and works in Brooklyn and Columbia County, NY.

natashasweeten.com, @natashasweeten

Founded in 2011, Project: ARTspace is an interdisciplinary creative project space. Our organization programs events and exhibition where curators and artists of all levels have the chance to meet, engage and promote new collaborative projects.

projectartspace.com

@project.artspace

Images (R to L): Barbara Weissburger Birthday, 2024, photo graphic print on fabric (dye-sublimation), other fabrics, old jeans, batting, thread, grommets, 47 x 43.75 in | Paul Keir Untitled, 2023, spiral, acrylic on canvas,1.75 diameter x 2.75 | Christina Tenaglia, retelling, 2022, wood, paint, ink, earthenware, nails, screws, 17 x 25 x 4.5 inches | Rachel Davis, Wading_Waiting, 2024 acrylic on wood panel, 16 x 20 in.