opening reception with the artists: Sat. Dec. 8, 6-8pm
gallery open during open hours…usually Thurs 1-8p, Fri 1-4p, Sat 12-4p, Sun 1-4p, but check our calendar!

“The narrative potential that can be embedded within visual objects, such as paintings, drawings, and sculpture is what motivates this show and the work within it. These works aim to not only reveal the narrative of process, but the logical development of thought between two artists who are interesting in reading objects as they are created and found – and questioning the boundaries of wonder when assessing those objects. Folie à deux, or madness of two, refers to the psychological occurrence when two individuals transmit thoughts and visions back and forth to one another. This idea is something that we have talked often of together, and are interested in as a means to make images in collaboration with one another. This work explores the liminal space between physical and psychological relationships of sensibility and emotion, the archeological qualities within the surface of objects as mythology, and the possibility of story-telling through an object’s formal characteristics. “

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Claire Whitehurst is an artist living and working in Iowa City, Iowa, where she is teaching and pursuing her MFA in Painting at the University of Iowa. She was born in Louisiana and raised in Mississippi, earning her BFA at the University of Mississippi and a Post Baccalaureate degree from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art in Philadelphia, PA. Her work can be found in private collections throughout the United States, and abroad in France and Germany. She has permanent public commissioned installations in Jackson Academy’s Performing Art Center in Jackson, Mississippi, and St. Jude’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. Her work explores the possibility of narrative through an object’s formal qualities as well as questioning psychological relationships we have with images within our visual world. 

Kassandra Palmer was born in Fairfield, California and raised in Green Bay, Wisconsin. She attended college at Santa Clara University where she graduated summa cum laude with a degree in physics, and she is a recent graduate of the University of Iowa’s MFA program in Painting and Drawing.  Her making process is rooted in experimentation and is continuously upended by private experiences of isolation, faith, failure, and triumph; in her work she leaves room for the unexpected and listens for echoes that ring true but do not compute. Kassandra currently lives in Madison, Wisconsin and teaches at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and at Carroll University.

an immersive, interactive, and mysterious environment for all ages, created by Kelly Moore and the goodhumans

An other worldly creature has escaped and things are getting strange as the dimensional contamination increases.

It's just another day at the Pocket Monster Guild.

opening reception/Gallery Walk : Friday, Oct. 5, 5-8pm

Follow Spooky House: www.facebook.com/spookyhouseic/

Join us the Spooky House crew for two workshops during the exhibition:

CREEPY MASKS Sun. Oct. 14, 1-3:30pm
GLOW STITCHES Sun. Oct. 21, 5-7:30pm
advanced registration required

SPOOKY HOUSE goes live!

Sat. Oct. 27, 5pm - ?

Join us in costume to explore Spooky House as it goes live at 5:00, and stick around for the grown up spooky dance party that starts at 7:00.

Wed. Oct. 31, 5-8pm

Come Trick or Treat at Spooky House as it goes live at 5:00. Bring the kids to walk through the spooky space, play games, and enjoy some tricks and treats on Halloween night.

Come play Check Point, Chelsea A. Flowers' game show/art installation, in the gallery throughout the month of June.

Detroit-based Flowers' practice explores subversion to popular culture and how “otherness” is created, and social and cultural critique of her environment. She explores these ideas through comedic troupes, physical play, nostalgic memorabilia, and participatory performance. In her exhibit, Check Point: An Introduction to Child's Play, she will seek to answer the question, “Can we build communities through Play?” She has created a game that tests social, cultural, and emotional knowledge. By questioning “Did O.J. do it?” “What day did Beyonce turn Black?” “Can you walk like an Egyptian?” the game also wants to know if you can “list seven young men and/or women who were murdered by police in the past four years.”

A Player will be challenged in various means. The game will ask them to be okay with not knowing an answer, and to feel even more comfortable with knowing how to ask for the answer. That’s the functionality of a community. We create our own communities based on what we share and how we care for one another. Participants will be able to show their care through play (verbal discussion), dance (intellectual conversation with one’s body) and investigation (openness to learning). 

http://www.chelseaaflowers.com

Lauren Leving writes about Flowers’ work:

"Flowers’ work is also a form of activism, using humor to shape a safe environment in which she educates others about oppressive institutional structures.... the artist is removed yet present in these potentially uncomfortable dialogues. The visitor shifts into the role of performer, which creates a unique situation in which audience members are simultaneously speaking to and confronting themselves."

A video installation by Jaime Raybin & R.D. King.

“Ms. Bigfoot: A Fanfiction” tells the story of of an alienated teenage monster truck who undergoes a feminist awakening through writing fan fiction. During the six-minute film, the monster truck protagonist experiences a lack of representation in both the real world and in mainstream pop culture. Using the internet as a platform, she constructs a universe with her own substantive meaning.
The film is featured on loop as the centerpiece of an installation that  references and expands the surreal world within the film. The viewer is invited to have a seat on a pastel tire and watch the film inside of a crudely drawn teenage hangout/chain restaurant.
Join the artists at the opening reception on Monday, April 30, 5-7p, which will include the release of a new monster truck art zine!