Rob and Nick Carter: Transforming Michelle Erickson: Conversations in ClayEric Standley: In DepthARTlabCommunity Gallery: Open (C)allNational Gallery

SUMMER 2015

IDEAS FOR ENJOYING THE GALLERIESTry this looking guide for the young, and young-at-heart, museum visitor.

START WITH LOOKINGMost works of art do not reveal themselves in just a glance. Try “reading” the work. Find a point that captures your eye and then move your gaze across and around the work. Try looking from different places (near or far, standing vs. sitting). You’ll be surprised by what you can learn just by looking. Parents: You can help model looking by verbalizing where your eyes are moving to and why.

ENCOURAGE QUESTIONSWhether visiting with a youngster, friend, or by yourself, it’s important to recognize the questions that surface. What are some types of questions you might consider? Try these as you look:

• Is there a story? What is it? • Is there a message or symbolism?

• What feeling does this work project? • Do you get a sense of time or place?Parents: You can incorporate counting, word choice and the 5 senses into your discussion. Try asking:

• How many ___ do you see? • How would this color taste?

• What 3 words describe what’s • What might this feel like if you could happening? touch it?

TRY ACTIVE LOOKINGImagine you are inside the work of art. Where would you explore? Try standing like something or someone in the piece. You can also make a tiny telescope with your hand (make a circle with your thumb and fingers and look through it). This will help you find details and focus your looking. Parents: This is a great way to make looking fun. Play “I Spy.“ Choose an artwork with lots of details and describe a section to your child. Have them guess where it is. Reverse roles and enjoy!

WHEN YOU’VE TRIED IT ALL, THEN READResist the urge to start with the wall label, and trust your looking. After you’ve shared your questions and interpretations, compare your ideas to the wall label. Often, there is additional information you may not have gained just by looking - but you’ll be surprised how much you learned on your own. Parents: This is a great opportunity to impart lifelong skills, such as reading and writing. Look for new words and read together!

ROB AND NICK CARTER: TRANSFORMING The accepted amount of time that a museum visitor spends looking at an individual work of art varies depending on which study you read. But, they all agree on one thing: the length of time is less than thirty seconds. In the case of contemporary art it is often less than 15 seconds. For an artist or an art museum that can be a scary number. Viewing a piece of art has the potential to be a transformative, and in some cases, miraculous experience. But that takes time, more time than can occur in the length of a sound bite or television commercial.

In this exhibition, artists Rob and Nick Carter have chosen to make art that compels longer looking. This is the next step in the artistic careers of a couple preoccupied with chance meetings of light and color. Rob is a photographer and Nick is a painter by training. Together they have collaborated on many projects where the two mediums meet. They were ready to take their work another step forward when they had the opportunity to collaborate with MPC.

MPC is a creative studio that makes digital imagery for a variety of media. Examples include Godzilla, the Harry Potter Franchise and Coca-Cola. The Carters provided a new kind of challenge: create imagery that would be seen over the course of hours rather than seconds. Together, MPC and the Carters borrowed paintings from the Golden Age of Dutch Art (17th century) and brought it to life. Instead of a static vase of flowers sitting in a niche, we see the blooms sway in the breeze or a lazy butterfly alight on a bud. The paintings reveal their vitality.

The bronze sculptures, Tulip and Sunflowers, present another type of viewing. Both works were copied from two-dimensional paintings by Judith Leyster and Vincent Van Gogh respectively. First, the paintings were rendered in three dimensions, accounting for every brushstroke and imagining how each fully realized piece would look like. Then, a three dimensional printer made a resin model which was used to create the cast of the final bronze sculpture. This was a laborious process that challenged both their creative and technical abilities.

Rob & Nick Carter. Transforming Vanitas (after Ambrosius Bosschaert the Younger), 2012-13. 3 hour looped film, computer, frame.

So, if you normally quickly wander through an exhibition, noting the works as you pass through the galleries, perhaps you will be persuaded to linger. You might be rewarded with the small spectacles contained within each frame. Maybe, new worlds will open in every painting you see.

Husband and wife, Rob and Nick Carter have been collaborating for over fifteen years. Based in London, they have exhibited within the U.S. and internationally. Their work is in collections of the Frans Hals Museum, The Netherlands, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and the Royal Bank of Scotland.

MOCA would like to thank the Carters and the Fine Art Society of London for their help realizing this exhibition.

MICHELLE ERICKSON: CONVERSATIONS IN CLAY Internationally acclaimed and Virginia-based ceramic artist, Michelle Erickson creates thought-provoking sculptural works that tell stories of life in the 21st century. Ceramics and pottery have a cultural legacy in issues such as war, slavery, power, and class. Societal ills such as these have not faded and, in fact, are particularly relevant today. Erickson explores a variety of social, political and environmental themes in this exhibition. Her powerful commentary might not be apparent at first glance. These sculptures invite longer looking and encourage dialogue.

Over 25 years of research into lost ceramic arts from the 17th and 18th centuries define and inform her narrative sculptural works. Erickson’s dedication to deeply understand the history of ceramics fuels her creative process. She considers ceramics technical innovations, everyday uses, and public perceptions. From English slipware techniques, to Bonnin & Morris pickle stands and Moravian figural bottles, her investigations inspire sculptures that merge past and present. The results are both conceptually and technically insightful in unexpected ways. Erickson’s research of historical ceramics has led to the discovery of their methods of production. This significantly adds to the scholarship of these artifacts, their makers, and the time in which they were created.

In 2012 Michelle Erickson was invited to be an Artist-in-Residence at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London. The V&A collection represents over 5,000 years of ceramic history providing ample resources and inspiration for Erickson to discover. Several works, including three videos in this exhibition were made during her residency. Additional inspirations in Erickson’s work are diverse and wide-ranging, including paintings by British artist William Hogarth (1697-1764), Nike sneakers

from the 2012 Olympic Games, life-castings of fossils, shells and specimens, and political cartoons.

Erickson’s artworks have won critical acclaim internationally and have been featured in many national and international publications. Collected in major museums both in the U.S. and abroad, including the Chipstone Foundation, WI, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, Museum of Art & Design, NY, Seattle Art Museum, WA and the Carnegie Museum of Art, PA. Erickson has regularly lectured and demonstrated at historical sites, museums, and to scholarly groups for more than twenty years. She has consulted on and designed ceramics for several major motion pictures such as The Patriot, The Time Machine, The New World and the recent HBO series John Adams. In 2007 she was asked to design and create the official gift for Queen Elizabeth II during her visit to Virginia.

MOCA would like to thank the artist and Sonny and Gloria Kamm and Lois Wagner for their help

in realizing this exhibition.

L to R: Michelle Erickson. Taste in High Life, 2004, Glazed porcelain. Collection of Sonny & Gloria Kamm. Photograph by Gavin Ashworth, NY. Michelle Erickson. Fly Knit Dragon Ewer. 2014. Hand built sprig molded porcelain and black earthenware. Courtesy of the artist. Photograph by Robert Hunter.

ERIC STANDLEY: IN DEPTHLooking at one of artist Eric Standley’s paper sculptures can feel like a magical experience. The layers within each piece are intricate, detailed and seems to border on the infinite. They have a familiarity that stems from their relationship to art made throughout history like the patterns of Gothic rose windows and Islamic architecture. Yet, they are unique. To make this type of art requires extreme patience, an ability to visualize spatial relationships in three dimensions and a passion bordering on the obsessive.

The journey for Standley began while he was working on another project involving a laser cutter and cereal boxes. He noticed how interesting the finished cut pieces looked when stacked. This led to further laser experiments and evolved to the type of work in this exhibition. The process to create one is intense. In the first step, Standley creates a vector drawing containing each layer of

paper in the sculpture. He has to consider what the entire finished work will look like. Any decision that he makes about a specific layer can affect the outcome of the entire work. Each sculpture can have anywhere from fifty to over two hundred layers. He constantly experiments to push beyond what he has already accomplished, by adding layers, and working with different shapes and sizes. After the drawings are complete, Standley laser cuts, cleans the edges and stacks each layer of paper for completion.

The title for many of the works begin with the words Either/Or. This is in reference to an essay written by early 19th century philosopher, Søren Kierkegaard, considered the father of Existentialism. In his essay, Either/Or he discusses two different approaches to life and living. One approach espouses avoiding tedium and engaging pursuits that are novel to the mind and senses. The other advocates an ethical and satisfying life of duty and service. There is no right decision to choose how to live, but any individual choice radically changes the outcome. The nomenclature following each title is a simple system that Standley uses to keep track of his work.

Eric Standley. Either/Or Tetragon 7.2.3, 2015. Laser cut paper, watercolor. Courtesy of the Marta Hewett Gallery.

Eric Standley. Either/Or Circle 4.20.1, 2014. Laser cut paper. Courtesy of the Marta Hewett Gallery.

Whether it’s a circle, tetragon, or arch, the shape of each piece has a divided symmetry. Within that symmetry there are more divisions and intricacies. The slightest change in a given detail will create an entirely new work. The possibilities are endless. With the creation of each piece takes the artists one step closer to the infinite.

Eric Standley is an Associate Professor of Studio Art for the School of Visual Arts at Virginia Tech. He received his B.F.A. from the Massachusetts College of Art and his M.F.A. from Savannah College of Art and Design. He has exhibited in museums and galleries across the U.S., winning national and international awards.

MOCA would like to thank the artist, the Marta Hewett Gallery and Victori + Mo Contemporary for their help in realizing this exhibition.

butler gallery ARTlabExplore the new exhibitions hands-on in ARTlab! The Butler Gallery (ARTlab) is a space for all ages to discover current exhibiting artists and their processes through interactive activities, fun facts, art-making stations and reading materials provided by the Virginia Beach Public Library. Learn about Michelle Erickson’s ceramic process by examining the molds and tools used to create her delicate works of art. Touch examples of ceramic ware in the different stages of the firing process. See what inspires her and create your own inspiration board. Play a game of art telephone inspired by the work of artistic duo Rob and Nick Carter by using images to pass along information to other visitors. Think like artist Eric Standley and explore mathematics and patterns as you create a collaborative work of art on our tessellation puzzle wall.

community gallery OPEN (C)ALL Artists Rob and Nick Carter, Michelle Erickson, and Eric Standley all reference previous historical work in their own art practices. They do not directly replicate a chosen work of art. But, each artist demonstrates a relationship to the art of the past, whether in form, structure, design or meaning. Each subverts tradition in favor of a contemporary viewpoint.

For this open call exhibition, Hampton Roads artists created their own artwork influenced by history. Artists submitted original two-dimensional artworks showing how the history of art influenced them. The result is an astonishing variety of works by artists of all ages that explores the visual culture of our world.

MOCA would like to thank all the artists who submitted work for this exhibition.

price auditorium NATIONAL GALLERYFilm-maker Frederick Wiseman takes audiences behind the scenes of one of the great museums of the world, the National Gallery in London, UK. This film explores the personality of a museum inhabited by over 2,400 masterpieces. The collection includes work from the Middle Ages to then 19th century. National Gallery is the portrait of a place. It shows how this museum works and relates with the world, its staff and public, and its paintings. Film loops daily during exhibition hours. Free with museum admission. 180 minutes.

Courtesy of Frederick Wiseman and Zipporah Films.

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The Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art is funded in part by the citizens of Virginia Beach through a grant from the City of Virginia Beach Arts & Humanities Commission, and by the Virginia Commission for the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, Business Consortium for Arts Support and Hampton Roads Community Foundation.

THESE E XHIBIT IONS ARE SUPPORTED IN PART BY