September 12 - October 17, 2020
A solo exhibition featuring work by Sarah Elise Hall.
From the gallery:
“The exhibition Re-Surface focuses on my interest in the ubiquitous nature of non- biodegradable plastics such as containers, bins, disposable packaging etc and how these anthropogenic materials are embedding themselves into our planet’s geologic record as a layer of plastic sediment and hybrid plastiglomerate rock. This exhibition was envisioned as a processed-based work which further imagines a future geologic narrative that includes fossilized plastic waste.
I have explored this idea using my studio as a micro-environment, drawing parallels between the environment of my studio and the activities within, to our larger environment. The studio floor, which is transplanted into the exhibition space, is intended to stand in for our larger environment.
Three interconnected elements comprise the exhibition:
1) A series of wall-mounted relief sculptures that I think of as fossils. They are cast from discarded/recycled plastic containers and reveal in this phase of existence a process of erosion;
2) An installation of part of my studio floor that the relief sculptures were fabricated on;
3) A series of unique collograph prints pulled from sections of the Studio Floor and work surfaces. (A collograph print is made from a print plate with different textures, and the textures in this case are created from spills and scrapes that occur during studio work. The printing process is a combination of intaglio and relief.)
The relief sculptures, the installed studio floor and the collograph prints refer to each other and to the studio’s history. This self-referential loop is also meant to connect Re-Surface to larger themes about our despoilation by industrial refuse of our environment, and the nature of the trace-evidence, – what we leave behind.
Artist
Born in Toronto, Canada, Sarah Elise Hall is a Toronto and Brooklyn- based artist. Hall received a BFA in painting from OCAD University in Toronto (2002) and an MFA in sculpture from the New York Academy of Art in NYC (2009). Her work has been included in numerous national and international exhibitions as well as corporate and private collections. Selected solo and group exhibitions include shows with Christie Contemporary (Toronto), ChaShaMa (NYC), Arishon + Murphy (NYC), Gray Contemporary (Houston), Los Ojos Gallery (Brooklyn), UNTITLED, Art Miami (Los Ojos), Janinebean Gallery (Berlin), Drabinsky Gallery (Toronto), Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center (New York), Islip Art Museum, (Long Island, NY) and Galerija Zvono (Belgrade). She was awarded the Carriage House Residency at the Islip Art Museum in 2012 and is a recipient of an Ontario Arts Council Mid-Career Grant (2020) and a Canada Council for the Arts Travel Grant (2017). Her work has been reviewed in
Hyperallergic, the Toronto Star, The National Post (Toronto), the Huffington Post, and included Michael Petry’s book Nature Morte; Contemporary Artists Reinvigorate the Still Life Tradition published by Thames & Hudson Press (pg 238).”
On View: September 12, 2020 | 12–5 pm
3508 Lake Street
Houston, 77098 TX
713-862-4425
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