June 3 - July 8, 2023
From Ivester Contemporary:
“Ivester Contemporary is excited to present The crab, the shell, her father, the host, and his claw, an immersive installation by Austin based artists Gabrielle Constantine and Emily Lee.
Gabrielle Constantine and Emily Lee are multimedia artists who have worked collaboratively to create The crab, the shell, her father, the host, and his claw. Over the course of conceptualizing and fabricating this food-based project, both artists discovered that their aesthetic intuitions were informed by their respective experiences as children in the restaurant industry. Selectively recreating the sensory memories of the restaurant’s dining room has allowed the artists to reflect upon the ways in which the material dynamics of these spaces dictate socioeconomic realities. With working-class parents’ routinely performing for upper-class patrons, this project collapses the restaurant and the gallery as places sustained by both manual and psychological labor.
Gabrielle Constantine (1994) was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she received her double BFA in Sculpture and Fibers and Material studies at the Tyler School of Art (2017). She’s currently living and working in Austin, TX pursuing an MFA at The University of Texas of Austin. Having grown up in an Armenian community, Constantine draws from displaced communities reestablishing culture in America. The influence of growing up and working in the restaurant industry has always been a big part of how she navigates through the world and especially an art practice. In her youth, Constantine had every intention to attend culinary school but ended up pursuing an art degree instead. In 2017 she co-founded a series called Supper Club in collaboration with Reading Terminal Market. A collection of alternative art shows that showcased narratives of vendors in the market, such as butcher shops, spice stores, and fruit stands. Supper Club was her introduction to collaboration, along with layering food and art practices. Through time she’s consistently worked this way in conjunction with her studio practice. Since coming to Austin she has hosted local gallerists, writers, and artists to share dinner with grad students through prompt-based meals and continues to innovate ways of gathering community through art and food.
Emily Lee (1996) is a Chinese-American artist, writer, and organizer from the Texas Gulf Coast. Lee received a BFA in Studio Art, a BA with special honors in Art History, and a certificate in Museum Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. Lee has shown their work in Texas and New York, and their writing has been published by French & Michigan and Southwest Contemporary. In 2021, they founded All the Sudden, a neighborhood project space dedicated to fostering context-specific exhibits and economic self-sufficiency for artists of all disciplines, which earned a Critic’s Pick Award in the Austin Chronicle. They are the recipient of the Roy Crane Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts Grant, The Rhodes Endowed Presidential Scholarship in Art, and Future Front TX’s Microgrant.”
Reception: June 24, 2023 | 7–9 pm
916 Springdale Rd Bldg 2, Suite 107 Austin, TX 78702
Austin, 78702 Texas
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