Untitled [ArtSpace]:: Current Exhibits

Three artists explore the limits of their materials in Romantic Materialism, opening at Untitled [ArtSpace] on July 11. Signe Stuart, Brandon Reese, and Jesse Small each work with unique artistic materials, ranging from tyvek, a high-density polyethylene fiber, to steel and ceramics. Romantic Materialism will have an opening reception on July 11 from 5 pm to 8 pm and will show through August 30.

Signe Stuart’s work emphasizes structure and sequence as they relate to nature and she creates her pieces using man-made materials. Her installation at Untitled [ArtSpace] is titled “In Silence” and will involve a collaged tyvek installation in the gallery. “In Silence” will be an experiment with materials and light. Stuart describes the installation as “a metaphor for life’s journeys and relationships and for nature’s patterns of inner structures and systems.” The installation will form a passage in the gallery created by the fragile connections of thousands of small pieces of tyvek.

“My work is romantic because of my belief that nature is powerful, poetic, and mysterious, and because of my belief that art can make connections for viewers that help them transcend and transform their ways of seeing and thinking,” Stuart said. “My work is concept and material based because, as an artist, I need to choose those materials which best help me express my thoughts. Over time, I have discovered there is much to learn from materials themselves.”

Stuart is based in Santa Fe and received her BA from the University of Connecticut in Storrs and her MA from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. Her work is included in public and corporate collections and she has had solo and group exhibitions across the country, including at the South Dakota Art Museum, the Joslyn Art Museum, the New Mexico Museum of Art, and the William Siegal Gallery in Santa Fe.

Jesse Small’s work at Untitled [ArtSpace] ranges from the small, embellished sculptures in his “Talk Bubbles and Ghosts” series to his monumental steel chandeliers and screens in “Super-position.” The “Talk Bubbles and Ghosts” turn generic icons into whimsical sculptural forms covered in colorful dots, some with Chinese characters made from the fake Chinese money that is burned at funerals and festivals. His “Super-position” pieces use modern materials to mimic antique styles.

“My primary concern is the death of thought in a culture where we constantly recycle the same decorative ideas, never injecting new, personalized approaches to the notion of beauty,” Small said. “As such, I am stealing the formats of Victorian era high-society fixtures and injecting them with my own theory of ornament.”

Jesse Small is based in Kansas City and received his BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and his MFA from Alfred University. He has had solo and group shows in the US and in China, including at the Nancy Hoffman Gallery in New York, BOCA Powell Architects in Kansas City, I Art Bank in Shenzhen, China, and the PWS Gallery in Jingdezhen, China.
Brandon Reese creates ceramics inspired by architecture and patterns in nature. He works with simple, familiar forms and with a variety of methods that push the boundaries of traditional ceramic art. His art is both playful and beautiful and is built around the idea of relationships.

“Life motivates my work,” Reese said in his artist statement. “An amalgamation of memories, images, and relationships inspire all that I do.”

Brandon Reese works out of Stillwater and received his BFA in Sculpture at the Kansas City Art Institute and his MFA in Ceramics at Bowling Green State University. He is currently an associate professor in the ceramics department at Oklahoma State University. He has exhibited his ceramics extensively, including at Chicago Contemporary and Classic, The First Taiwan Ceramics Biennale 2004, the Ceramics Sculptural Invitational, and in galleries across Oklahoma and the Southwest.