Since 2010 I have been curating and working with so many great artists and venues. This has led me to so many opportunities over the years and can’t thank everyone enough for the support. This is a simple statement of my gratitude. Thank you all and looking forward to the next exhibit.
P.S. It has been a minute since the last post but happy to have the exhibit page caught up.
Please make your way down to Fancy and Staple and check out this solo show before it is too late.
In his new body of work Brett Amory illustrates his ideas and musings about Fort Wayne. Indiana has been dubbed “the crossroads of America,” and Fort Wayne is one of the main reasons for this namesake.
The city was founded for its close proximity to three major rivers: the Saint Joseph, the Saint Mary’s, and the Maumee. These rivers served as the catalyst for trade, and Fort Wayne became known as a major city. Further development resulted from the Erie Canal, train infrastructure, and the Lincoln highway. This traffic through Fort Wayne brought commerce and culture, helping it develop into the modern city it is today.
Amory’s new work is based on the people and places of Fort Wayne, and is accompanied by a large installation that challenges what it means to be an
“All-American City” and the concept of the American Dream. The installation will be constructed here during the month of November, allowing the public to watch Amory work.
Additionally, Amory will be placing pieces of work throughout the city, expanding his interaction with the Fort Wayne public.
Amory challenges the notion of the American Dream, the idea of resiliency, and the concepts of civic failure and success. A train station serves as a reminder of the robust Industrial Revolution, but the fact that it is abandoned reminds us of the de-industrialization of the 1980s. Abandoned buildings and foreclosures illustrate the housing bubble of the mid- to late 2000s that forced people to let go of their homes. However, the number of churches in Fort Wayne shows a town steeped in faith. Through all of the booms and busts, Fort Wayne serves as an illustration of a city, like many in the United States, determined to overcome and thrive.
Amory also continues to explore his ideas of past, present, and future, and how we relate to our surroundings; our internal dialogue and how it is presented to the world – a monologue. How is a monologue interpreted by those around us, in our house, library, theater, museum, or church? How do we relate to our own community, and how do others relate to us? Amory’s frequent use of flattened perspective serve in part to raise questions about societal perspective and perception. He challenges audiences to reevaluate change, redemption, opportunities, growth, the representation of people and places, the “good” and the “bad,” from churches to outlaws.
Further, Amory’s monologue about Fort Wayne serves as a contemplation about ‘All-American’ cities that have undergone similar struggles and victories. His sculptural use of colorful flowers growing beside a “For Sale By Owner” sign shines light on the determination to rise above negative circumstances and surmount improbable circumstances (be they natural disasters or man-made catastrophes).
Amory’s illustration American Dream, his largest to date, utilizes black, white, and gray to cast a shadow on the very notion of the American Dream. Many of us will remember how the American Dream and 1950s post-war optimism were characterized by television shows such as as Father Knows Best and Leave it to Beaver, both epitomizing the superficial nature of what we tell ourselves embodies the American Dream. The juxtaposition of Amory’s installation and paintings, combined with his use of symbolism, serves to ignite conversation about memories, community, and separation. Amory’s monologue exposes how past cultural decisions have shaped the present, and how present decisions will influence the future of our communities.
Justin Lim’s exhibition of recent works at the Fancy & Staple gallery is a testament to the steady hand and exacting eye of its creator. The line work is executed without the benefit of rulers, vinyl or tape, just Justin and the glass or the wood or the taxidermy fish. The lines are bold and sometimes retina searing. The subject matter references West Coast car culture and flash art found in mid-20th Century tattoo parlors. Yet, something is amiss. That snarling tiger chest-piece is a deformed, three-eyed monster. That panther rampant reveals a drooling Rat Fink head.
It is this dissonance that makes the work about more than just the process. There is a knowing subtext that is both surreal (in the “Looney Tunes” school of twisted reality), and commonplace (in the “This is the tattoo your seafaring grandpa had on his arm.” school of the everyday.)
The trio of taxidermy fish is the most subtle reminder of death, the absurdity of life and redneck cultural appropriation. The fish are the product of the bygone ritual of enshrining the vacation’s best catch for all to see. They are proxies for prowess, but these trophies have fallen out of fashion and now must endure the humiliation of being marked with fleeting, often snide, Internet slang. “IDGAF” brands a salmon that’s seen better days. The letters “HOLA”, rendered in letters so perfect they seem like computer-aided hallucinations, levitate off the side of a largemouth bass. The preserved and mounted fish represent the wish of the fisherman to forever display dominion, hearkening back to the cult of the gentleman sportsman of Victorian England/Theodore Roosevelt era. By branding these symbols of trashed antiquity with transient, digital-age slang, Lim thumbs his nose at the self-aggrandizing tropes of each age.
“Why the Hell not?” Tanner Wilson ponders the eternal question in his latest body of work on display at the boutique gallery, Fancy and Staple. Why indeed? Cartoon icons float on cotton candy colored backgrounds, utterly devoid of rendering or, if you believe Tanner’s own words, meaning. Inspired by random words, sentences and images, it is apparent that Mr. Wilson is not just in the midst of a post-graduate rejection of ART-SCHOOL gestalt, but rather, is actively tapping into a deep wellspring of pre-loaded, potent images.
This is Tanner’s Fort Wayne solo debut. He grew up in the Fort Wayne Area and attended St. Francis but has since relocated to Atlanta, Georgia. This show is a homecoming of sorts. Friends, family and even strangers filled the small reception. Many laid their money down to own a piece of /by Tanner Wilson. The night was a success.
A painting called “Younger Days” shows a disembodied tiger’s head floating suspended in perfect azure. Tiny bubbles escape to the surface while a straight razor drifts down in tandem. The eyes are open and staring, uncomprehending as the blood flows in the red ribbons of a sunburst, wreathing the face. The tiger would like to look away, but there is nothing left to do but watch as the last bits of consciousness recede. He is carried inexorably to the bottom. Happy Mother’s Day.
This show runs April 25th to July 2nd, 2016. For more information about sales of Tanner’s work, please contact the Fancy and Staple Gallery at (260) 422-2710.
Opening Event: March 12th 5-7
‘Unmanned Missions’–New work by St. Monci Fancy and Staple Gallery March 1st-April 24th Curated by Josef Zimmerman
The Fancy and Staple Gallery (1111 Broadway, Fort Wayne, IN) is set to open an exhibition of paintings from New York based artist, St. Monci.
Working from his studio in Rochester, he has carefully crafted a cohesive, abstract body of work that is based on pure geometrical elements in relationships that suggest floating mono- liths in space.
The order and precision of line references the craftsmanship of a blueprint and the choice of color reveals a refined and subtle command of the color wheel. Each work is displayed in a bespoke frame whose rounded corners contribute to the overall impression of old world atten- tion to detail. Monci’s use of non-representational imagery and geometrical forms in pictorial space create a Zen-like atmosphere that invites quiet contemplation.
It’s what the Russian Constructivists would have made had they been able to continue to create outside the sound and fury of revolution. If anything, St. Monci’s works are propaganda of another kind, promoting a life of appreciation for the chance intersections of shape and color ascending and descending in front of an infinity wall of subtle hues. The shapes are painted in the preferred medium of precision renderers everywhere, gouache.
St. Monci was raised in Puerto Rico where he lived up through his teenage years. He went on to study at SUNY Oswego where he received his BFA and MA. He has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in New York State, Oregon, New Jersey, California, Washington D.C. and Canada.
Josef Zimmerman 