Cinnabar Art Gallery: Extraordinary

My pieces in this Show are:

What Do You See?

Highrise

City Anywhere

as my work hangs in the gallery

EXTRAORDINARY

Every ordinary object that we deal with on a daily basis has the potential to be extraordinary. Sometimes a simple change in perspective is all we need to find beauty in our world. One might wander through a cornfield and see nothing but the mundane repetition of cornstalks, but from an airplane, elaborate and mysterious crop circles become visible. Other times it takes an artist - someone full of creativity and whimsy - to transform tired, seemingly boring materials into something magical. That transformation from the ordinary to the extraordinary epitomizes the work of each of the four artists selected for this exhibition. Kevin Box begins each work with a single, blank sheet of paper, but after a 12-week process of casting, his finished pieces are majestic, unwavering monuments of bronze, aluminum, or stainless steel. His inspiration comes from origami, paper planes, and crumpled thoughts, to name just a few sources. Through every wrinkle in the paper, Box's overarching philosophy of chaos and consciousness unfolds. Ernesto Ibañez developed a technique that allows him to change the compounds in nails to simulate fur on his eclectic sculptures of animals. The thousands of nails are made softer to the touch and pliable, causing the fantastical beings to come alive and truly inhabit the space around them. Javier Vanegas began his "VIP" project by amassing a substantial collection of tart cards (used around to world to advertise establishments that offer sexual services) from the streets of Bogotá, Colombia. Vanegas then used software to arrange the cards into a series of mosaics that depict some of the most famous controversial paintings of art history. His work uses a common, often frowned-upon material to examine our ideas of what is or should be taboo and how those ideas have changed over time. Dörte Weber is a structural weaver who uses modern, quotidian materials combined with traditional patterns. She uses fibers from agave plants, rusty heddles, or plastic bags that once held newspapers. Her woven cityscapes with metal heddles evoke a sense of continuity between past traditions and present industrialization, between glassy faraway cities and our own homes.  Each of these artists celebrates the ordinary through their work. They don't hesitate to search for what is quietly extraordinary in their daily surroundings, and they transform those often overlooked materials into fascinating works of art. This new exhibition allows them to share their vision with us. http://www.cinnabarart.com/