June 2011 / Purge

Rebecca Chernow
Elizabeth Perkins
Jean Promin

Purge

June 01 – July 02, 2011
Reception / Thursday, June 02, 6–8pm

This exhibition highlights three artists who share a preoccupation with rooting out and giving shape and value to the unseen, the unspoken, and the unsightly. Purge is a collection of work that focuses on exposing emotional, visceral, and cognitive processes that constantly throb underneath the surfaces of the mundane.

Rebecca Chernow is originally from upstate New York and received her BFA from Alfred University in 2003. This body of work was made possible by the generous support of the Stephen Proctor Fellowship and the Australian  National University in Canberra, Australia as well as the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, WA. Rebecca currently works and resides in Seattle, WA.

I am overwhelmed by the accumulation of all that is manufactured for rapid consumption, conspicuous display, indefinite storage, intermittent use, and periodic disposal. As a maker of objects in a crowded world, I dream that every single thing that was ever made has the potential to have its own volition and experience, and that our lives could be made richer by forming reciprocal bonds with the architecture and design that we come into daily contact with.

By anthropomorphizing mass-produced commodities in a handmade medium, I am reevaluating the banal relationships between the human body and its familiar devices in an effort to grant the objects their own self-worth and cognitive responses to their ergonomic functions.

— Rebecca Chernow

Elizabeth Perkins earned her BFA degree in sculpture from the Atlanta College of Art and later went on to receive an MFA in Craft and Material Studies from Virginia Commonwealth University. She has been an artist in residence at Pilchuck Glass School, Northlands Creative Glass Centre, and the Studio at the Corning Museum of Glass. She now currently lives and works in Seattle, WA.

This series explores both departures and arrivals in reconciliation with the self. Much of the work exemplifies both loss and recuperation and uses the natural world where imagery disappears and reappears as a metaphor for human relationships as well as self reflection.  Love of self and others can from time to time make sweet and sad the same.  As we purge, the complexities of the emotional "house cleaning" we do can be a challenge.  We hold on and let go with life being ever-changing.  While some works are linear and some cyclical others reflect the idea of absence and presence simultaneously where delineations are left uncertain.  They do not recount singular instances but rather a constant reflection on experience, impressions, and memory.  They seek personal resolve and a sense of peace that has allowed me to grow and have a more present and less imagined life.

— Elizabeth Perkins

Jean Prominski was born in Washington, DC in 1981 and received a BFA in Crafts from the University of the Arts, in 2004.  She primarily works with glass, wax, resin and plaster and lives in Seattle.

My work is inspired by how the skin can act as a barrier, and how the body filters out toxins.  This represents clarity to me, whether it is depicting a glimpse of flawless purity beneath the surface, or magnifying an atmosphere of accumulation that needs to be exterminated. My aim is to create a sense of resilience through the use of textures, forms, and obsessions.

"Beauty Sleep" explores the restorative qualities of water and the curative properties of sleep.
— Jean Prominski