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Artist Statement
As cultural gestures shift with an ever-escalating pace, the ideological substance behind them becomes more fixed, flat and clichéd. This rapid shift has the potential for glitches. It is these small transitional failures of communication that occur in between styles and ideas that I find particularly interesting.
My work is generated in thematic series. My most recent exhibit, called Oh So Fail, dealt with the ways in which idealism can transition from catalyst to vehicle to hurdle. The backbone of that series consisted of portraits outlining a trajectory of Marxism as an analog for states of optimism and disillusionment. They are images of soiled martyrs: Lenin in the mausoleum, Yuri Gagarin in various states of grace, a drawing of Mikhail Gorbachev based on a Louis Vuitton advertisement (released just prior to the last election) and a group of architectural avatars of Marxist theory (ruined military and didactic spaces that I called New Academies).
The connecting tissue in the work is the slippage between promise and result, the disconnect between idealism and ideology. Having long been concerned with modes of ideological breach, I find myself shifting focus from the failure of systems to systems of failure. My work, which purposefully avoids having an optimal viewing distance, is not only aware of its own failures, it focuses on the mechanics of failure at large. It is less fascinated by traditional transgressive gestures – by externalized irony -- than by the transgression of the gesture itself. It is about, in the aggregate, the awkwardness of growing older.
Education
University of Texas, Austin, TX, MFA, Printmaking
University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, BFA, Painting
Professional
2007- Savannah College of Art and Design, Atlanta, GA, Assistant Professor
present Drawing I & II, Graduate Drawing, Applied Creative Thinking
2004- Kennesaw State University, Atlanta, GA, Assistant Professor
2007 Drawing I & II, 2-D design & Digital Imaging
2004- Atlanta College of Art, Atlanta, GA, Visiting Instructor
2006 Beginning, Intermediate & Advanced Drawing, Figure Drawing
2001- Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, Visiting Instructor
2004 All levels of Drawing, Water Based Painting, 2-D design, Portfolio & Seminars
2001 University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, Visiting Lecturer
Beginning & Intermediate Printmaking
2000 Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, MO, Visiting Lecturer
Intermediate & Advanced Printmaking, Contemporary Issues Seminar
Selected Exhibitions
2011 Urban Mythos, Westbeth Gallery, New York, NY
SasnaK (2 person), Beep Beep gallery, Atlanta. GA
ME/WE, Beep Beep gallery, Atlanta. GA
Greetings and Salutations, Beep Beep gallery, Atlanta. GA
2010 Mergers and Acquisitions Two, Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Atlanta, GA
NEXT Art Fair, Steven Zevitas Gallery, Chicago, IL
Contract Killings, Beep Beep Gallery, Atlanta, GA
Little Things Mean A Lot, Swan Coach House Gallery, Atlanta, GA
Paper Doesn't Lie, Dewberry Gallery, Atlanta, GA
On the Mark, Steven Zevitas Gallery, Boston, MA
Movers & Shakers of the Georgia Arts Scene, MoCA GA, Atlanta, GA (Co-Curator)
2009 Microwave 7, Judi Rotenburg Gallery, Boston, MA
Summer Shortcuts: a Drawing Forecast, Josee Bienvenu Gallery, NYC, NY
Gallery One Three Seven Project (Solo), Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston
Golden Blizzard: Blizzard Sleeves, Kibbee Gallery, Atlanta, GA
Oh So Fail (Solo), Beep Beep Gallery, Atlanta, GA
Wonderland, Kai Lin Gallery, Atlanta, GA
2008 West, Wester, Westest, Fecal Face Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Test Run, Kibbee gallery, Atlanta, GA
Introducing, Beep Beep Gallery, Atlanta, GA
New Faces, Beep Beep Gallery, Atlanta, GA
Evil Prints: Outlaw Printmakers ’08, The Contemporary Art Museum, St.Louis, MO
Selects, Romo Gallery, Atlanta, GA
2007 The Diane and Sandy Besser Collection, de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA
Yes I Kansas, All Rise Gallery, Chicago, IL
Velocity of Gesture, How to Build an Empire, Dalton Gallery, Atlanta, GA
The Young Movers and Shakers of the Georgia Art Scene, MOCA GA, Atlanta, GA
I’d Rather Be Drawing, Morgan gallery, Kansas City, MO
2006 A Tremble Away from a Wink (solo), Romo Gallery, Atlanta, GA
Tomorrow’s Drawing Today, Turner Carroll Gallery, Santa Fe, NM The Art Center, St. Petersburg, FL
From America, Minsk Museum of Modern Art, Minsk, Belarus (former USSR)
Bad Drawing: mistaken, misbehaving, malevolent, awful, University Galleries on Sycamore, Cincinnati, OH
Exquisite Corpse, Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Atlanta, GA
Golden Blizzard: a Retrospective (solo, Golden Blizzard Collective), Marcia Wood Gallery, Atlanta, GA
Affair at the Jupiter Hotel , Contemporary Art Fair (solo exhibition and performance representing Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Golden Blizzard Collective), Portland, OR
Blow Me a Blizzard (solo, Golden Blizzard Collective), Eyedrum Gallery, Atlanta,
2005 Creepypeaches Meets Sugarboy and Madame X, University Gallery, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KY
The Last Taboo, Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia (MOCA GA), Atlanta
Homegrown, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art Winston-Salem, NC
Kaleidoscope, Woodruff Art Center, Atlanta, GA
Food, Gas & Lodging, Georgia State University Art Gallery, Atlanta, GA
2004 Sweet Flypaper of Life/ William Cordova, Kojo Griffin, Alexander Kvares, Charles Nelson, Saltworks Gallery, Atlanta, GA
Draw, Soo Arts Center, Minneapolis, MN
Gun and Knife Show, Fahrenheit Gallery, Kansas City, MO
The Stray Show, 1418 N. Kingsbury, Chicago IL
2003 Atlanta Biennial, Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Atlanta, GA
Two For Flinching, City Gallery Chastain, Atlanta, GA
Tickled Pink, Marcia Wood Gallery, Atlanta, GA
Looks Good on Paper 2, Spruill Art Center, Atlanta, GA
Uncommon Works on Paper, Rialto Center for the Arts, Atlanta, GA
A Shot in the Dark (curator), Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Atlanta, GA
2002 Summer Invitational, Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO
Strange Comfort, Gatov Gallery, Long Beach, CA
Alexander Kvares, Recent Work (solo), UNI Gallery of Art, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA
2001 Prints by Georgia Artists, Swan Coach Gallery, Atlanta, GA
What’s So Funny About…, Tube’s Art Spot, Atlanta, GA
Fresh, Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO
2000 Kvares and Hosford, New Work, Slugfest gallery, Austin TX
Relativities (Traveling Exhibition),
Bankside Gallery, London, UK
The City Gallery, Leicester, UK
Aberyswyth Arts Center, Aberyswyth, UK
St. Barbe Museum, Lymington, UK
Oriel Myrddin, Carmarthen, UK
Gracefield Arts Center, Shetland, UK
Off-Centre gallery, Bristol, UK
Bristol City Museum, Bristol, UK
1999 Murder (Traveling Exhibition)
Brazilian Cultural Center, Asncion, Paraguay
University of Windsor Art Gallery, Windsor, Canada
ISIS Gallery, University of Notre Dame, IN
Slugfest gallery, Austin TX
White Walls Gallery, Washington, DC
1998 Dakotas International Exhibition of Works on Paper
University of South Dakota Art Gallery, Vermilion, SD
Parkside National Small Prints Exhibition
University of Wisconsin Art Gallery, Kenosha, WI
2009 New American Painting, #82, Open Studio Press, 3 images &text
2007 Katherine Fox, One Sharp Draftsman, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, December, 1 image & text
Felicia Feaster, Containment Strategy, Creative Loafing, December
Phil Oppenheim, Art Papers
Katherine Fox, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, June, 1 image & text
Felicia Feaster, The More the Merrier, Creative Loafing, June, 1 image & text
Felicia Feaster, Gallery A Go-Go, Creative Loafing, April
2006 Felicia Feaster, Queer as Folk, Creative Loafing, January, 1 image & text
Jerry Cullum, Funky Good Time, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, March 23
2005 New American Painting, #58, Open Studio Press, 3 images &text
Phil Oppenheim, Art Papers, March/April, text
Jerry Cullum, Board of Imagery, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, October 13, 1 image & text
Felicia Feaster, Creative Loafing, November, text
2003 Atlanta Journal-Constitution, January, 1 image & text
Creative Loafing, March, 1 image & text
2002 The Kansas City Star, July 19th, 1 image & text
New American Painting, #35, Open Studio Press, 3 images & text
The Review, July, 1 image & text
The Kansas City Star, June 29th, 1 image & text
2000 Austin American Statesman, April 23, 1 image & text