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Launch of CoLAB Projects: part collaboration, part laboratory
CoLAB Projects begins transitioning into the former BECA gallery space located at 527 St. Joseph Street across from the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans, serving curators and private, institutional and corporate collectors.
NEW ORLEANS, LA, July 06, 2009 /Louisiana PR News/ -- CoLAB Projects (www.colabprojects.com) is a natural outgrowth from the international group exhibition program featuring emerging artists + designers that directors Melissa Roberts and Kurt Schlough began in January 2008 under the name BECA gallery. That group exhibition program is now pursuing an expansion under The BECA Foundation and you are encouraged to visit The BECA Foundation website at www.thebecafoundation.org for further information. Beginning on July 4th, BECA gallery will be run exclusively online at www.becagallery.com where new works of art and design created by some of the most talented and innovative emerging artists and designers from around the world are introduced weekly. All profits generated from www.becagallery.com are donated to The BECA Foundation to assist in the growth of the exhibition program and the development of the BECA Artspace for emerging artists and designers.
Beginning July 6, 2009, CoLAB Projects will begin transitioning into the former BECA gallery space located at 527 St. Joseph Street across from the Contemporary Arts Center in the heart of the New Orleans Warehouse Arts District, serving curators and private, institutional and corporate collectors. The growing CoLAB artist roster includes a very diverse group of artists with each artist holding the common thread of producing strong, engaging, innovative and challenging works. Roberts and Schlough are deeply passionate about the work that these artists are creating and look forward to sharing that passion with art enthusiasts, curators and collectors from around the world.
CoLAB Projects has launched with the representation of artists Jessica Goldfinch, S.J. Hart and Ann Schwab.
Jessica Goldfinch
"In my art, I examine two conflicting worldviews: the individual after death versus the fear that there is nothing more than this physical life. I explore ideas of mortality through both scientific and spiritual images. My work is meant to evoke an underlying uneasy feeling, the same kind of feeling that results from the inconsistency in our cultural concepts concerning mortality. Contrary messages of traditional aesthetic beauty juxtaposed with images of illness, isolation, and death compound this tension. This contradiction parallels the paradox of mortality: in order to have life, you must have death.
Many sub-themes are layered through my work, intended to add depth and interest. Themes of individuality, procreation, bodily metaphors, and medical and forensic imagery all are components. I purposely infuse depictions of the deformed with traditional images of the divine to deify and dignify the deformed while humanizing the deity.
My work also addresses Judeo-Christian beliefs about death, which include conflicting thoughts about dying being both a good thing (going to heaven) and a bad thing (becoming nothing.) Although my work speaks of mortality, it is meant to be a reminder of the preciousness of life." - Jessica Goldfinch
Growing up in an urban commune in 1970s New Orleans, Jessica Goldfinch was exposed to unconventional worldviews from a very early age. From her elementary school years at the countercultural Free School through her graduate studies at the University of New Orleans, Jessica focused on studying world ideologies and creatively incorporating them into her art. Jessica's artistic curiosity has led her to travel to places as diverse as Nicaragua, Indonesia, and central India, and she has frequently incorporated both iconographic elements and an Asian sense of balance in her work.
Raised as a Secular Humanist but schooled in many other religions from her upbringing, academic studies, and travels, she is fascinated with blind faith as well as religious artwork from an outsider's perspective. Religious views of mortality infuse her work, and are often framed in scientific depictions of issues of life and death.
Jessica Goldfinch received her MFA in Sculpture, BA in Fine Arts and BA in Sociology from The University of New Orleans. Since 2000, her artwork has been exhibited in over 40 different museums, universities, art centers and galleries in New Orleans, throughout the gulf coast of the United States, Washington, DC, New York and Europe.
S. J. Hart
Of her most recent series, 'Songbirds', S.J. Hart states, "Somehow out of their own space and time, the Songbirds are here. Part animal and part child, they live in a weird zone between imagination and reality, portraiture and decoration, grief and joy."
S.J. Hart received her MFA in Book Arts/Printmaking from The University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA and her BFA in Printmaking from The Hartford Art School, West Hartford, CT. Her work combines traditional elements of etching, drawing, and figurative painting with a taste for the gothic, abstract and decorative. Recent series explore the psychological space of figure and portrait paintings, Victorian post-mortem photography, and the odd realms in which zoological illustrations turn into images of childhood. Since 2000, S.J. Hart's work has been exhibited in universities, art centers and galleries throughout Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, New Orleans, Portland, OR, Eugene, OR, Portland, ME and New York.
Ann Schwab
"The substance of my photographic work is revealed through fragments of narratives- frozen moments or segments of scenarios - allowing only glimpses rather than providing full disclosures. It depicts different stages in the process of coping with physical and emotional trauma, the physical wounds often acting as metaphors for emotional ones. Depiction of uncomfortable, disquieting acts, evidence of the sources of strength within and the healing process provides trauma and healing as the point and counter point in the stages of suffering. While I provide a sufficient amount of visual evidence to allow the viewer to grasp the overall concept and mood of the piece, the works are deliberately non-specific. In avoiding the personal and specific, the work prompts the viewer to make their own individual connections.
My fragmented narratives are often disclosed through fragmented body parts. Cropping the body aids in eliminating the singular, unique identity that is apparent when a person is displayed in his or her entirety. It reduces the body to fundamental physical components, creating a common denominator which universalizes the subject and widens the discourse beyond the piece to include the viewer as a subject. Cropping purposefully withholds information from the viewer, reinforcing a sensibility of privacy, even secrecy and suppression. And cropping fetishizes the body, therefore turning it into an instrument of power.
Plants or natural forms figure prominently in my work. The human healing process is metaphorically paralleled and facilitated by nature. The aesthetics/beauty of nature allow for a rejuvenation of the spirit, and function as a wellspring of strength. Also, the self-healing capabilities of plants is contrasted with the human process of healing. I am fascinated with a plant's ability to regenerate. I draw parallels between our human methods of overcoming trauma- both emotional and physical- and the growth processes of the natural world. Not only is a plant able to overcome wounds, such as broken stems, but these wounds are the sites of its new growth. The pruning of a plant, literally the severing of its limbs, is beneficial to its development.
Formally, I enjoy creating relationships between different images. Through the use of multiples and serials of prints, I am able to reveal narratives and to draw correlations between seemingly incongruous images. By utilizing digital technology, I am able to manipulate images and create my own reality. And, by juxtaposing photographs with other materials, I can develop a more interactive piece of work with which the viewer can have a dialogue. This use of digital media and alternative formats allows me a simultaneous freedom and accuracy which traditional photography alone does not provide. It allows me to correlate my idea with my piece more exactly to most effectively convey my message." - Ann Schwab
Ann Schwab works in photography, mixed media and installation and received her B.F.A. from the Maryland Institute College of Art and an M.F.A. from Tulane University.
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About the Directors:
Melissa Roberts and Kurt Schlough have partnered their diverse backgrounds as artists, collectors, designers and gallerists to create a collection of unique gallery services benefiting curators and private, institutional and corporate collectors alike. With an academic background in fine arts and interior architecture, Kurt Schlough has been a nationally exhibiting sculptor and painter for 14 years while simultaneously serving as the Vice President of Design and lead project manager at an award-winning New Orleans architectural firm. Melissa Roberts is both an artist and activist with an academic background in fine arts, biology and communications who creates work in a variety of mediums including sculpture, installation, textiles, and digital art. She also has a professional design background in graphic arts and textile design and has exhibited her works both nationally and internationally. In addition, she has over 15 years of experience in management and project administration. Together they work with each of their clients to add enrichment and value to both existing and new, developing collections. Both Schlough and Roberts have curated numerous gallery group and solo exhibitions and provide ongoing art consultation services specializing in emerging contemporary art and design.
CoLAB Projects
http://www.colabprojects.com
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Press Release Contact Information:
Melissa Roberts
CoLAB Projects
Art Gallery
527 St. Joseph Street
New Orleans, LA
USA 70130
Voice: 5045660000
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