Spaces Places Things: Sam Blanchard, m Burgess, Dan Carlson, Plakookee
February 27 – March 31, 2018

Artist Lecture / Dan Carlson: February 26, 2018, Duke Hall Room 2036, 2-3p
Panel Discussion / Sam Blanchard, m Burgess & Plakookee: March 12, 2018, Duke Hall Room 2036, 4-5p
Reception: March 12, 2018, 5-7p

PRESS RELEASE & EXHIBITION CHECKLIST

This exhibition takes a look at sculpture in a more spatial and active way.  The viewer becomes more active participant – even if predominately as voyeur.  The four artists/artist teams ask the viewer to contemplate multi-layered aspects of the space they occupy and the objects that share that space.  Together, the gallery space hums, flickers and plots with activity, all prompting each visitor to acknowledge their space and navigate beyond the ordinary.

Sam Blanchard is the Assistant Professor of Studio Art in the School of Visual Arts at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA. He utilizes digital based fabrication methods to interweave materials with technology platforms to become extended metaphors of human experience in the age of ubiquitous computer interaction.

m Burgess is a New York-based artist, Guggenheim Fellow, and Part-time Associate Professor at Parsons School of Art, Media and Technology. They create sculptures, installations, videos and performances by observing, deciphering and subverting representations and meanings in a shifting, fluid culture. Burgess often restages experiences while blending the collective and the personal, the complex and the minimal. 

Dan Carlson makes art in an effort to capture the tension between conceptual ideals and existing realities. He does this by creating artistic responses to sites and theories with dense cultural and political histories. These investigations of past and current paradigm shifts soften the boundaries of truth and myth, the luminary and the unreliable narrator.

Plakookee is a creative collaboration between Justin Plakas and Rachel Debuque, who have collaborated since 2013. Debuque is an Assistant Professor and Director of Studio Foundations at George Mason University’s School of Art and Design. Plakas is a Visiting Assistant Professor at George Washington University of Sculpture, New Media, and Video. They are artists and designers who combine a mix of sculpture, installation, time-based and photographic imagery.

Special thanks to Kristopher Kubow and the Department of Biology's Light Microscopy and Imaging Facility at James Madison University.

Thanks to SADAH faculty Stephanie Williams and Greg Stewart for bringing these amazing artists to JMU and their help hosting and assisting with installation.

February 26, 2018: Artist Lecture with Dan Carlson
Duke Hall Room 2036, 2-3p

March 02, 2018: First Fridays Downtown
Duke Hall Gallery of Fine Art, 5-8p

March 12, 2018: Panel Discussion with Sam Blanchard, m Burgess, Plakookee & Greg Stewart
Duke Hall Room 2036, 4-5p

March 12, 2018: Artist Reception
Duke Hall Gallery of Fine Art, 5-7p

The Space Around You, by Justin McIlwee / DN-R, February 26, 2018  |  .pdf

Behind the scenes of setting up a gallery in Duke Hall, by Jazmine Otey / The Breeze, March 01, 2018  |  .pdf