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June 12 - July 11

Artist Talk: Thursday, June 24th from 7:30-9:00 p.m. 

Closing Brunch: Sunday, July 11, 1-4pm

Open Ground presents a five-person exhibition of artists who provide or create supplementary information for preexisting truths.  Through methods of displacement, observation, and comparison each artist creates work about recognizable images or subjects and draws the viewer into alternative, unexpected, or false versions of what is real.

In addition, these five artists have developed a working relationship through a common interest in how urban development affects our relationship with nature and each other.  The work examines varying viewpoints of this common theme and explores different stages of construction, deterioration, and regrowth based on the ironic, but inevitable, full circle: man-made structures take over the natural world, eventually fall apart or decompose, and return to or are taken over by nature.  The work stems from what is real or truthful based on observations and explores alternate fates, insightful comparisons, false outcomes, or ridiculous solutions. 

About the Artists: 

BethanyHarris

Living things grow in time and space and re-occur in random or controlled patterns. In the constant changing world, Bethany Harris is trying to preserve her memory of life. She concentrates on details that usually go unnoticed. Life comes and goes so quickly that it is difficult to give your attention to what’s important. Harris pulls from the natural world in her surroundings to preserve a single moment before or after changes are inflicted.  

MariaHarrison

In her series of photographs, Maria Harrison examines the ruins of a pair of decommissioned aircraft, located near the abandoned Pearls Airport on the island of Grenada.  Left to rust, these vehicles are useful only to the vines that now cover them, an implication that nature has better solutions for mankind’s by-products.  The photographs, however, reveal something more – human need to preserve history.  Though the planes seem forgotten, they are allowed to remain as reminders of a period in time that shaped the future of life in Grenada.

BrandonNeubauer

Brandon Neubauer’s work consists of a series of images drawn from his fantasized memories.  Using collaged-photographs, he creates hybrid-landscapes that often explore the relationship between urban and natural space, highlighting a dysfunction we have all learned to accept as normal.  These images come from his personal experience but are rooted in collective experience and the human condition.

AaronStorck

Aaron Storck’s work is a study of landscape in light of humankind’s coexistence with nature.  He examines our use of natural resources, our killing of one another, and is interested in ambiguity in general.  He uses his work to suggest that humanity in its essence and with no disconnection from nature, is as beautiful, uncertain and absurd as the universe itself.

BrynnaTucker

In her series of site-specific works, Brynna Tucker explores the cracks and crevices that have developed through both renovation and deterioration of the gallery and other spaces.   Her use of materials usually used in cosmetics or personal hygiene are intended as a comment about people’s absurd tendency to fix the surface of an issue, rather than core of the problem.  She uses unlikely materials to create illogical repairs and the work, in fact, enhances or accentuates the flaws rather than fixing them.

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