Congratulations to PhD alum Michael Yonan, who, beginning this fall, will be the inaugural Alan Templeton Endowed Chair in European Art, 1600-1830 at the University of California, Davis!
As a part of his graduate curatorial internship, M.A. alumnus Alex Jones will be presenting at LACE in Spring/Summer 2021 with Kevin Bernard Moultrie Daye PARABLE 003, “an exhibition that aims to describe nothing short of an entirely new and increasingly achievable future. Inspired by themes from Octavia Butler’s iconic Parable of the Sower trilogy, their project expresses black liberation, “not as a struggle, but as a place.” And in PARABLE 003, they plan to show, in some ways quite literally, what that place looks like, and how the very act of placemaking itself can be a revolution.” You can read more about their work and the upcoming exhibition here: https://www.laweekly.com/los-angeles-contemporary-exhibitions-history-the-future-now-on-hollywood-blvd/
Join me in a journey of how I draw inspiration from research in physics, philosophy, psychology, sound, astronomy, myth, magic and poetry. I’ll talk about how art exploration through science and technology ignites transformation and imagination.
The Raleigh Arts Office will discuss the importance of cross-collaboration in public art within our community. Now more than ever, Raleigh is home to a creative community brimming in arts, culture, science, technology, and entrepreneurship – and they all connect.
We recommend using headphones to experience 3D sound recordings (binaural recordings) during the talk.
The event is in partnership with the Science Cafe series at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences. The event will stream on the museum’s YouTube channel.
Thursday, June 25
7 p.m.
Join the event on the NC Museum of Natural Sciences’ YouTube channel here:
Copyright © 2020 Alyssa Miserendino, All rights reserved.
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Alyssa Miserendino
Carrboro, NC 27510
I’d like to share with you, what makes my heart grow, during what I call the “lifting of the veil.” Celebrate this day, and everyday quite frankly, by giving where you can, and receiving where you need. Infinite abundance is all around us, and we are here to figure out how to share and receive it all, together. What will you seed, during our biggest opportunity yet, to come together? …and what will you let go of, that no longer serves you, that no longer serves us?
If your call is to seed more pause during this global shabbat, to understand the depth of sadness, of pain, of mortality, of ah-ha moments, of silence; then allow yourself to listen, just listen, and discern for yourself how to simply BE. Wherever we are is exactly where we are to BE.
First, is a new sound commission, titled Coancoan, named after the Cofán “trickster” spirit of legends, or what I call the “cosmic joke.” I recorded this during the first half of March, in the Ecuadorean Amazon. I am grateful to have made it home before flights were halted, with only 10 minutes to spare. I had little idea about what was happening while I was off the grid, but believe my spirit tends to place me into such experiences to share what is possible. This piece manifested during such a powerful time. The earth is quieter than it has ever been, during any of our lives, even on an infrasonic level – an opportunity to listen, to really listen. Both a 10 minute binaural excerpt of the 24-hour sound piece, and an impromptu conversation with Gordon Hempton are accessible on the project page, where we speak about listening, giving, taking, vulnerability and fear.
Second, a small team and myself continue to work on ode to Heisenberg + De Maria. I am thankful for the continued support in building this project (see credits half way down the project page). I don’t know how this piece will manifest, but my heart continues to create what I believe in. The spark of its creation was driven by the potential impact of understanding and the embodiment of non-linear time/networks – systems akin to fungi.
Third, is a commission, titled Plant Waves, which was created for the medicinal garden, at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I hope this finds you tending your internal gardens.
Last, I share with you a few favorite personal resources to help artists, the Cofán, Quiet Parks International and the estimated 16.7 million undocumented workers AND those living in mixed immigration homes, who will not have access to the CARES Act stimulus check, in the United States. If you can give or need to receive, click on logos below OR do a simple search within your community.
Let us write our new normal, together, so we can play on! …and to close out, written by a friend, a love letter from your fear, so as to “stop posing as divine creatures; decide to become them again instead…in a fluid and polycentric world.”
Envisioning our health, our new creations to steer us together and a deep connection to all potential that is within you,
Alyssa Miserendino
Alyssa Miserendino
Carrboro, NC 27510
Let’s examine the Petit Trianon, a small retreat in the gardens of the palace at Versailles created by Louis XV as a portrait. What does this home tell us about this powerful king? Kevin Justus, PhD (UNC-CH 2002), is an independent art historian, writer, and musician. He specializes in and publishes on the patronage of Louis XV and Versailles. Although based in Tucson, he works yearly at the Research Center at Versailles creating a monumental photographic database to assist in scholarly research. He is a Chateaubriand scholar and French Ambassadorial Laureate.
Opening Reception: Friday, March 13th
From 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm
Paradise of Pleasure
Photographs by Mike Keaveney
Artist Statement
“That nothing last forever is perhaps our favorite thing to forget. And forgetting is the ruin of memory, its collapse, decay, shattering and eventual fading away into nothingness.” Rebecca Solnit, Storming the Gates of Paradise (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2007) 254.
At the core of photography is a resistance to forgetting, decay and fading away. Each recorded image rips a moment from time in an attempt at preservation. However, with every exposure to light, air and time, images degrade, technologies become obsolete and context is lost. Leaving behind futile attempts at permanence, abandoned archives and outdated recording devices.
These forgotten archives and obsolete technologies become the raw materials for my practice. Through re-use, assemblage, erasure and digital manipulation I bring attention to photography’s ephemerality, our inherent need to record and preserve. In Halos of Happiness I collected and assembled found 4×6 landscape photographs. Using bleach as an erasure tool and varnish as a resistor, I manipulated them into representations of the state of the materials and the landscapes they represent. Fading archives, chemistry, and technology; baring traces of the past but deteriorating from every direction.
Photography mimics the entropic nature of the world it attempts to preserve, a site of transient moments and landscapes. Within the United States it is difficult to understand the landscape, no matter how many representations are made of it. It appears to have hidden its own history, traces dissolved and architecture demolished. Devoid of the romantic ruins of the past, what remains is a utopic fantasy of progression. Paired with photography’s ties to representation I create futile attempts at understanding a landscape vibrating in a constant state of creation and deterioration.
Exhibition runs March 1st-31st, 2020
In September of 2019, Removed went viral AGAIN which led to some international travel, a ton of new media coverage and publications, as well as the spark for some exhibitions and collaborations. Below is a recap of last year as well as what to expect this year. The greatest news is that Angie and I are expecting our second child this month! Additionally, Angie completes her pediatrics residency this summer so it’s going to be a very big year. Thanks so much for your support and please check in with me if we haven’t spoken in a while. It’d be nice to know what’s happening with you as well.
Dear Human Performance by Tiffany Shlain / The Museum of Modern Art
New York, NY
I was very excited to provide images from my Removed series for the spoken cinema performance world premiere of Dear Human by Tiffany Shlain at MoMA last weekend. “This live cinematic essay-performance takes the audience on a journey across the past, present, and future of the relationship between humanity and technology. Incorporating live narration, moving images, original animation, an evocative soundscape, and audience engagement, Dear Human invites the audience to think about how technology both amplifies and amputates our humanity, and how to make sure we stay human in this 24/7 culture.”
THE QUALITIES OF LIGHT: THE STORY OF A PIONEERING NEW YORK CITY PHOTOGRAPHY GALLERY
Tucson, AZ
“This exhibition celebrating the legacies of LIGHT (1971-1987), a significant early photography gallery, focuses on characteristics identified by those who visited, worked, showed, and were impacted by the gallery.” The exhibition curated by Rebecca Senf, Ph.D., Chief Curator, included several works from the archives of CCP as well as works from contemporary galleries who have been dramatically influenced by LIGHT. Rick Wester of Rick Wester Fine Art being one of them provided this piece from Removed as well as works by Christopher Colville, Lilly McElroy, Donna Ruff, and Cassandra Zampini. The exhibition is open now through Saturday, May 30, 2020
Hello, Robot. Design Between Human and Machine – V&A Dundee
Dundee, Scotland
Once again, pieces from Removed are finding their way into another country. The exhibition HELLO, ROBOT. DESIGN BETWEEN HUMAN AND MACHINE just closed on February 9th, 2020 in Dundee, Scotland. The exhibition was also on display in Lisbon, Portugal from January 23 – April 22, 2019 at Museum Art Architecture Technology.
Time After Time / QUAID Gallery
Tampa, Florida
Last summer I had a piece from my House Sitters project in a group show in Tampa at QUAID Gallery. I wasn’t able to make the opening but I had some of my South Florida family make an appearance for me.
REMOVED / Hillsboro Library
Hillsboro, OR
Ten Pieces from Removed were on exhibit at the Hillsboro Library in October of 2019. The library paired several events and readings with the exhibition which allowed for numerous groups to engage with the work.
Look Up Pop Up / Palette
San Francisco, CA
Palm teamed up with Blloc phone to put together a special one-day-only event to talk to people about the effects that our digital technologies are having on our behavior, psychology and overall well being. Featuring acclaimed speakers such as Dr. Nicholas Karadas and Tiffany Shlain, the day was filled with enlightening, and at times, frightening insights on the reality of spending too much time on our digital devices.
In January I was invited to Shanghai where I formally began my partnership with Shanghai Zhutu Culture Media Co,. Ltd. They will be tasked with representing my work across mainland China for publishing, licensing, exhibitions, and copyright protection.
We have had a flood of media attention since last summer. It is evident that my photographs continue to move people. I couldn’t have managed if it weren’t for the extremely hard work and dedication of Julie Grahame my agent, manager, friend, and kick-ass photo consultant. She always goes to bat for me I can’t thank her enough for all that she does. If you are looking for help getting your projects recognized, edited, organized, strategized, or want help with licensing, contracts, or other usage-based questions, you owe it to yourself to send Julie an email. Julie@juliegrahame.com
BBC NEWS
NOW THIS NEWS
National Geographic Poland
Slow Scroll
QUARTZ
Yorokobu
For editorial and media requests contact Julie Grahame
For print/exhibition inquiries contact Info@ericpickersgill.com
I am currently available for editorial assignment and speaking engagements, please contact for booking information.
UNC-Chapel Hill alumni Ben Alper and Peter Hoffman have created an exhibit featuring photography from Jockey’s Ridge in Nag’s Head.
“Jockey’s Ridge in Nag’s Head has changed in shape over thousands of years and continues to move incrementally southward to this day, threatening nearby homes and roads. There have been large scale and costly attempts to stem this natural process, which highlights the often fraught relationship between human behavior and the “natural”environment. Read the full artist statement below.
The 140 West Franklin St. space is powered by Arts Everywhere, Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership.
POP-UP GALLERY HOURS:
February 21 – March 22
Thursdays – Fridays // 4-7 PM
Saturdays – Sundays // 12-6 PM
There will be a special opening reception on Friday, Feb. 20 from 6-8 PM!
ARTIST STATEMENT
A message from the artists Ben Alper and Peter Hoffman:
In photographing Jockey’s Ridge, we’ve sought to heighten the camera’s predisposition toward distortion, as a means of addressing the kind of intervention present (albeit invisibly) at the site.
Whether that manifests through artificial or colored light, spatial confusion, abstraction, performative gestures that we enact, or the literal or metaphorical depiction of others, the resulting images foreground photographic decisions that ultimately implicate a human presence in this fragile landscape.
Taken together, the photographs that make up this show constitute a very different portrait of this pseudo-natural environment – one that is at once surreal, unfamiliar, but ultimately still beautiful.
Allyson Packer: Sounding
On view February 7 – March 29, 2020
Monday – Thursday | 9 AM – 9 PM
Friday | 9 AM – 6 PM
Saturday | 12 – 5 PM
Sunday | 2 – 9 PM
Opening Reception with the artist | Friday, February 7 | 5 – 7 pm
The Hawn Gallery is pleased to present Allyson Packer: Sounding, a site-specific, interactive installation spanning all four floors of the Hamon Arts Library at SMU. With looping video, text-based instructions, and subtle interventions into the architecture and resources of the library, Packer offers viewers an encounter with the possibility of the infinite. While infinity may only exist as a concept, spaces like libraries, Packer argues, can suggest it. The building itself has clearly defined boundaries, and at any given time the physical and digital materials that make up its collection of resources can be quantified numerically. There is a sense of impalpable depth too contained within The Hamon Library, the sublime potential of what is already known, what could be known, what is not yet known, and what is unknowable. The exhibition’s title, Sounding, describes the process of measuring— originally with lead and line, today with sonar— the depth of a body of water, without making direct physical contact with it. Likening the contents of the library to a body of water, the pieces included in this installation act as sounding instruments to plumb the collection’s literal and metaphorical depths. Water, in many different forms, recurs thematically across the whole exhibition. It appears in direct citation of J.M.W. Turner’s paintings, in reference to a fountain outside of the library, in imagery based on folders containing sheet music from the Hamon stacks, and on the public computer desktops.
For several months, Packer has visited the library regularly. She spent long afternoons wandering the stacks, getting to know Hamon’s internal and external rhythms and overlooked quirks. This extended visitation with no other purpose allows her to develop an outsider’s peculiar knowledge of the place that’s at once intimate and remote. The resulting interventions into the space deviate only slightly from a patron’s usual experience of the library. Most are subtle to the point of precarity— the term that French art historian, Anna Dezeuze, in Almost nothing: Observations on precarious practices in contemporary art, uses to describe artworks that exist on the verge of disappearing into the fabric of the everyday (5). By existing on the border between perceptible and imperceptible, Packer’s work redirects viewers’ attention to their own bodies, and their awareness of their presence in a space.
Allyson Packer will speak about her work at the opening reception on Friday, February 7.
Artist bio
Allyson Packer makes artwork that engages viewers in an examination of the myths and values embedded in the built environment. Her installations and performances have been shown at Nahmad Projects (London), Hyde Park Art Center (Chicago), and Birds + Richard (Berlin), among other venues. Her upcoming solo exhibition, Inland Sea, will open at the Las Cruces Art Museum’s Brannigan Cultural Center in July 2020. Packer earned her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and her BFA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She lives in Denton, Texas, where she is a faculty member in the College of Visual Arts and Design at the University of North Texas.
Image courtesy of the artist.
WINTER SHOW 2019
December 8, 2019 – January 17, 2020
GreenHill
200 N Davie St
Greensboro, NC
Winter Show brings together over 100 artists each year from across North Carolina and constitutes a comprehensive survey of the finest art and craft being produced by artists who either reside or have lasting ties to the state. Painting, sculpture, photography, ceramic, jewelry, woodwork, fabric and fiber works are all displayed in a harmonious installation. Artists showing work in the exhibition vary not only by mediums, but also by experience, background and perspective. All work is available for purchase.
More information about the exhibition can be found here at http://www.greenhillnc.org/winter-show-2019
Hours: Monday: Closed, Tuesday – Thursday:12PM-5PM, Friday: 10AM-5PM, Saturday: 12PM-5PM, Sunday: 2PM-5PM (Gallery Only)
