Local Emerging Artists Bring Diverse Energy to Sunroom Project Space
Bronx, NY, January 23, 2014— Whether for artists or nature enthusiasts, Wave Hill’s sweeping vistas and breathtaking gardens have been an inspiration to many, past and present. When choosing participants for the Sunroom Project Space program, Wave Hill’s curators commission a diverse set of emerging New York City-area artists to create new site-specific projects for solo exhibitions. The artists engage architecture and space to transform the gallery in exciting ways using various materials and techniques. The program, now in its eighth year, contributes significantly to the professional advancement of each participant. A number of last year’s artists, for example, were offered opportunities that resulted from their sunroom exhibitions: Gail Biederman was given a solo show at JAR Project Space in mid-Manhattan; Francisco Donoso was selected for a residency at Stony Brook University. Matthew Jensen’s work has been collected by the Citizens Committee for New York City for display in their Lower Manhattan offices. Participating artists receive support from Wave Hill’s curatorial staff, have access to the grounds and are encouraged to engage with the visiting public.
Wave Hill welcomes this year’s artists, Reade Bryan, Hilary Lorenz, Kristyna and Marek Milde, Brandon Neubauer and Lauren Carly Shaw. In addition, Van Lier Visual Artist Fellows Tammy Nguyen and Alexandra Phillips have been chosen by Wave Hill’s curators and will also exhibit in the Sunroom Project Space.
2013 Sunroom Project Space artist Lynn Koble describes her experience in the program: “What makes Wave Hill’s Sunroom program so exceptional is the high caliber of support provided at every step of the way. Participating in the program gave me so much more than an opportunity to develop site-specific work for a unique exhibition venue. It covered all facets of a solid professional practice, from peer networks to promotions to installing―and so much more.”
Sunroom Project 2014 Schedule
April 8–May 5, Brandon Neubauer
Meet the Artist: SAT, May 3, 1:30PM
Brandon Neubauer creates multi-media installations that draw on perceived histories of a site to create a loose-knit narrative that merges past, present and future. Developed during his time in Wave Hill’s Winter Workspace residency (February 19–March 30, 2014), Neubauer’s Sunroom Project incorporates video projection, photographs and recorded sounds to create a portrait of the Wave Hill site that engages time, optical phenomena, topography and found objects.
May 23–July 6, Kristyna and Marek Milde
Meet the Artist: SUN, June 22, 1:30PM
Kristyna and Marek Milde’s art examines the effects of architecture, design and interior space on our perception of, and relationship to, the outside world. Their work creates a shift when plant material from outdoors is placed inside the gallery space. At Wave Hill, they will develop the idea of transplanting the natural site indoors. Their Sunroom Project includes planters filled with vegetation and shaped as couches and chairs, making visitors feel as though they have stepped into a lounge to experience the natural landscape from the comfort of the domestic interior.
July 13–August 24, Lauren Carly Shaw
Meet the Artist: SUN, July 13, 1:30PM
Lauren Carly Shaw is interested in the human figure, the will of the individual and the manifestation of emotion through form. For the Sunroom, she creates a site-specific installation based on the short story The Yellow Wallpaper (1899) by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Set in the late 19th century, at the time when Wave Hill’s Glyndor House was originally built, the story chronicles the effect of confinement on a woman’s mental health. After being restricted to a small room by her physician-husband, the woman falls into madness, becoming convinced that there are women creeping around behind the patterns in the wallpaper, and eventually believing she is one of them. Shaw transforms the Sunroom space into this room, including a sculpture of a woman covered in the same paper adorning the walls. The woman is half present in the space and half consumed by the paper and the room.
July 13–August 24, Reade Bryan
Meet the Artist: SUN, July 13, 1:30PM
Reade Byran’s sculptures use iconic building materials that are originally uprooted from nature and reintroduced in an industrial context to mimic their organic origin. For his Sunroom Project, Bryan explores the foil between landscape and habitat, while considering Wave Hill’s status as a former estate and its relationship to its surroundings. The sculptural installation is made with a variety of sheet materials laminated, cut and stacked in such a way that it appears to be flowing into the space from the windows, thus evoking the effect of a flood or a mass on a cliff’s edge. In this project, the natural landscape appears to intrude on the interior, although the sculpture itself is made of domestic building supplies.
September 6–October 12, Tammy Nguyen
Meet the Artist: TBD
Using plants and animal forms—most often birds—Tammy Nguyen’s paintings and handmade books tell stories based on contradictions in cultural beliefs. Her complex artist books morph and evolve as they are read, creating unexpected juxtapositions and paradoxes. In the Sunroom, she creates a space that invites viewers to interact with her handmade books that are based on plants at Wave Hill. Nguyen is one of Wave Hill’s two 2014 Van Lier Visual Artist Fellows.
September 6– October 12, Alexandra Phillips
Meet the Artist: TBD
One of the two 2014 Van Lier Visual Artist Fellows, Alexandra Phillips creates sculptures from cast-off material that she finds in the urban environment around her, allowing viewers to experience the material in a new way as they reconsider its use and disuse. Phillips will continue her method of creating sculptural installations with found objects for her Sunroom Project, providing a contrast with Wave Hill’s serene landscape just outside the windows.
October 18–November 20, Hilary Lorenz
Meet the Artist: TBD
Inspiration for Hilary Lorenz is grounded in performance walking: as she passes through a space, she collects private, physical memories that become translated into tangible art objects. Influenced by weeds growing up and around a tree and inspired by her observations of light as it passes through the space, Lorenz’s Sunroom Project will experiment with the arrangement of large, printed and shaped paper constructions that hang from the ceiling and bridge the windows to the wall and floor through a tangle of lines. Plants and animals will fill the printed paper as it appears to dance around the room, engaging the Sunroom’s indoor space so as to give the viewer the illusion of being outdoors, surrounded by nature.
Organized by Curator of Visual Arts Gabriel de Guzman, the Sunroom Project Space provides an opportunity for New York-area emerging artists to exhibit in a site-specific solo show. The selection for the 2015 season begins in March 2014. An information session for interested artists will be held at Wave Hill on March 16, at 2:30PM; online registration recommended. The deadline for the 2015 season is April 15. Guidelines and application information will be posted in mid-February at www.wavehill.org/arts/artist-guidelines.
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