G R A Y S P A C E

the area between two or more undefined borders, where an artist has the flexibility to experiment

Valerie George Santa Rosa, California July 29, 2010 www.valeriegeorgeart.com   The driving force behind the art project Nam June Psyche by artist Valerie George is the navigation between the idioms of academic research into aurality of the D.I.Y approach to experimental music. This investigation is manifested through the blending of landscape photography, videography, performance and sound composition. In the summer if 2010, Nam June Psyche toured the United States to visit collaborators and designated urban and rural landscapes in order to create site-specific aural tracks and accompanying videos. Many of the chosen landscapes were remote, therefore, electrical outlets were absent. The Car Kit has been altered to function as both a vehicle and self-reliant mobile recording studio, complete with sound amplification capabilities. The Car Kit is a 1983 300TD Mercedes Benz Wagon, running on Bio-Diesel. It is equipped with a 400 Watt AC/DC inverter, a 400 Watt amplifier, multiple speakers, a four channel PA system hardwired into two car batteries with a voltage meter. Also housed in the car is an array of microphones and hydrophones to collect environmental sounds, multiple instruments, pedals, mixers, amplifiers, a laptop and an eight channel PreSonius Firepod, and a drum kit built for the roof rack of the vehicle. Its purpose is to provide the ability to play, create and record sounds, music and noise in remote locations. Nam June Psyche sets out to document a visual and aural collaboration with artistic experimenters and the ever changing American landscape. Nam June Psyche Cutism travels to Kirkland Arts Center, Washington Ahren Hertel, Rebekah Bogard, Melissa Jones & Jason Huff June 12 - July 3, 2009 www.kirklandartscenter.org Image:  Cutism curated by Sara Gray Ahren Hertel, Rebekah Bogard, Melissa Jones & Jason Huff Grayspace Reno, Nevada April - May, 2008 www.ahrenhertel.com www.rebekahbogard.com www.jasonhuff.com Creating artwork that can be considered cute has been viewed as taboo to some in art culture. This cute art creates specific emotional reactions, sweet, colorful, playful, yet at times quite disturbing and stereotypical. Generally we all know what cute is when we see it, however the meaning of cute is different for each person. Cutism will feature four artists  who deal with cuteness in their work. The work initially draws the viewer in with its cuteness, but as one looks more closely, there either is a disturbing, humorous, or surprising aspect to the piece. The proposed artists are: Rebekah Bogard Jason Huff, Ahren Hertel and Melissa Jones. This exhibition will be fun and playful for the viewer, but may shock, surprise, and tickle. Image:  John Yoyogi Fortes Grayspace Reno, Nevada March 14- April 18, 2008 www.johnyoyogifortes.com John Yoyogi Fortes is in a period of transition with his art, questioning both his painting and thought process. In his past work, subject matter drove the content in turn affecting his process. With this exhibit at Grayspace, Fortes decided to reevaluate the process that has led him further away from his intuitive side. Fortes is now working towards reconnecting with his inner sensibilities as a painter, how he lays images down, how he responds intuitively to the process and where it takes him. Acting on impulse will no longer be diluted or redefined by questioning or making reference to old work. the paintings build upon themselves becoming a destination through process. Subject matter and content are developed rather than dictated.  Reno News and Review story Image:  Bobby Lukas Grayspace Reno, Nevada January 17 - February 22, 2008 www.bobbylukas.com Born in Reno Nevada in 1977, Bobby Lukas had spent his entire life immersed int he High Desert Landscape of the Western United States. Inspired by vast horizons, wide open spaces, desolate dirt roads, violent wind, hoboes, twisted junipers, bourbon whiskey, and song, Bobby Lukas returns from just over the Sierra Nevada Mountains for his first solo show in Reno since his departure in 2005. At Grayspace, Lukas will explore history through fact and legend- confronting Manifest Destiny and Staking his claim in the mythic West. Working with site-specific paintings, interventions, and found objects, Lukas addresses the complex relationships that exist between the changing landscape and the people who share its stories. Reno News and Review story Image:  Anthony Alston Grayspace Reno, Nevada November 15- December 21, 2007 Explicative Imperative was the first phase of the Inertia Displaced exhibition on display at Grayspace.  Anthony Alston has utilized his facial hair in several past projects, including the fabrication of a prosthetic beard for audience members to wear and tresses sewn into cloth to form the outline of Minnesota.  Continuing to focus personal identity and social perceptions, the work in Explicative Imperative involved an invitation to pluck his beard with tweezers (Wrassian Epilator), a voting system involving prevalent beard-related cliches (Common Consensus: Partial Profile), and the opportunity for attendees to visualize themselves with facial hair (Some Mornings Longer than Others). Reno News and Review story Image:  The Sleepyime Collective Grayspace Reno, Nevada September 17- October 26, 2007 www.sleepytimeprojects.blogspot.com Using the elephant as a symbolic touchstone and source of inspiration, the five-person Sleepy Time Collective presents a new series of works, each designed to engage the audience through one of the five senses. As a collective, the members of Sleepy Time found a connection between the tight-knit herds common in elephant culture and the community they strive to build.  The works in this show draw from--and subtly refer to--this connection without making literal or overt references. Memory and nostalgia, individual identity within a group, inside jokes, division of labor, and community allegiance are recurrent themes permeating the exhibition. The Sleepy Time Collective is comprised of Antoinette Ortega, Anthony Alston, Rob Brown, Nick Larsen and Caedron Burchfield, all recent or soon-to-be graduates of the University of Nevada, Reno.  Although members of Sleepy Time have worked together in smaller configurations and on larger community projects including the annual (Con)Temporary gallery alleyway installation, their show at the Grayspace Gallery marks the first time they have unified as a fivesome.   Image:  Natalie Rishe Grayspace Reno, Nevada July 26 - August 31, 2007 www.natalierishe.com Liminal: Crossing the Threshold Natalie Rishe is creating a site-specific installation at Grayspace, which draws on the imbedded memories of the 1930's brick dwelling- previously identified with private space, it will now be making the transition into a public venue.  While in this transitive state, the space lingers between its memories of domestic activity and the second life it has been given. Rishe, working with ideas of intimacy, memory and the dichotomy between the public and private spheres has found the circumstances of this exhibition laden with possibilities to explore the aesthetics of translucency, residue and the ephemeral through the use of projection, sound and sculpture. Reno News and Review story Image:  G   R   A   Y   S   P   A   C   E