October 18th - December 10th, 2021.
Geoffrey A. Wolpert Gallery.
Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts.

Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts is proud to feature works by fiber artist Jovencio de la Paz and jeweler Sandra Salaices. Working with a monochromatic color scheme, the pieces on display demonstrate the subtlety, detail, and power that can be achieved using this minimalist palette. Contrast exists both in the shades between black and white as well as between the materials each has chosen to work in. Together, their work explores and praises that gray space.

Based in Eugene Oregon, Jovencio de la Paz is an artist, writer and educator. His work explores the intersection of textile processes such as weaving, dye, and stitchwork as they relate to broader concerns of language, histories of colonization, migrancy, ancient technology, and speculative futures. Interested in the ways transient or ephemeral experiences are embodied in material, de la Paz looks to how knowledge and experiences are transmitted through society in space and time, whether semiotically by language or haptically by made things.
“My work and research is situated within the unfolding relationship between ancient weaving technology (the loom) and modern computers. I approach this intersection as a traditionally trained weaver, but also as a digital native. Sharing the same language of binary code, I see this relationship as both fraught and fruitful. Using the digital TC2 (Thread Controller 2) Jacquard loom, I manipulate, hack, confound, and fracture design software to explore and test the boundaries of how cloth is typically conceived. I push design software to the point of rupture or failure, capturing the physicality of these behaviors as the warp and weft of hand-woven textiles.”
Jovencio de la Paz received a Masters of Fine Art in Fibers from the Cranbrook Academy of Art (2012) and a Bachelors of Fine Art in Fiber and Material Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2008). He has exhibited work in solo and group exhibitions both nationally and internationally. He regularly teaches at schools of art, craft, and design throughout the country, including the Ox Bow School of Art in Saugatuck, Michigan, the Haystack Mountain School of Craft in Deer Isle, Maine, and the Arrowmont School of Craft in Tennessee. He is also a co-founder of the collaborative group Craft Mystery Cult, established in 2010.
He is currently Assistant Professor and Head of the Fiber Department at the University of Oregon.

Sandra Salaices earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Metals and Ceramics from the University of Texas at El Paso (2017). She has won numerous awards and fellowships, and has exhibited her work widely. From 2017-2018 she was the Artist-in-Residence at Southwest School of Art where she taught and kept a full-time studio practice. She was also Gallery Assistant at Equinox Gallery and concluded the residency period with a solo exhibition at Equinox. She founded her own studio after finishing her residency in 2018 and now works and lives in Mexico.
Sandra’s work is informed by the hues and symbiosis of lichen of the Chihuahuan desert. Their dual nature influences her creative and studio practice. She developed a technique to fabricate three-dimensional forms with steel mesh, reinforced by filling the cells with vitreous enamel. A rudimentary but effective version of Plique-à-jour.
With the concept of duality and interconnectedness, she creates pieces that invite contemplation of the light and shadow within and to reflect for a moment about the oneness of all beings.
Her work is represented by Pistachios, Chicago, IL, and Equinox, San Antonio, TX.
Original text and photos from: https://www.arrowmont.org/in-praise-of-gray-space/
Comments