July 24 2020 #174
NIAD Art Center exhibition:
Travel In Place – Pathways And Portals
The NIAD Art Center (National Institute of Art & Disabilities) in Richmond, California, works with 60 artists every week, up to 35 daily. Some of the artists have physical disabilities while others have developmental disabilities, and others have both. The artists enrolled at NIAD work with teachers, who instruct them in 5 different mediums: painting, fiber, ceramics, making art from paper, and printmaking.
They are currently hosting an online exhibition: "Travel In Place – Pathways And Portals", curated by Lena Gustafson.
Untitled, Julio Del Rio, 2018. Mixed media on paper, 45 x 56 cm (18 x 2 in.)
"This exhibition explores the diverse approaches to travel and transition by artists working at NIAD. While we currently aren't able to physically travel very far during this time of Sheltering In Place due to COVID-19, I wanted to select works that to me suggest a different form of travel, one that occurs inward."
Untitled, Matthew Wilson, 2017. Graphite on colored paper, 81 x 101 cm (32 x 40 in.)
"No matter the mode of communication, each work suggests a sort of duality between where we are and where we can go. At a time when the future is very uncertain, the practice of imagining new futures is crucial. My hope is that these pieces will help inspire transformation that begins with ourselves wherever we are at."
View the online exhibition here, and learn more about curator Lena Gustafson (painter and multi-disciplinary artist in her own right) on her website. Lena also co-founded Night Diver Press with her partner Peter Calderwood. They use alternative printing techniques to create prints, books and zines.
Gallery of Everything exhibition: The Deep
The Gallery Of Everything are hosting an exhibition, "The Deep", from July 5 until August 30, 2020. It is an exploration into the vocabulary of two of the most unusual non-verbal artists active today.
Julian Martin [b. 1969] and Terry Williams [b. 1952] are longstanding members of Arts Project Australia. Their respective practices, nurtured at this ground-breaking Melbourne institution, evidence how atypical art-makers mesh seamlessly into the widest cultural circles.
A selection of Julian Martin's work; courtesy: Gallery of Everything
Martin's distillation of everyday subjects is similarly refined. The borders are fixed, the detail denied. His approach speaks to the essentials of neuro-recognition.
The subject matter of Martin's drawings – tools, letters, vehicles, people – spreads thick with the volume of pastel stick. The emotional messaging is contained in (and by) this vital ingredient. It lends his surfaces a sculptural affinity, recalling the blues of Yves Klein, whereby pigment powder is held to the paper by virtue only of layers beneath.
Untitled, Terry Williams, 2014. Thread, fabric, 105 x 110 x 30 cm (41 3/8 x 43 1/4 x 11 3/4 in.)
Terry Williams’ soft sculpture bears witness to its own inevitable collapse. Fabrics are bound, threaded and folded in awkward assembly. Commonplace items are replicated and upholstered. The resultant shapes – from ambiguous to haphazard – grant passers-by entry into an altered state, where the physical and the optical collide.
"The Deep" takes its inspiration from The Museum of Everything 4: a large-scale 2012 exhibition which examined the then misunderstood phenomenon of independent assisted studios for artists and makers with communication and/or learning disorders.
Tony Hillier's Sculpture Garden
Tucked away in Cambridgeshire, UK, Tony Hillier worked on paintings, drawings, bamboo and papier-mâché as well as huge metal sculptures since 1999. His sculptures were often animals, magical creatures and fairy-tale characters, and began to take over his front yard.
View from the Hillier household into the sculpture garden; photo: Thierry Bal
The garden was open for any passers-by to explore; in fact, curiosity and a sense of playfulness from visitors were welcomed. Children were allowed to sit on an 8-ft sculpture of a horse, and a smaller (but still formidable) pig and a dog.
Hillier never made his sculptures to sell for a profit; he often donated them to local institutions in the area, especially those which supported young people or education, such as schools and libraries.
Sculpture in Hillier's garden; photo: Thierry Bal
After Tony Hillier died in November 2014, his wife Joan continued to care for the sculpture garden.
In March of this year, Joan announced that the sculptures would be given away to institutions which would present them to the public so that her late husband's work could live on.
Joan Hillier with some of Tony's paintings and drawings, 2020; photo: Thierry Bal
Listen to David Clegg’s interview with Keeper Joan Hillier on The Keepers Project website or on Soundcloud.
Short film: André Pailloux
André Pailloux (b. 1943) lives in the Vendée region of France, by the Atlantic ocean. Since 2000, he has been decorating his garden with fantastical wind spinners and whirligigs, set in motion by the strong winds from the Atlantic.
French TV channel TVVendée met with Pailloux and profiled his life and work.
'Chemins de traverse : André Pailloux, artiste' by TVvendée
His garden is a colourful kaleidoscope of windmills and other intricately decorated objects, elevated from elevated banality by Pailloux's sense of whimsy. Maintaining the magical garden occupies his time, especially if harsh weather or a heavy storm rolls in from the ocean front.
André Pailloux; photo: Bruno Montpied
Bruno Montpied's piece on outsider environments featuring his photography of André Pailloux's creations was published in Raw Vision #100, currently half price.
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