Amory Park
July 14-30, 2022
Morgan Lehman Gallery 526 W 26th Street 4th Floor, Suite 410 New York, New York, 10001 Press release |
Participating in the art world often means engaging in an environment that is constantly changing—seeing the same people again at a gallery opening, often after months or years apart, and often in different states and circumstances.
Amory Park is located a few blocks away from our graduate studios at Boston University. I liked the idea of naming the show after a location that became familiar to all of us throughout our time as students. A park as a kind of anchor - something static, at least in our memories, now that we’ve dispersed and no longer have the structure of adjacent studios to connect us. -Jason Lipow Installation Photographs courtesy of Morgan Lehman Gallery |
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This remarkable group of students started their MFA journey in the Fall of 2020, optimistic that the confusion and uncertainty of a global pandemic would soon fade. Although these hopes proved false, these artists persevered in their studios and classes and continued to learn, expand, make, break, scream, cry, laugh, sigh, and wonder what it even means to make art in this moment.
After the tumult and uncertainty of the past two years, they realize that they are re-entering a landscape that has fundamentally shifted. They have negotiated the tension between the immersive material demands of their individual projects and the increasingly relentless exigencies of the public sphere. In short, they have encountered a particularly acute version of the age-old challenge: to make work of one’s own that feels both true and urgent. Veracity and urgency are embedded in the materials they chose to handle, the images they chose to create, the subjects they chose to depict, and the structures they chose to build. What are the boundaries of identity? Are there new ways to depict the human body? How does one expand conventions and traditions? What does it mean to be radical? How does one structure freedom? How does one make the invisible visible? These students consider these, and other questions, through the disciplines of painting and sculpture, and the friction-filled histories and porous parameters of each. As their faculty, it has been an honor to be a part of their journey and privy to their individual stories. The works in this exhibition point to where each artist started nearly two years ago, to a point of arrival today, and to where they may be heading. The strength of their efforts suggests an overwhelming potential that fills us with hope. Lucy Kim Associate Professor of Art and Interim Chair of Graduate Studies in Painting David Snyder Assistant Professor of Art and Chair of Graduate Studies in Sculpture Gallery Photography courtesy of Mel Taing |
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Middle Ground was a two-person show with work by me and Benjamin Hawley. As part of our second-year graduate seminar class, we worked collaboratively to create a proposal and install a show of our work.
Made to engage with the quiet act of looking, the paintings and prints in Middle Ground reflect routines and memories. In this show, Emily Manning-Mingle and Benjamin Hawley examine cherished objects and collected observations, extending the life of these things by painting them into psychological and ethereal spaces. The imagery in their paintings is inspired by long walks, states of matter, inherited and found objects, material explorations, and iconic architecture. Often returning to the same objects again and again, each artist develops ongoing relationships with the things they repeatedly depict. Applying layers of thinly veiled paint, ink, thread, and fabric, Hawley and Manning-Mingle translate their observations into intricate and expansive experiences that blur the boundaries between observation and abstraction. The resulting works highlight a shared devotion to perceptual painting and an appreciation for the sublime within the natural and mundane. |
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“A dream you dream alone is only a dream, a dream you dream together is a reality.”
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As a member of New Craft Artists in Action (NCAA), I knit and crochet vibrant hand-made basketball nets that are installed on empty basketball hoops and displayed in educational program spaces. The Net Works project, "employs creative problem solving and calls attention to neglected public spaces. It also encourages positive relationships between athletes, artists and neighbors."
Exhibitions I've participated in include CounterCraft: Voices of the Indie Craft Community at the Fuller Craft Museum (Brockton, MA), STITCH: Syntax/Action/Reaction at the New Arts Center (Newton, MA), and Sidelines: Soft Power in the Margins at Conduit Gallery (Dallas, TX). To learn more about the New Craft Artists in Action/NCAA Net Works, visit our website or tumblr. |
All Images © Emily Manning-Mingle