'Plunder' @ Conner Contemporary

Upcoming solo project at Conner Contemporary in Washington, D.C. A *GOGO ART PROJECTS SPECIAL INSTALLATION SEPTEMBER – OCTOBER, 2011 Opening September 10 My recent work has focused on the ‘Lost Colony’ of Elizabethan era colonialism, particularly the formal portraits of Queen Elizabeth I and the explorers and voyagers. The relationship between the costumes, clothing, and material culture of the Elizabethan era to the political and metaphorical outcomes of capitalism and colonialism provide rich artistic fodder in my practice. I am inspired by the watercolors of John White from the 1580’s, which feature native Algonquins and Secotans (located then in present‐day North Carolina) performing rituals, planting crops, preparing food, and displaying their clothing, and also the Elizabethan privateers and colonists (Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Francis Drake, etc.) who formed her colonial advisorship. Within the Elizabethan portraits, by painters such as Nicholas Hilliard and Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder, what we see on display is an attentiveness to crafting a public persona, political agenda, and the attendant clues to specific aspects of propaganda in image‐making. The iconography of empire is visible in the globes, crowns, swords and coumns, and also, I would argue, within the patterns of the clothing itself. Contemporary fashion designers such as Alexander McQueen and Vivienne Westwood have mined some of this very material in their recent collections. Plunder, for Conner Contemporary in 2011, utilizes the courtyard space to exhibit several lines of fabric banners inspired by nautical textile forms. The flags feature decorative paintings appropriated from the clothing on Queen Elizabeth I in her many royal portraits. The paintings are made as works on paper, then digitally scanned and commercially printed with weather‐resistant inks onto fabric.  I am interested in how pirate culture was not only the rogue sailors and privateers who plundered other ships for transatlantic trade goods, but also the colonizers who ‘plundered’ North America with the queen’s blessing.  This title is meant to point directly at my critical and artistic view of the colonial era, as evinced in my own plundering of the queen’s decorative patterning.  Acting as subversive pirate flags, the project will come full circle when versions of the flags are installed in a port in Plymouth, England (where many Elizabethan ships set sail) and on Roanoke Island, North Carolina, where the Lost Colony was based. In Plunder, I have already begun to explore the relationship between costume, class, and economic power.]]>

Panel @ The Luminary Center for the Arts, St. Louis

Saturday, September 17, 2011   2-4pm At the Luminary Center for the Arts, a panel discussion on the process and practice of installation art featuring the artists who have shown in the Installation Space in the past year: Lauren Frances Adams, Jill Downen, Lindsay Stouffer, John Early, Ann-Maree Walker, and Brett Williams.]]>

Conversation Pieces, Group Exhibition at Purdue University

Conversation Pieces September 23, 2011 Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN Eleven artists have been invited to participate in this first ever event as part of the 2011 Conference for Pre-Tenure Women: Lauren Frances Adams, Victoria Bradbury, Alison Carey, Laura Drake, Leah Gauthier, Beate Geissler + Oliver Sann, Maura Jasper, Irena Knezevic,  Min Kim Park, Maura Schaffer, Christine Wuenschel, and Sigrid K. Zahner. Download the catalogue here: http://www.cla.purdue.edu/vpa/etb/events/conversation_pieces.html Curator: Shannon McMullen, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Visual and Performing Arts, College of Liberal Arts]]>

Alfred University Lecture

http://austudiovisits.wordpress.com/2011/09/19/welcome-lauren-adams/ Lecture and talk show interview on Wednesday, September 21, 2011 Studio Visits is a weekly live lecture and talk show at Alfred University which brings artists and thinkers to the Holmes stage each Wednesday morning at 9 am. First, the guest presents their work in a lecture format and then intermission! When the audience returns, the stage is transformed into a talk show set. The sculpture graduate students (and sometimes others) act as interviewers and bring the guest back to the stage. The interviews use lively games, unusual questions, and surprise call-in guests to give the live audience a new perspective about the artist and their work! Studio Visits is recorded live and the segments are available on this blog and on Vimeo. http://alfredfoundations.com/category/studio-visit-show/ Studio Visits is a project of the Foundation and Sculpture Graduate Programs of the School of Art and Design at Alfred University. It’s headed by professors M. Michelle Illuminato and Brett Hunter. Alfred University is located in Alfred, New York (where it is very cold in the winter).]]>