Quartet of artists to show their work in late April
Four artists, all associated with the first program year at The Studios of Key West, will take over the Armory main hall in late April to present a quartet of installations relating to their creative work and ideas. Canadian conceptual artist Helen Verbanz, recent instructor Carlos Ferguson, Chicago-based provocateur Mike Lash, and local artist Deborah Goldman will show four very disparate bodies of work under the one roof. The public is invited to view the exhibition, Four-by-four at TSKW, and a closing reception is set for Thursday 15 May during Walk on White.
Canadian Helen Verbanz, who will be artist-in-residence at The Studios of Key West in June, has travelled to the same village on Lac Des Deux Montagnes, near Montréal, every February for the last ten years. Ice-fishing is an age-old tradition there, and people build temporary huts on the frozen ice and meditate in the still, quiet landscape. Verbanz’s series of 11 large photographic images of this winter environment, Ice Prints, will be featured at the Armory as part of Four-by-four.
“I'm looking forward to actually being there this summer,” said Verbanz, who will use her time in Key West to research and create an audio and mixed-media installation relating to lower Keys wetlands, backcountry mangroves, and other landscapes new to her. That environmental work will be on view at the Armory in late June and July.
Tornadoes and floods, flying machines, B-movies, and suburbia, are the concerns of artist Carlos Ferguson's Suspended Worlds, also included in Four-by-four at TSKW. His installation of seven suspended dioramas is constructed of photographs, balsa-wood miniatures, and model train scenery. Blurred and sharpened when viewed through built-in magnifying lenses, Ferguson’s diminutive landscapes combine a hint of whimsy with a dose of the supernatural—contained within handmade enclosures the size of a show box.
"I had a wonderful, all too brief time in Key West this past March," said artist Carlos Ferguson, who taught a one week drawing course as part of The Studios of Key West season. "I am happy to have the chance to show my work at my new favorite island at the end of the road. I hope to return soon for more creative programming and collaboration."
Chicago artist Mike Lash makes art that is simple, yet subversive. He arrives in May, for a month-long residency at The Studios of Key West, and will be preceded by the complete illustrations from his forthcoming book, Lies for Leo. The series of paintings and text panels—inspired by a young neighbor’s inquisitiveness about the world and the inability of adults to adequately respond—will be shown in Key West before touring to Paris, London, New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo, and Hong Kong. The book will be published later this year by Agnes b., the French fashion designer, patron of culture, and and collector of contemporary art.
“I’m anxious to spend some time at the Southernmost Point, and at The Studios,” said Lash, whose residency will include research and planning for a follow-up to Lies for Leo. “This time, I’ll bring in the Keys as a central idea in the book, and explore the symbiotic relationship you have with the Ocean and local waters.”
Food, weather, light, tourism and cultural heritage will all become welcome fodder for Lash's somewhat irreverent interpretations, which one critic called ‘perfect for those growing jaded with the gallery scene’ and another labelled ‘direct, meaningful, and sloppy...with some worthy concepts behind them’.
Local practitioner and TSKW studio artist Deborah Goldman rounds out the quartet with her new installation Weft, which will create an organic veil in the front left section of the Armory and serve as an extension of the artist’s recent work in her upstairs studio.
“I’ve started a sort of fabric made from strips of aged cotton in a pattern that repeats the metal grates on the outside windows. The result is an interior web-like texture that will contain suspended sweet potatoes within, growing and flowing from their glass cylinders, with a white picket fence incorporated into the piece.”
Four-by-four at TSKW will open in late April, and will remain open to the public through Friday 16 May. The community is invited to celebrate the work of these four distinct creative people, and the art they will be bringing to the island, at the closing reception on Thursday 15 May from 6 to 9pm. For details and information, please contact The Studios of Key West at 296-0458 or info@tskw.org.
