a center for creative development
TOPAZ ARTS presents
Marks and Conversations
a two-person exhibition of new work by Maeve D’Arcy • Roberto Jamora
co-curated by Todd B. Richmond & Paz Tanjuaquio
on view June 9 to July 28, 2018
opening reception: Saturday, June 9th, 3-6pm
closing reception and artist talk: Sat, July 28, 6-8pm
Admission is complimentary
TOPAZ ARTS, 55-03 39th Avenue, Woodside > directions
viewing hours: Saturdays 12-4pm and by appt visit@topazarts.org
TOPAZ ARTS is pleased to present Marks and Conversations, curated by Todd B. Richmond and Paz Tanjuaquio, featuring new work by Maeve D’Arcy and Roberto Jamora – two local artists whose works investigate color, abstraction, and gestures in painting to convey memory, place and time.
In Maeve D’Arcy’s work, repetitive marks of dots, circles, lines exist in her paintings and works on paper as a manifestation of time – markings of an ephemeral concept of time as moments, and memories, rather than actual hours and minutes. For this exhibition, D’Arcy includes site-specific paintings, called “interruptions” as extensions of her work on view. Directly painting onto the gallery walls, allowing the viewer to contemplate the work as temporary and moveable – as a surprise, or a distraction – suggesting release or freedom. Enhancing the viewing experience, these art interruptions are part of an ongoing investigation by the artist within her current series of paintings and drawings.
In Roberto Jamora’s new series “An Inventory of Traces” – a title inspired by Edward Said’s foundational work “Orientalism”, Jamora conducted interviews with immigrant artists, translating conversations through colors and simulated gestures, tracing migrations through lines and layers within his paintings. Lines may refer to an actual coastline, river, or border. Colors may suggest specific landscapes and places. Using cold wax and oil paint, swiped across the canvas, Jamora creates color fields that fade into each other, treating each gradient as a vignette of an experience or place, where a thin trace of landscape may be revealed, or to conceal extraneous possibilities and limit sentimentality.
About the Artists:
Maeve D’Arcy, born 1986 in New York City, NY, currently lives in Queens and works in her studio in Brooklyn. D’Arcy received her Master of Fine Art degree from Central Saint Martins. She attended Bard College and received a BA from the CUNY Baccalaureate for Unique and Interdisciplinary Studies/CUNY Hunter College. She has attended many residencies, most recently at the Jentel Foundation in Wyoming, as well as the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Contemporary Arts Center in Troy, NY and Vermont Studio Center. Her work has been exhibited in England, Ireland, and the U.S. D’Arcy’s work investigates repetitive mark-making that becomes a meditation and an exploration of painting, drawing, and sculpture. www.maevedarcy.com
Roberto Jamora was born in 1987 in Annapolis, MD and grew up in Virginia Beach, VA. He lives Queens and works in Brooklyn. He holds a BFA in Painting and Printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University and a MFA in Visual Arts from Purchase College, State University of New York (SUNY). He was an Emerging Artist-Teacher Fellow at Joan Mitchell Foundation and also taught at Purchase College, SUNY. He was awarded a 2018 Artist Community Engagement Grant from the Rema Hort Mann Foundation. Previously, he has participated in artist residencies at Joan Mitchell Center, Ragdale, and Sambalikhaan. In May 2018, he was an Artist-in-Residence at Ragdale for a second time, and in 2019, will be an Artist-in-Residence at Elmo’s House Artist Residency. His work has been included in exhibitions at JuiceBox Art Space, Norte Maar, Shockoe Artspace, Good Enough Projects, Quality Gallery, Scott Charmin Gallery, Fouladi Projects, The Gaylord & Dorothy Donnelly Foundation, Open Space, Outlet Fine Art, and ArtHelix. www.robertojamora.com
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