FARMER'S ALMANAC
2/5-3/18 2021
Opening Reception: 2/5 6-9pm
Cleo the Gallery is pleased to present ‘Farmer’s Almanac’ with work by Natan Lawson, Laurence Veri, Julia Autumn Savoy, and Alexandra Nemaric. This exhibition focuses on individualizing kitsch symbology. Through the hand made to the machine aided pieces present here there is a building of mark making that complicates images of ducks, flowers, and butterflies. When given closer study of their compositions, a deep appreciation is found in the renditions of these saccharine figures. It is the personal associations and connections of mass produced kitsch imagery that make their way to memorabilia with the respect from these makers.
Lawson’s work is created through programming a machine to paint the layers of each work. Short strokes are a trademark of the artist and nineteen hour days spent in the studio making sure the machine is performing a smooth operation is a labor of love for the images rendered. What is built in the symbiosis of artist and machine is concerned with older modes of working: needlepoint. The final body of work is an homage to pattern and sweet emblems of his memoried look into this mode of making.
Savoy combines both handmade and machine aided methodologies to create her imagery. The kitsch is present in the laser cut smile on a bench, the sugar flower cutouts attached to her belts, and the hand beaded belts themselves. The culmination of these designs remember the brazen style at the turn of the 21st century and, with the age of the artist, a coming into her own during a time when expression was inexhaustible under logos, pattern, and camp.
Veri’s technique involves the hand building of clay figurines with butterflies and tiles with crude anthropomorphic figures. While experimenting with different techniques and materials that deviate from the typical makeup of ceramic builds, she sticks to recognizable references in her renderings. The final products are either something to be found in a garden, reminiscent of bird baths or fountains, or first marks being made through trying to capture forms of the surrounding world. Ultimately in both there is a place for imagination to find grounding.
Nemaric’s tie dye similar drawings including images of ducks, a human heart, as well as other forms that are abstracted from reality, are constructed on marker strokes. It is a tool in tangent with crayons and pencils that serve first mark making. The images create moments stradling fantasy, a leg attached to a cup or the burst of color from the center of a silver form. In all of this is a flash of elation centered in the kitsch of tie dye and a nod back to the ecstatic ways of making in youth.
Natan Lawson (b. Baltimore, MD) received a BFA in Painting from Rhode Island School of Design. He currently lives and works in Baltimore, MD.
natanlawson.com / @hotandsoursoup
Julia Autumn Savoy (b. Montreal, CAN) received a BFA in Studio Arts from Concordia University. She currently lives and works in Montreal, CAN.
@papillon_ivoire
Laurence Veri (b. Montreal, CAN) received a BFA in Visual Arts from Concordia University. She lives and works in Montreal, CAN.
laurenceveri.cargo.site / @louveri
Alexandra Nemaric (b. Melbourne, AUS) received a BFA in Drawing and Print Media from Victorian College of the Arts. She currently lives and works in Point Leo, AUS.
alexandra-nemaric.com / @thecryingorc
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Photos by Jacob Edenfield
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