LADIES FIRST
Artists:
Elaine Bradford
Margarita Cabrera
Ali Fitzgerald
Jessica Halonen
Lauren Kelley
Bari Ziperstein
March 12 – May 1, 2010
Art Palace’s first group exhibition in Houston brings together the work of six distinctly different artists. Together, these artists create surprising intersections and uncomfortable conversations. These works force us, the viewer, to re-evaluate our understanding of the works, ourselves and what we take for granted.
Art Palace, at Isabella Court, proudly introduces… LADIES FIRST
About the Artists:
Elaine Bradford received her MFA from California Institute of the Arts and is now living and working in Houston, Texas. Currently an artist in residence at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, Bradford has been mining the shelves of hobby stores for everyday craft materials to create fanciful microcosms and bizarre hybrid creatures. She is a founding member of Box 13 ArtSpace. Bradford’s work has been exhibited in numerous group shows throughout the United States and she is a recent recipient of the Individual Artist Fellowship Grant from the Houston Arts Alliance.
Margarita Cabrera was born in Monterrey, Mexico, received her MFA from Hunter College and was a 2008 ArtPace resident. She is a visiting assistant professor at University of Houston and a recipient of a Joan Mitchell Foundation grant. Her work explores issues of border relations, Mexican immigration, economic exchange and notions of the “American dream.” Cabrera’s current work is made in collaboration with Mexican immigrants that chronicles personal stories of transformation in hand-embroidered soft sculpture. This work will debut as part of In Lieu of Unity, a group exhibition at Ballroom Marfa, later this spring.
Ali Fitzgerald was born in Oakland, California, received her MFA from the University of Texas and now lives and works in Berlin, Germany. In her new series of small works, Fitzgerald draws from an elaborate lexicon of girlhood mytho-sexual fears and startling transformations. First staging modest, quirky sculptures and dioramas, Fitzgerald subsequently translates these into elegant, unnerving and often funny painted vignettes. Most recently, Fitzgerald’s work was included in There Goes My Hero at The Center For Book Arts in New York City; The Scene at KUB Galerie in Leipzig, Germany; and Berliner Liste, in Berlin, Germany. Her work has been featured in Art in America, The New York Times,Beautiful/Decay, Artlies! and Glasstire.
Jessica Halonen received her MFA from Washington University and is now an assistant professor at Trinity University. Her work has been shown in numerous exhibitions, notably at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Park Project and Dallas Center for Contemporary Art. Her work is in the permanent collections at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston and the Museum of Southeast Texas. From 2000-2001 she was a Core Fellow at the Glassell School of Art, Museum of Fine Arts Houston and was recently an artist in residence at the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire. Halonen’s recent work explores the relationships between the body, nature and medical world as it explores the issues surrounding the use of genetically modified plants in the pharmaceutical industry.
Lauren Kelley is an inaugural recipient of the New Museum’s Altoids Award as well as the Artadia Houston Prize. She received her MFA from The Art Institute of Chicago. Kelley was a resident of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Design, a Fellow in the Museum of Fine Arts Houston Core Program and currently is an artist in residence with the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York. The work featured in LADIES FIRST reflects a project she started during her residency with the Core program last year.
Bari Ziperstein was born in Chicago, Illinois, received her MFA from California Institute of the Arts and now lives and works in Los Angeles, California. Ziperstein works as a site-specific sculptor, photographer, collage and ceramic artist interested in activating space through intervention and organization. Most recently Ziperstein’s work was the focus of Perk, a solo exhibition at PDC in West Hollywood, California. She debuted a collection of sculptures, transforming an empty design showroom into an uncanny quintessential model domestic space.