Handplant
Allyson Mellberg and Jeremy Taylor
Sept 7th - Oct 7th 2007
Opening Reception Friday September 7th 7-10pm
See Opening Pics
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 Allyson Mellberg |
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 Jeremyu Taylor |
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 Allyson Mellberg |
 Jeremy Taylor |
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 Jeremy Taylor |
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In Handplant, Allyson Mellberg and Jeremy Taylor address the
dysfunctional relationship humans have with nature in their depictions
of maimed and diseased animals and people in drawings, paintings,
porcelain and soft sculpture. While their characters can be quite
grotesque, a tenderness and sense of humor prevails, empowering the
deformed as well as invigorating the viewer to think about their own
actions. Fine-line rendered hairy creatures grow tails and cuddle with
deformed humans while pock-marked boys in their underwear unite in
solidarity with sickly deer, hugging and riding each other around
despite their ailments.
All of the materials used to make the work for Handplant are natural and non-toxic: homemade walnut ink washes mix with squid and spinach inks to create beautiful natural color tones that also act as viable alternatives to toxic paints and chemicals. A healthy optimism shines through all of the work via their partnership with nature in their art-making practice, as well as the images themselves, which are able to return us to the fantastical qualities of nature and animals that we seem to easily forget in our increasingly industrialized world. Allyson Mellberg and Jeremy Seth Taylor currently live and work in Charlottsville,VA. They have exhibited at Lump Gallery and Branch Gallery in North Carolina, Milwaukee Art Museum, Baltimore Art Museum, Plus Ultra in Brooklyn and numerous times at Cinders Gallery. |