Los Angeles Times: Brand Library puts 'Man Made' art on display
“Constructed at the Fringes” by Chelsea Dean, on display at the Man Made exhibition at the Brand Library & Art Center. (Courtesy of Shannon Currie Holmes and Chelsea Dean)
March 15, 2017
by Jeff Landa
EXCERPT:
Dean used to exclusively photograph mid-century modern spaces until she discovered abandoned locations during her frequent trips to the desert.
“I would find myself finding these little structures peeking along the freeway and I started investigating,” Dean said. “I fell in love with seeing these spaces in their very true and honest form ... There’s a lot of history and stories to be found within each of those spaces.”
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An exhibit that examines the way people engage with an urban environment will be on display at the Brand Library & Art Center starting Saturday and running through May 6.
“Man Made” features works by seven female artists who explore the intersection of manufactured structures and nature in each of their pieces. The Los Angeles-based artists participating in the exhibit are Jacqueline Bell Johnson, Anita Bunn, Chelsea Dean, Jennifer Gunlock, Jenene Nagy, Michelle Robinson and Sinziana Velicescu.
Exhibition supervisor Shannon Currie Holmes culled from a large pool of artists and brought the seven together based on a inadvertent through-line of “urban ecology.”
“They are all dealing with the same ideas around how we engage with our environment and especially around the footprint that we leave,” Currie Holmes said. “Also, this idea of what is around us all the time but we don’t really pay attention to.”
Among the artists’ works, Bunn’s photographs examine the way shared spaces in an urban environment shift with each instance of viewing them.
Velicescu summons philosopher Michel Foucault in her photography, which probes utilitarian architecture in the greater L.A area.
Dean will exhibit 10 pieces, one of them a raised, hand-cut photograph that observes forgotten structures by a highway using found objects from the site.
Dean used to exclusively photograph mid-century modern spaces until she discovered abandoned locations during her frequent trips to the desert.
“I would find myself finding these little structures peeking along the freeway and I started investigating,” Dean said. “I fell in love with seeing these spaces in their very true and honest form ... There’s a lot of history and stories to be found within each of those spaces.”
Workshops and discussions tied to the exhibit will be announced later.
For more information, visit brandlibrary.org.