July 2020

Fragments of Reality

Erin Cameron & Sky Dai

Virtual Opening • July 10, 2020, 7p
Facebook Premiere • https://bit.ly/934FOROpening

Artist Talk & Closing Reception • August 18, 2020, 1p

Artist Bio • Erin Cameron

Erin Cameron works in a variety of media including drawing, painting, and printmaking. Her latest artwork utilizes a system akin to collage to challenge and reimagine images found in popular culture and fashion magazines, which contain notions of beauty, corresponding enhancements, and methods of preservation.

Erin was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 2008 from Ohio Wesleyan University with concentrations in painting and drawing. She went on to study printmaking at The Ohio State University and graduated with a Master of Fine Arts in 2012. She currently lives and works in Columbus, Ohio.

Portfolio site: http://www.erincameronstudio.com/

Artist Statement • Erin Cameron

My current work focuses on physical alterations undertaken for the sake of desirability. I draw inspiration from advertisements and photographs found in magazines which tend to reflect the broader related trends in the world today. Whether it be routine gestures of primping, or more extreme methods such as cosmetic surgery, I question the actions and motivations of people seeking to fit a perceived standard of beauty. This standard is increasingly synthetic, manufactured, and fake and requires more outrageous measures of those who aim to meet it. The willingness to physically remove, add, stretch, lift, and cut into healthy tissue is an especially disturbing yet fascinating trend which often drives my compositions. I repeat these actions in my drawings and paintings through a process of collage by rearranging, resizing, and at times physically cutting apart fragments of faces, body parts, mechanical objects, and various other bits and pieces. The resulting images are mutations. Unnatural, asymmetrical, out of proportion, and deliberately unreal. These contorted portraits and impossible anatomical arrangements offer an alternative narrative which highlights the absurd demands of the ideal human form.

Artist Bio • Sky Dai (Pronouns: They/Them)

Sky Dai works primarily as an oil painter, capturing repressed memories in surreal self portraits. Dai identifies as a queer, non-binary, disabled orphan who never runs out of stories or improvisational dance moves. Currently, they are in an artist-in-residence at Bunker Projects in Pittsburgh, PA. Dai received a BFA in fine arts and creative writing at Columbus College of Art & Design. Dai has exhibited in galleries nationally such as Studio C Gallery in Los Angeles, Awakenings Gallery in Chicago, and the 2018 Southern Miss Ceramics National in New Orleans. They received 1st place in both the poetry and prose writing contests at Columbus College of Art & Design. They have also attended School of The Alternative on the site of Black Mountain College, as both a student and as faculty of a meditative movement dance class. Sky Dai teaches and practices weight cycling in contact improvisation dance and is currently quarantined with a Disney villain, a buddhist, a poodle, and a haunted doll.

Portfolio site: https://skydai.squarespace.com

Artist Statement • Sky Dai

A raw egg hanging from a tree branch, a minivan set on fire, rainbow figures huddled around a birthday cake. My oil paintings address traumatic memory and recovery through compositions that intertwine personal symbolism and self portraiture, spawning vibrant and fantastical worlds. Inspired by how traumatic stress causes the brain to collage fragments of memory, my paintings reflect my emotional process—unraveling repressed memories and contemplating what could be—often set within the dimension of the childhood home I fled from. As an act of reprocessing traumatic experiences, I rewrite my narrative within a whimsical world where harsh memories become less distressing—fathers are painted as punching bags, an empty dollhouse as a holder for lost memories, and a series of lumpy ladder sculptures made of dog hair, pantyhose, or aquaresin symbolize a way out.

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