Vegas Spray collaborated with Detroit-based curator Ashley Cook to situate ten artists from Detroit and Brisbane in an online exhibition and discussion. Both artist groups presented a recent portfolio of works, artist information, video interviews and links to associated online information. This was a curatorial experiment towards a common goal of cultural exchange, where the web platform became a space for the artists from both cities to develop an awareness of each other’s art culture and individual practice.
Below is the archive of information collected from the Brisbane and Detroit emerging artists.
Artists
Adriane Hayward (Brisbane)
Warren Handley (Brisbane)
Tammy Law (Brisbane)
Jasmin Coleman (Brisbane)
Carly Kotynski (Brisbane)
Ashley Cook (Detroit)
Chris Samuels (Detroit)
Melissa Dunkleberger (Detroit)
Daniel Ballance (Detroit)
Kurtis Greene (Detroit)
Adriane Hayward
Hayward’s current artistic practice is primarily concerned with objects that individuals surround themselves with and the stories these objects tell. In investigating the nature of these objects she aims to explore the construction of identity. She uses photography and scanning to capture intuitive arrangements of these objects. As we quietly enter Adriane Hayward’s photographic prints the microscopic details magnify into a multidimensional topography of cultural signification.
ravage you gently - aaron burton, giclee print 151 x 112 cm
Warren Handley
“I am interested in how we perceive space and form. How from the macro scale right down to the micro, certain forms visually reoccur throughout the universe. Similar to this idea of space and materiality, I’m interested in experimenting with the visual paradox between imagery that is digital and geometric yet organic and raw. The actual process of digitising a physical piece of material via the use of a scanner further perpetuates the conceptual boundaries between the tangible and the digital.”
Tammy Law
Tammy Law is currently based in Brisbane as a freelance photographer. She has recently returned from pursuing photo documentary stories throughout Asia. Her work questions the larger social context of the multiple stories within people’s everyday lives. She often focuses on community issues but has also experienced the sweaty pits of Japanese and Australian concert crowds and more seriously, ageing day-labourer homes in Japan, post- earthquake China and domestic living situations in Inner Mongolia. Her photographs have appeared in publications like the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Frankie Magazine, Voice works Magazine, The Courier Mail Online and Blueprint Magazine (UK).
Jasmin Coleman
Observations of the current dynamic and transformative face of Brisbane’s built/constructed environment are a central focus in my artistic practice. Particularly the constantly shifting and evolving relationships between real objects and their surrounding space. I am presently exploring these ideas through a process by which the formal design principles of Modernist Architecture and Geometric Abstraction Art are employed. A renewed interest in Kinetic Art has led me to begin new investigations into how I can most effectively use illusionistic painting devices to create a sense of three dimensionality and dynamicism to static flat surface supports, or to simple solid forms, whilst still producing artwork that retains it’s grounding in the ‘real’ and actual physical environment. For this reasons my choice of material and supports are often utilitarian, raw and honest such as concrete, metal and timber.
Carly Kotynski
I am a Brisbane based emerging artist with a background in graphic design. Sculpture is now the primary artform driving my practice and my work includes small scale pieces and commissioned public art. The concepts behind my work continually evolve and often derive from the context or the situation the artwork is created for. I believe no work is hermetic and the audience and location are given thoughtful consideration in relation to each piece I create. I endeavour to create artworks layered in meaning to allow the viewer their own unique reading. Materials, the method of construction and conceptual relationships are all important in my work which is divided between two different mediums – copper and sponge. The artworks created from these two materials differ dramatically both in style and meaning.
Ashely Cook
Chris Samuels
Mostly self taught, Christopher Samuels was raised in metro Detroit mixed with a brief stint in the deep south of Florida. At the age of 16 Samuels fled Florida to return to Detroit where he subsequently lived on the streets for several years. It was during this time that he cultivated his make-do mentality which helped forge the foundation of his current work. In 2008 Samuels co-founded the Debt Collective an artist collective whose purpose is to examine and comment on lower-middle-class life. The Debt Collective has exhibited in such notable venues as the Cass Café and the Anton Art Center. In 2009 he co-founded the artist-run gallery, Org Contemporary located in the Russell Industrial Center. His work has been shown throughout Michigan including a solo exhibition at the Museum Of New Art. Samuels currently lives and works in Detroit, Mi.
Melissa Dunkleberger
The American infrastructure is politically, economically and social is based upon a cultural dependency on oil. This installation is used to create an awareness of oil usage in everyday products of the American lifestyle, some even detrimental to life, such as food. The idea of a quily represents the wholesome American vernacular of comfort upheld by oil creating false security. Also quilting offers the handmade rather than the manufactured, the basis of where the dependency began in American history.
Kurtis Greene
there is a crack in my windshield and my tires are going bald
this is the price paid for taking the scenic route
purity is ignorance
purity does not know why it refrains from the things that it does not do
the greatest tragedy in this world is to be bored and remain that way
contentment is the most debilitating emotion that anyone can feel
sell off all of the time you have but at some point
you will still have to put yourself at someone else’s mercy.
Kurtis Greene
Kurtis Greene
Kurtis Greene
Daniel Ballance
