The Nave Gallery is proud to have in residence Kathy Desmond and Lauren O’Neal.
This residency is a continuously shifting site-specific installation where Desmond and O’Neal experiment with different modes of making, paying attention to unexpected resonances and inviting new ideas into the process. The residency draws from, and critiques, the idea of classical, unchanging forms.
Columns and gates inspired by Rome are opened up as sites of exchange. They become dynamic spaces of the present, rather than unchanging, and unyielding, permanent markers of the past. Using materials including wire, graphite, and projection, the artists devise situations within these classical scenarios where conversations take place in and around the work. Echoes of the conversations are woven back into the installation. Throughout the residency, the artists ask how a ‘curatorial dramaturgy’ can guide, reframe, and expand the notion of the art object.
RESIDENCY DATES
January 14-March 1, 2019
RECEPTION
Friday, March 1, 2019; 6:00 pm-8:00 pm
Facebook event
LOCATION:
Nave Gallery (Teele Square), 155 Powder House Blvd, Somerville, MA
ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Kathy Desmond exhibits her work internationally and nationally in venues such as: the Lönnström Art Museum in Finland and the Art Gallery of Hamilton, Ontario, the Alternative Museum (New York), The Creative Arts Workshop (New Haven), Tufts University, The Nave Gallery and The Windows Art Project/Somerville Arts Council (Somerville, MA) among others. In addition, her video portraits have been screened at the DoubleTake/Full Frame Film Festival, Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center, and CineWomen NY. Her work is in the collections of The Lönnström Art Museum (Finland) and Electronic Arts Intermix. She has been an artist-in-residence at organizations including the American Academy in Rome and the Vermont Studio Center. Desmond holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy, Aesthetics and Art Theory from the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts, an M.F.A. in Studio for Interrelated Media from Massachusetts College of Art and Design, a B.F.A. in Sculpture from Kansas City Art Institute and she also studied at the Rhode Island School of Design. She is a professor of visual communications and studio art at Endicott College.
Lauren O’Neal has exhibited her artwork at the Portland Museum of Art, the Housatonic Museum of Art, Purdue University, the Somerville Museum, and the Theater Academy of Finland, and has performed in the work of Trisha Brown and Heidi Latsky. She has been a recipient of grants and residencies from Vermont Studio Center, the Somerville Arts Council, the Nave Gallery, and Artscape Gibraltar Point. As an arts writer, she has written for Art New England and The Art Guide. She has presented her work and research at conferences including the College Art Association Annual Conference, the Nordic Forum for Dance Research, the European Artistic Research Network Conference, and Marist College. Currently, O’Neal is the director and curator of the Lamont Gallery at Phillips Exeter Academy. She has also taught at the Boston University’s Graduate Arts Administration Program and Massachusetts College of Art + Design, among others. O’Neal received her MFA from Maine College of Art, and an Ed.M. from Harvard University. She is pursuing doctoral research at the University of the Arts Helsinki.
