PAST EXHIBITIONS Cycles - 2007 Celebrating women in the arts April 19th / May 4th Opening reception April 22nd - 6.oo.pm  This year Westnorth Studio pays homage to Women in the arts with “Cycles”. An exhibition of diverse works from five women: Grace Graupe – Pillard graphite drawings of her mother’s final days, Chevelle Makeba Jones acrylic paintings recounts a loss and a rebirth, Helen Elliot’s nuanced enamels, Nina Squires responds to beheading” and Paula Whaley’s master full dolls. These women working in a range of media renders expression to experiences with life and death. Participating Artists: Chevelle M. Jones Grace Graupe-Pillard Helen Elliott Nina Squires and Paula Whaley FIGMENT OF SPEECH - 2007 Feb.15th to March 2nd. 2007 A multimedia exhibition that examines how we experience language. The show attempts to reconnect words to their most potent and tangible meanings. Multi-sensory encounters are presented through video, installation, sculpture, and 2D work. This re-contextualization reveals complexities within our linguistic structure and presents language as a force able to both communicate and confuse. Organized by Matti Havens and Chris LaVoie. Other participating artists include: Charlie Hahn, Becky Alprin, David Sloan, Kyle Miller, scrapworm and Sam Miller. ......................................................................................................................................... The Chair - 2006 Paper Chase: from "the chair" Altskape July 19th to July 30th 2006 gender [f]: MARCH 26 - April 28th 2006 Participating artists: Gard Jones, Paula Whaley, Chevelle Makeba M. Jones, William Rhodes .................................................................................................... ALTSKAPE - 2006 : A Series of exhibitions,out door installations and street performances, to run parallel with ARTSCAPE 2006. Westnorth Studio will host a group exhibition of Sculpture,Photographs,and other art works that were inspired by the chair, with contributions from Artists: Vivian Mc Duffie, Chevelle M. Jones, Gard Jones. Connie Wheeler, William Rhode, Paula Whaley and Grace Graupe- Pillard. OPENING RECEPTION: WED. July 19th from 7.30 pm to 11.pm. .......................... STREET SCAPE - FILM SCAPE : a live performance ( side walk theatre) with Pierre Bennu and Mario Moorehead - Sat July 22nd & Sun. July 23rd. @ 8.pm both nights / Westnorth studio entrance. Tour De Clay - 2005 GROUP SHOW : Centered by Land and Sky Matt Kelleher and Amy Smith SOLO : Earthen Influences Kevin Turner  FEB.19th - MARCH 19th, 2005 WESTNORTH STUDIO joins 122 venues with 160 exhibitions throughout the greater Baltimore region in celebrating Tour de Clay 2005. Two exhibitions featuring works by Kevin Turner Earthen Influences and Amy Smith and Matt Kelleher Centered by Land and Sky opening February 19th from 6pm to 9pm. Drawn to the tactile nature of the material, forgiveness and memory are words used by Kevin Turner to relate to the diverse facility and adaptability of clay as an artistic medium of choice. Turners affinity to the material and his natural surroundings is evident in his large sculptured vessels with references to patterns,topographical and tectonic shapes of the landscape. Turner is a graduate of Southern Illinois University, and University of Mississippi. He teaches art at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, in Gautier, and has won several awards and prizes for his work. Matt Kelleher talks about the process of clay passing through his fingers, and finding  balance between volume pushing out and force squeezing in, clean line and the opportunity to engage intuitive responses to information left on the material by his tools. Kelleher's simple yet sophisticated surfaces breathe with rich earthen colors and lines that are easy to follow. Utility is central to his work...Their forms are recognizable and their utility makes them inclusive, Kelleher says. Kelleher has had more than a dozen solo exhibitions, in addition to representation in group exhibitions across the United States since 1995. Currently an Assistant Professor at Ohio University Athens, Ohio, Kelleher was a Visiting Artist and Adjunct Professor at Wichita Sate University, Wichita, KS in 2003. Amy Smith's work is centered on the Vessel, utility being the central link between the two artists in their Land and Sky Collection. Smith refers to sensual, voluptuous, and positive bodily experiences as inspiration for her work. Colors are cool with a patina that sometimes appears more neutral than present. Her forms are well crafted, and fused with a spontaneous energy that can be playful and formal all at once. Smith studied ceramics and drawing at Ohio University and is an MFA Graduate of Nebraska University. She  has been a visiting artist and instructor at Nebraska Wesleyan University and The University of  Nebraska, Lincoln among others, and has won several awards for her work. .................................................................................................... THE SUMMER EXIT SHOW-2005 Works by : Kofi Kayiga, Helen Elliott, Tony Mc Kissic and roycrosse September - November 14th, 2005.  Star - Journey : Kofi Kayiga - Acrylic on Tar paper. ................................................................................................... The Halloween Project-2005 Video installation by Grace Graupe – Pillard Thursday October 27th – November 9th, 2005 Opening Reception on October 31st from 8pm - 11p ................................................................................................................................................................................................... Grace Graupe-Pillard - 2004 Nov. 14th - Dec. 15th, 2004 The Politics of Fear / a solo exhibition by GRACE GRAUPE-PILLARD- Painter, Public Artist, NY For the past few years I have been working on a series of paintings entitled "Manipulation/Dis-integration" based on my obsession with the disasters of war, be it in Iraq, Afghanistan, Middle East or elsewhere in the community of nations. My personal fixation has propelled me to create a body of work depicting images of explosions, tents, nomads and refugees, bordering on the abstract, using strong color - intentional "sugar coating" - so that the unpalatable is made visually palatable - a form of seductive camouflage. I use digital filters to portray "reality" blown apart and mediated by the computer as metaphorically news information is literally "filtered." INTERVENTIONS  are a series of photographs addressing the "politics of fear" . I want to make visually evident (sometimes to the point of absurdity) the scare-tactics that  entrenched political leaders use to manipulate power. These photographs  depict images of soldiers, car-bombings, ruins, explosions, etc. which I have digitally embedded into NYC and Baltimore, MD. streets and parks reflecting not only the ongoing tragic repercussions of war, but the equally poignant cultural divide among nations. Using a strategy employing the power of art to seduce, transform and enlighten the viewer, controversial and disturbing images are presented through the lens of vivid color in the hope that the works' touched-up reality will increase the awareness of trauma and our mutual humanity. The content of the photographs that I am depicting might be deemed controversial because of the focus on wars being fought in "far-off places" with its ensuing devastation being re-sited to locations in NYC and Baltimore Md. The form the "implanted" imagery takes is fairly abstract contrasting vivid color with the grayness of reality. My audience is the average American citizen - the public that is questioning political decisions made in our name. The issues I address are not just visually limited to the war in the Middle East, but rather addressing conflict and encounters occurring throughout the globe. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ June 20th to July 30th 2004 Neighborhood Archive Project/Mardi Gras Afternoon  Photo by : Bruce Mc Neil The Exhibition: a collection of photographs Mark Clark , Hank  Ferrand, Harlee Little, Bruce Mc Neil and Michael Platt - the TBA artist group- have focused their lenses on the inhabitants of the old Washington Sanitary Housing  Company©ˆs apartments in DC. The complex was so named because they were the first in the Southwest to have indoor plumbing and bathrooms. As a group, the artists have photographed over one hundred of the area's residents, recalling personalities and the spirit of a neighborhood, its ethnic and cultural diversity. A community of civil servants, ministers, underground dwellers, working women, alcoholics, pushers, transsexuals, professionals, many of them long time home owners. Some of them with links to the area that can be traced  back more than five generations. The large scale photographs, up to  68 by 44 inches, capture a moment in the lives of a community in transition. Faces of reflection, amusement, power, trouble, vulnerability, sorrow, curiosity,youth, laughter and wisdom. photo by Bruce Mc neil Carrollsburg, named after a Maryland  plantation owner, lies on the east side of the 1200 hundred block of Half Street and both sides of Carroll Place. It was the site of one of the nation©ˆs first urban renewal projects in 1908.  It  narrowly escaped demolition in the sixties, and now  stands at the center of the site proposed for a new development. A project that will see the construction of new residential, commercial, and office complex.  The exhibition pulls together, a neighborhood of public and private faces, commanding and sometimes troubling portraits, compelling the viewer to draw into the variegated composite of an  animated inner city neighborhood, its flesh and bones. Area residents who participated in the project were given an 8 x 10 portrait. The works in the exhibition were printed with archival inks on Tyvek, a durable polymer often used as a vapor barrier in new construction. ................................................................................................................................... THE DRAWING SHOW-2004 : Tony McKissic Tony Mc Kissic explores the gray areas between, line and mass, dark and light.  Although there are four color panels in this collection, it is his affinity for working without color that is essential to understanding this survey. Mc Kissic, in a very fundamental way is a prolific visual explorer. Testing the boundaries of a color less palette he ventures onto paper, canvas and in some instances aluminum, with line, texture, intuitive markings and deep wells of blackness and added collage elements. In one series he constructs a group of miniature box like assemblages that fall some where between sculpture and wall hangings. The pieces, composed with found materials that include fabric and wood as the main stay, are all black, and rely on the contrasting nature the of materials and texture to give them drama. In another yet larger group of small works on paper, he pushes lines in and out of a structured format, seemingly at random, adding scratches and marks all of which adds up  to diverse visual vocabulary. At first glance, one might expect the scale of "chroma" to be the seductive element in these works.  But it is not so much the range of blackness available to Mc Kissic that is most appealing, but rather the economy of architecture, and simple gestures that hold the pieces together. Working with graphite, ink, and paints, the artist combines his raw out pouring with formal constructs, building relationships with and around rectilinear shapes, with linear meanderings, and playful scrawls, doing all manner of things to the surface. In a conversation about his work, Mc Kissic likens his marks and surface abrasions to that of scratching an itch:  "that can't be gotten to by any other means" . A natural impulse.     The Maryland Institute College of Art graduate was born in Hywickham, London and immigrated to the USA in 1976 with his family. They settled in the District of Columbia where the teen age Mc Kissic attended high school. After high school in DC, he attended Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland and Pratt in Brooklyn, NY but would return to Baltimore, and MICA to pursue a Masters in Art Education. roycrosse/2004/  excerpted from an essay: the drawing show. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- WOMEN AT WORK II - 2004 A collection of works on paper by the Women Printmaking Association of Austin, Texas and drawings by Miriam Brumer of New York April 29th - May 27th, 2004 The WPA collection will extend over the range of printmaking possibilities, placing traditional techniques up against more innovative styles and experimentation with contemporary materials. In almost all of these works the figure remains at the core of  the collective's  offering. The group in operation since 1995, subsidizes press time for its members and encourage trading and portfolios exchange annually . Honolulu Academy Art Center and Northern Printmakers Alliance are among some of their trading partners Several of the women teach at Art schools and Colleges. Collectively they have been represented in exhibitions across Latin America, Europe, Canada and the USA, with works included in many important public and private collections in the USA and abroad. Representing WPA are:  Anna Marie Pavlik, Belinda Casey, Bonnie Gammill, Carol Hayman. Janet Badger, Kathleen Baker Pitman, Linda Genet, Marisa Boullosa,  Margaret Craig, Sylvia Betts,Sandra Fernandez, and Theresa  Bond. Miriam  Brumer : with a recent solo exhibition at the Wooster Arts Space in New York, adds the only drawings to the cadre of works on paper. In these works she uses inks and markers to saturate her surfaces with brilliantly colors abstract forms alluding to an organic yet unspecified life. Brumer holds an MFA in painting from Boston University and a BA in Art and English from the University of Miami, Florida. She is currently Museum Educator and Adult Programs Coordinator at the Queens Museum of Art, New York. Her work is in the collections of Chase Manhattan Bank, The New York Bank for Savings, Bell Labs, as well as in private collections. In addition, author Valerie Wilson Wesley will read from her new Novel: "Playing My Mothers Blues" on the afternoon of May 1st from 2 to 4.pm The award winning author is well know for her Tamara Hayes Mysteries, which are also published in Great Britain, France Germany and Poland. ................................................................................................................ VESTIGES - Irene Chan - 2004. September 16 - October 22, 2004 Vestiges : a solo  exhibition of recent works on paper by artist Irene Chan. Opening reception on Thursday September 16th. 2004 from 6.30 pm to 9.pm. She is a recipient of the Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award for 2004, in the category of works on paper. Irene Chan has a talent for experimentation and innovation, she: ©¯investigates the forces that are the basis of our everyday world©˜. She is interested in patterns, natural phenomena, growth and decay. Chan sets up situations that allow us to experience each step of an evolving work, through this process she traces and records subtle changes in the nature of the materials she uses. The resulting work is a bonus. Chan seeks to unearth the hidden, the ephemeral and subtle, to reveal new and yet to be discovered truths about us and our surroundings. Influenced by Chinese philosophy as well as that of her own making. She looks to the past for prompts and cues that speak to the here and now. In this collect of works on paper, we will see : artist books, a range of printmaking,and sculpture. Ms. Chan's prints, artist's books, and handmade paper are included in the permanent collections of the New York Public Library; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco; The Newberry Library in Chicago; the Institute of Paper Science and Technology in Atlanta; and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. She has been an artist-in residence at Women's Studio Workshop in Rosendale, New York where she produced an artist book series that was supported with a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York Arts Council. Other residencies include The Minnesota Center for Book Arts in Minneapolis and the Millay Colony for the Arts in Austerlitz, New York. Ms . Chan will present a talk on her work on October 17th. 2004 @ 2.pm. ................................................................................................................. The HALLOWEEN PROJECT / 2004 - Stewart Watson  Stewart Watson : Cast sugar and metal ................................................................................... GENDER [ f ] Curated by Deb King - 2004 Opens on Sunday March 26th with a reception from 6 to 8.pm. The exhibition is free and open to the public. In 2004, an open call was issued for women artists and writers to participate in a collective online event - gender [f] - to address issues of gender, racial and economic biases resulting in systemic violence against women and minorities. This project arose from the unseemly juxtaposition of a "war on terror" with the every day realities faced by women living in cultures that enforce female circumcision, do not give equal value for to equal work based on cultural bias, tacitly accept violent domestic situations, use sexual intimidation as a military tactic and fear of reprisal as a cultural control. The title of this project, gender[f] designates a programmatic function. That array — gender — holds the unlimited — [f] — issues and/or representations of women in society. The Westnorth Studio exhibition of the visual artists taking part in gender [f] occurs at a time when global violence, emanating from ethnic, religious and gender-based biases, enters our lives daily. Hopefully, this exhibition will spur a dialogue of compassion and emphasize the need for us all to enter the global discourse. Dedicated to the the over 400 murdered and disappeared women of Juarez who worked in the maquiladoras of Juarez, gender[f] represents the collective voice of fifty women from different geographical, disciplinary and theoretical backgrounds. The original project this exhibition can be found at target="new">http://gender-f.com Deb King. ...................................................................................................... VOLUNTART EXILE - 2003 Caribbean Contemporary Artists. September to October 2003. Helen Elliott - Carl Hazlewood- Arlinghton Weighters- Kofi Kayiga Dudley Charles - roycrosse. http://gender-f.comshapeimage_1_link_0