upcoming

Subdivision is a site-specific installation that references urban planning strategies and the built environment. The installation is comprised of six rolling structures fabricated from 2x4s, drywall and ceramic castings of Styrofoam packaging. The work is sited in a multi-use space, which Heidel exemplifies by placing the structures on casters and designing them to notch into the walls they are located in front of. Heidel subdivides the project space with these structures taking into consideration the flow of foot traffic. She visually echoes this idea of multi-use by creating repetitive patterns of one type of casting at a time. These patterns progress from one end of the room to the other, culminating in a mixed-use cityscape composed of hybrid castings. The castings reference both the brick, a building block of cities, and consumerism in relation to the buying, dividing and selling of land. The work can be interpreted as subdivisions of an aged cityscape merged with new construction that is built into the space rather than through it. The outcome is an emergent installation that can adjust according to the needs of the viewer.

Recent research includes: Redesigning the American Dream, Building Suburbia and The Power of Place by Dolores Hayden, The Power Broker by Robert A. Caro, and The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs.

This exhibition celebrates Heidel's first year as an Artist-in-Residence in the Ceramic and Casting area of Hunter College.

Gail Heidel received a M.F.A. from the University of Minnesota in May 2008, completed a Post-baccalaureate program in Ceramics at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in 2004, and earned a B.F.A. from The University of Connecticut in 1995. She currently works at the Clay Art Center in Port Chester, NY and lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Recent selected exhibitions include the invitational Project Spaces, NCECA, Phoenix, AZ (2009), a solo exhibition at Gaga Arts Center, Garnerville, NY (2009) the curated group exhibition It’s Not Easy, Exit Underground at Exit Art, New York, NY (2008), her M.F.A. Thesis Exhibition, Katherine Nash Gallery, Minneapolis, MN (2008), and the juried Untitled VI exhibition, Soo Visual Art Center, Minneapolis, MN (2007)

Directions:
Hunter College Project Space, Thomas Hunter Hall, basement level, New York, NY
6 subway to 68th Street
Enter on either the NW corner of Lexington Avenue btw 68th & 69th St or on north side of 68th St btw Park and Lex. Once in the building take a right, go up a small flight of stairs and then go down one flight to the basement.

www.hunter.cuny.edu

Project Space Hours:
The Project Space is open M-F, 10-8pm. Please email to set-up a meeting with the artist or to make other arrangements to view the exhibition at gailheidel@gmail.com

NCECA National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts

Gail Heidel has been invited to participate in a new NCECA event titled, "Project Spaces" at the Phoenix, AZ Convention Center. Heidel will be constructing a conceptual and sculptural 20 x 30’ installation, titled "Sprawl" that addresses the contemporary condition of interconnectivity within commerce, community and labor. The first step in this process was to connect with a local business in the Phoenix area to secure a loan of 150 six-foot ceramic pipes. The second step invites viewers to participate in the construction of the piece. The outcome of the project will reference the urban sprawl connecting the 15 urban villages of Phoenix.

Ceramic materials supplied by:
Mission Clay Products/Building Products Company
4850 West Buckeye Road, P.O. Box 18110, Phoenix, Arizona 85005
Tel: 602-272-5576; Fax: 602-269-7433 www.buildingproductscompany.com
 

GAGA arts center   

55 Railroad Ave.  Garnerville, NY   10923   -   845-947-7108   -   www.gagaartscenter.org

 GAGA Arts Center is a not-for-profit organization located in an historic
19^th century former textile mill in New York’s lower Hudson Valley.

 Our goal is to foster a creative dialogue between artists and their
community through the visual and performing arts.

PRESS RELEASE

Art Exhibition LAND OF THE LOST - Andréa Stanislav

Andréa Stanislav's new solo exhibition -- Land of the Lost -- is a site specific multimedia installation created for the GAGA space.  The installation is a dystopic “encampment” consisting of a sculptural formation of silver military tents.  Each tent has its own sonic and lighting element that creates a rhythmic pattern of light and sound emanating from within each sculpture.

There is a large scale video projection of a spectacular explosion of sculpture that the artist staged in the Great Salt Flats at the Bonneville Speedway -- creating a fireball that rose hundreds of feet above the salt desert.

Andréa Stanislav is a mutimedia artist who lives and works in Minneapolis and New York.  Stanislav's body of work is inspired by the language of film, architecture, and pop culture, and includes installation, sculpture, video, photography, and sound,.

Her installations create experiential environments exploring worlds we can see and worlds we can’t—but know intuitively are real.  Stanislav’s work has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions around the world.

In Gallery B, Brooklyn based emerging artist Gail Heidel presents her installation -- CONVERGE.

Converge is a two-part installation composed of 1123 modular bricks. The work references the contemporary condition of interconnectivity, the reliance on systems and the dualities found within these ideas through the metaphor of the cityscape.

The exhibition will run from November 7 to Dec 7.

Gallery hours: Fridays 5 to 8 PM and Saturdays 2 to 6 PM.

The opening reception will be on Friday, November 7th,  from 6 to 9 PM.
with a special live performance by Gamelan Son of Lion

Gamelan Son of Lion is a new music repertory ensemble based in downtown New York City specializing in contemporary pieces written for the instruments of the Javanese gamelan. Gamelan Son of Lion's instruments were built in village style by Barbara Benary using steel keys, cans for resonators, hubcaps for kempul, etc. There are about a hundred active gamelan ensembles in the United States at the current time. Gamelan Son of Lion now rates among the oldest of these, having performed continuously since 1976. It is also one of the few in this country which operate independently of institutions as a professional music ensemble.
 

- information or directions call: 845-947-7108 or go to:  www.gagaartscenter.org