Operating from a live-work space in Berkeley, Traywick Contemporary engages a wide, assorted community of artists and audiences through an extensive schedule of programs and exhibitions, including special projects and events. Its summer group exhibition, “Build” includes local artists Bean Finneran, Karrie Hovey, Prajakti Jayavant, Jenna Kuiper, Annie O’Dorisio and Maria Porges whose practices seek to emphasize and symbolize or illustrate within their art objects the artist’s process of making. All the artists in the show, says Traywick Contemporary “are inspired by the elemental nature of materials and the processes that ultimately transform them.” By seeking to reveal facets of not only building and assembling the objects: sewing, multiple layering, and collaging but also through the aspects which are still visible once the work is completed: its folds, drawings, and paintings, “Build” is also an intriguing examination into the art making process; believed to be a somewhat secretive facet of art that takes place secluded in the artist’s studio, but, as Traywick Contemporary’s group show contends, can at many times be revealed through the artwork.

A wide breadth of conceptual and practical means in investigating the act of making and how it is expressed visually in the completed piece are explored in this group show. Created by stacking and interweaving thousands of colorful, hand-rolled, fired clay tubes, Bean Finneran‘s installations are assembled using no modes of permanent joining. Rather, she carefully balances the individual components into both small and large scale sculptural objects. The act of making becomes inherent in the properties of the art itself. In a similar manner, another participating artist, Prajakti Jayavant also retains process and properties into one. Using a single sheet of paper, Jayavant builds up its surface with a monochromatic palette in oil and acrylic, then propels the paper from two dimensional to three, making a visual piece into a sculptural one by bending, cutting, and folding. The folds’ creases and wrinkles, exacerbated by the painted surface, also act as a record of the artist’s actions in creating the work. However, artwork like Annie O’Dorisio reveals how more convoluted artistic process are expressed in the finished piece with more subtlety. By integrating more mediums and approaches, works like O’Dorisio’s invigorate the act of making and show perhaps a more laborious nature of artwork. O’Dorisio’s works on paper include abstract imagery that contain multiple, complementary patterns made with colored ink and sewn wool thread. Each needle’s thoughtful puncture of the paper, which contribute to both the texture and dimensionality of the shape’s properties, also contribute a ‘craft’ element, for which ‘making’ and ‘makers’ have commonly been attributed. In this way, “Build” aims to reveal the vast array of artists’ working processes, and how that is implemented in their finished pieces.

 

“Build” will be on view through August 16 at Traywick Contemporary, 895 Colusa Avenue, Berkeley; appointment is strongly recommended.