“Objects in Perspective: Collaboration by Aspen Hochhalter & Natalie Abrams” opens Thursday with a reception from 5-7 p.m. in Pease Gallery. See you there!

In a new effort to raise funds for educational programming for the galleries, we now encourage our exhibiting artists to bring in small art pieces to sell during their shows

Aspen Hochhalter is showing smaller prints of her huge photographs on view, and selling them for $25.These were made with an antique technique called Wet Plate Collodion, which involved priming a glass plate with a chemical solution and capturing an image of a subject by exposing the plate to light, thereby creating an “ambrotype.” Aspen’s ambrotypes of these and the larger images are also on view in the exhibition. They capture minute details in Natalie Abrams’ encaustic wax sculptures, also on view.

(these, as well as small encaustic sculptures by Natalie Abrams, will also be available during our Friends & Family Market!)

Take a look:

“Objects in Perspective: Aspen Hochhalter and Natalie Abrams” is now on view in Pease Gallery.

Information
September 15 – November 6
Reception October 2, 5-7 pm
Hochhalter Lecture – Thursday, October 9, 3:00 p.m. in Pease Auditorium
Abrams Lecture – Wednesday, October 22, 3:00 p.m. in Pease Auditorium

Statement

The sense of history and landscape is almost palpable where Aspen Hochhalter and Natalie Abrams grew up, in the areas surrounding Colorado Springs, Colorado. Dusty red mesas and lined strata broken by pine forest and electric red scrub oak where one periodically finds fields of scorched and carbonized earth. Kitsch curio shops filled with rusty antiques and photo studios where people dress in period clothing to pose before a bellows camera where you too can look like the sheriff, a proper lady, or a not- so-proper lady.

This collaboration explores the transformation of form into space by the manipulation of perspective and scale through the photographic lens. As these elements shift in relation to each other our sense of scale is lost and the photographs cease to present merely form, but coalesce into ambiguous “scapes” that exude a sense of place, landscape and history. During the nineteenth century, wet plate collodion—one of the earliest photographic techniques—was used to document the exploration of the new frontiers in the American west; exotic, surreal landscapes emerged that challenged and expanded our experience of space and land. In this joint project, Hochhalter uses the wet plate collodion photo process to photograph Abrams’ sculptural works, at times drawing out the very grains of ochre pigment suspended in a wax based medium.The imperfections of voids and brush lines add to the sense of time. The monolithic presentation of these images enhance the connotations of ambiguous landscape that not only reference the cliff faces, monuments, mountains and river beds of the west, but also the bluffs and valley floors of the unexplored ocean floor.

Aspen Hochhalter attempts to see beyond the surface of an object, distorting the original and definitive reference. The use of antique photo processes, adding to the imperfections or details, further manipulates perspective and scale as seen through her photographic lens.

Natalie Abrams’ work examines suspended moments in time; the physical and textural experience of those moments, the delicate beauty of our surroundings and the difficulty of preserving the present. An environmentalist, Abrams has created a unique method of manipulating wax medium and other natural materials to create her highly sculptural works referencing natural habitats and landscape.

This exhibition will display a series of large scale (44” x 90”) images taken by Hochhalter as well as original sculptural works by Abrams. The photographs will be wall hung alongside their original glass negative plates, whereas the sculptural works will take the form of freestanding long, thin slices of landscapes installed flat on low height plinths, where the viewer is looking down on the object as one would upon an architectural model. The juxtaposition of the placement, as well as of the intricate, at times vibrant wax sculptures in front of the large scale, monochromatic photographs, while referencing each other will also create a dynamic contrast.

Thanks for joining us at Heather Freeman’s closing reception, which followed her lecture last Thursday (8/28). We are sad to see this show go!

Natalie Abrams

We are thrilled to welcome Charlotte artists Natalie Abrams and Aspen Hochhalter to Pease Gallery for their upcoming exhibition, “Objects in Perspective: Collaboration by Aspen Hochhalter and Natalie Abrams, which will be on view Sept. 15 – Nov. 6 in Pease Gallery.

Aspen Hochhalter, a photographer, and Natalie Abrams, a sculptor, met while in residence together at the McColl Center for Art + Innovation, and quickly formed a lasting partnership. They will debut new work in this exhibition: Abrams’ looped and folded latex paint sculptures will sit on pedestals while Hochhalter’s large format (96” x 44”) photographs of the work will line the gallery walls next to original glass plate ambrotypes.

Please join us for any of these upcoming events:

Opening Reception: October 2, 5 – 7 p.m. in Pease Gallery
Hochhalter Lecture: Thursday, Oct. 9; 3 p.m. in Pease Auditorium
Hochhalter Lith Printing Workshop: Monday, Oct. 6; 2 p.m. in AU 022 on Central Campus
Abrams Lecture: Wednesday, Oct. 22; 3 p.m. in Pease Auditorium

Aspen Hochhalter

Last Friday in the Charlotte Observer (8/15), writer Barbara Schreiber highlighted ‘Denisovan’, now on view in Pease Gallery, in her monthly gallery roundup:

Denisovan

In 2010, researchers discovered bone fragments in Siberia’s Denisova Cave; these fragments were identified as the remains of a young girl of a previously unknown Homo sapiens subspecies.

Heather Freeman, a UNC Charlotte art professor, used this discovery as the jumping-off point for her interactive book “Denisovan.” You can (and should) download the app at denisovan.blogspot.com, but at Pease Gallery you can view the project in the form of large-scale digital prints.

These prints underscore that “Denisovan” is not dependent on technology – it is, at its core, a story. Whether experienced as an app, a physical book or an exhibition, “Denisovan” is quiet and intense. Filled with contradictory emotions, it includes observations on maternal exhaustion, cruelty and love.

“Denisovan” is a complex journey through the idea of what it means to be human. It is deeply researched and deeply felt. Freeman has the confidence not to let her research override her project’s emotional power.

Central Piedmont Community College; blogs.cpcc.edu/cpccartgalleries; 704-330-6211; through Sept 4.

Read the full piece here.

Please join us for a lecture by the artist on August 28 in Pease Auditorium at 4 p.m.!

Heather D. Freeman will lecture on her exhibiting body of work, ‘Denisovan’, as well as past projects, on August 28. Her lecture will take place in Pease Auditorium and will be followed by a reception in the Pease Gallery (adjacent), from 5-7 p.m.

Hope to see you there!

8 1/2″ x 11″ prints of each work are available for purchase ($10). Proceeds benefit Art Gallery educational programming.

It’s always a thrill to open a new show! Denisovan by Heather D. Freeman, Associate Professor of Art at UNC Charlotte, is now on view in Pease Gallery.

The exhibition is a show of prints and text from Denisovan, her interactive artist’s book and smartphone app.

The story is a fictional imagining of a girl who died 40,000 years ago, whose bone fragments were found in a Siberian cave. This exhibition will explore the artist’s interpretation of the child’s relationships and day-to-day existence, explained through the text and images of her original digital book.

To download the mobile app, please visit denisovan.blogspot.com.

In addition to these beautiful large prints, smaller (8.5″ x 11″) prints and printed books will be available for purchase ($10-$15). Proceeds benefit the Art Gallery’s student initiatives and programming.

Please join us for an artist lecture, followed by a closing reception, on August 28 beginning at 4 p.m. in Pease Auditorium.