Close to Home · 10.13.22-11.10.22
Parachute Gallery · 1624 E 7th Ave #240, Tampa, FL 33605 · October 13 - November 10, 2022
Opening Reception · Thursday, October 13 @ 6-9pm
Ybor Arts Tour participating venue · Thursday, October 27 @ 7-9pm
Closing Reception · Thursday, November 10 @ 7-9pm
Featuring work by:
Teresa Faris (Teejop Meskousing (Madison, WI))
Babette Herschberger (St. Petersburg, FL)
Regina Durante Jestrow (Miami, FL)
Younha Jung (Houston, TX)
Ashley Rivers (St. Petersburg, FL)
B.A. Wikoff (North Port, FL)
Curated by Jessica Todd
Close to Home is Parachute Gallery’s inaugural exhibition, featuring six regional and national artists working in a range of media. The exhibition’s title, Close to Home, reflects each artist’s deeply personal connection to their work, and the work’s proximity to the body and the domestic. This idiomatic title takes on new meaning as Florida emerges from one of the most deadly and destructive hurricanes in our state’s history.
Each Close to Home artist creates work from the starting point of the self. Ashley Rivers’ abstract paintings probe an initial impulse that grows through intuitive layering, built upon through her total immersion in the process of creating the work. Teresa Faris also works through intuitive exploration of materials, focusing on human co/existence with animals. Her ongoing collaboration with her beloved rescued umbrella cockatoo, Charmin, tells a poetic story of captivity, advantage and disadvantage, displacement, and pacification. B.A. Wikoff’s series Black and White Morality - Skins was created through printmaking processes involving scrubbing and reapplication, emphasizing the gray area between our perceptions of good and evil. Though her work approaches universal topics of race and social justice, Wikoff uses a material that resembles skin to underline their impact in her own life.
Babette Herschberger creates minimalist ceramic vessels through hands-on conversation with the material. Her abstract forms use straightforward shapes and colors to scrutinize human-made structures in the natural world. Her work’s scale and functionality intuit their connection to bodies and homes. Younha Jung also draws from her connection to architecture. By shrinking immense structures that hold people into portable jewelry forms that can be held by the body, she investigates the symbiotic relationship between humans and buildings. Regina Durante Jestrow’s fiber-based works were sparked by textile techniques learned from her mother, and incorporate elements of the built and natural world. She borrows from the abstract, geometric forms and story-telling traditions of quilt-making to explore her own relationship between self and place.
About the Artists
Teresa Faris · Teejop Meskousing (Madison, WI) · Teresa Faris is Professor and Area Head of the Metals program at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where she received the Women in Leadership Award. Former teaching appointments include San Diego State University and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Faris is co-author of the Women of Metal Exhibition and Oral History Project, and a recipient of the 2008 National Endowment for the Arts Access to Artistic Excellence Grant. Faris was the Artist in Residence at John Michael Kohler Arts Center, WI in 1999. She exhibits extensively in Europe and the US.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Human identity is rooted in our co/existence with animals.
Through process, material exploration and design, my work explores the ideas of pacification, advantage and disadvantage that, adjacently, resides within all beings. When displaced from what is intended/natural and stripped of privilege/rights one must find ways of soothing the mind. A captive non-human animal may investigate an unnatural toy, pace or repeatedly chew wood, and a dis-eased human may pace or saw metal. The latest series of wearable objects titled Collaboration with a Bird(CWaB) is reminiscent of toys meant to pacify captive animals. The resulting objects of adornment act as a distraction and tool for introspective thinking for humans. Cast-off materials such as reclaimed perches and wood that have been altered and discarded by a captive bird are placed with sterling silver or gold support structures.
Anthropomorphism and dehumanization have been used throughout history as a way for privileged people of power to place blame, instill fright, disgust or contempt on disadvantaged persons or animals in an attempt to maintain control and diminish guilt.
Through weight, material and form these objects ask the wearer/viewer to question their own relationship to animals and how they choose to co/exist with “others”. By joining disparate materials this work challenges the popular models, misconceptions and superstitions that have led to the death of animals and marginalization of humans.
Babette Herschberger · St. Petersburg, FL · Babette Herschberger completed an AS in graphic design with honors at the Art Institute of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. She then developed a studio practice as a painter and collage artist. In 2015, she was an artist in residence at ArtCenter South Florida/Oolite Arts in Miami. In 2021, her work was included in the Skyway exhibition at the University of South Florida’s Contemporary Art Museum. Her work was published in New American Paintings, edition #112, and is in the collection of Miami Dade College’s Museum of Art + Design, as well as a number of corporate and private collections. Herschberger began a study in ceramics at The Morean Center for Clay after relocating to St. Petersburg from Miami in 2018.
ARTIST STATEMENT
As long as I can remember I have appreciated and collected the work of ceramic artists. After having formally studied and practiced graphic design for a decade, I began building contemporary primitive furniture which morphed into a full-time painting practice of 25 years.
Upon relocating from Miami to St. Petersburg in 2018, I discovered an extensive environment of ceramic studios and artists in the region. Just weeks after my relocation I began taking classes at the Morean Center for Clay and like many, I was smitten with the process and have earnestly continued my pursuit of this medium. It is the most challenging yet rewarding medium I have ever undertaken. I have a great love of industrial design and have focused almost entirely on functional ceramic work, making primarily drinking vessels that have a focus on form and color, each new piece or series is in itself a design challenge. They are small sculptures to me.
Working in this utilitarian direction for the last four years has afforded me the ability to teach myself how to hand build with clay and left me with the headspace I need to continue my painting process. It is my aim to bring both my painting practice and my clay practice into a more cohesive body of work.
Regina Durante Jestrow · Miami, FL · Regina Durante Jestrow is a New York-born, Miami-based visual artist, of Italian-American heritage. Her mother taught her how to sew when she was a child, and she has utilized these skills throughout her practice. When she moved to Miami, she taught herself how to quilt and crochet to cope with homesickness. Jestrow’s artwork explores her ongoing interests in women's history and American quilt pattern traditions. Jestrow’s research has led her to develop a body of work that includes painting, drawings, textiles, fibers, and sculptural installations.
ARTIST STATEMENT
My geometric installations, sculptures, paintings, and textile work stem from my ongoing research of historical women’s movements and American quilt history and their connections. I learned how to sew as a child from my mother and borrow traditions from quilt making in my artistic practice. I use textiles as my primary vehicle for storytelling to construct tangible intimate memories. A familial medium, as my mother taught her daughters and grandchildren how to sew, crochet, and knit. Utilizing improvisation, contrast, repeat patterns, and shifts in scale, I incorporate colors, textures, and structures representative of the natural surroundings in South Florida. Due to my continuing interests in creating relationships between self and place, I explore American architecture, Folk-Art Quilting, and geometric patterns in the natural environment. Geometric-abstract artists from the mid to late twentieth century that have influenced my work include Gees Bend quilters, Elizabeth Murray, Monir Shahroudy, Carmen Herrera, Helen Frankenthaler, and Gego.
Younha Jung · Houston, TX · Younha Jung was born and raised in South Korea and graduated with an MFA at Kent State University. Her specialty is wearable contemporary metalwork. She has had numerous solo and group exhibitions internationally, and has been an Artist in Residence at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, Chicago Lillstreet Art Center, and the Seattle Pratt Fine Art Center. She earned the 2016 Emerging Artist Award from the American Craft Council and the CraftTexas2016 Award of Merit Prize from the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft. Her pieces have been published in New Brooch, Jewelry and Metals Survey, Tales from the Toolbox, and American Craft Council magazines, and her work is included in the permanent collection at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts. Currently she is an Art Lab manager at TXRX labs in Houston, TX.
ARTIST STATEMENT
I have questions regarding a variety of feelings I have had while traveling. Regardless of destination, I exist as I am. My most current work is site-specific in that the subject matter addresses the changes to spaces taking place around me physically. They are combined with steel to emphasize the relationship to building materials. As an artist, not an architect, I do not see a building as a lifeless object, but instead believe that human beings and the spaces that they inhabit exist in harmony out of necessity.
Ashley Rivers · St. Petersburg, FL · Ashley Rivers is a contemporary multidisciplinary artist living in St. Petersburg, FL. She received her BFA, with a concentration in Sculpture, from the University of South Florida in 2021. Since then, she has been creating art utilizing various mediums and techniques. Rivers has participated in and curated numerous group exhibitions and projects. She received the 2021 St. Petersburg Arts Alliance Individual Artist Grant and the 2022 Creative Pinellas Emerging Artist Grant.
ARTIST STATEMENT
I make works from my soul, works that engage with feelings, emotions, and thoughts. I offer intimate moments of time and space, allowing each viewer a chance at self-reflection and individual release. My work depicts stages of a journey in which each individual can fill their own gaps. My practice is about form and flow. I allow the process to take over my mind as I become fully engrossed in the moment. I start with a simple impulse, and it develops and transforms into something multilayered and indefinable.
B.A. Wikoff · North Port, FL · B.A. Wikoff is a Florida-based artist whose work is constructed through abstract, collaborative, and interdisciplinary practices. Her work is heavily aided by the willingness to communicate with people, material, and concepts. Her process mostly involves using her audience as a means for collaboration, often collecting data from secondary sources regarding our population as a whole. Wikoff holds an AA from Florida SouthWestern State College and a BFA from University of South Florida.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Black and White Morality-Skins (2021) is a series of abstract split-fountain screen prints that speak to the existence of extreme morality through inflexible thinking. This series of work illustrates the “Black and White” perspective, integrating its influence on the printed material and its application. These pieces are printed on a material that replicates skin, referencing our inherent humanity. I utilized the act of printing and further established the layers that are being presented through disrupted friction.
In the Shop
During each exhibition, the gallery shop features artists who create work that speaks to the current exhibition.
Dierra Jones · Savannah, GA · Dierra Jones is a jewelry artist and K-5 visual arts teacher based in Savannah, GA. Jones is a native of Petersburg, VA, where she attended Petersburg Public Schools and received her B.F.A. in Studio Arts at Virginia State University (VSU). Upon graduation, Dierra moved to Savannah, GA to attend graduate school at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), where she earned an MFA in Jewelry.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Dierra Jones utilizes storytelling and place as the driving force in her studio practice. The medium of jewelry is transformed, resulting in delicate, small-scale, wearable objects and non-traditional installation works, containing her identity and emotions. She uses her practice as a method to achieve freedom and control from her past experiences, reflecting a keen eye for autobiography, processing her life stories through a variety of perspectives. Jones’s ability to create engaging and thoughtful works causes each story to be a continual, encouraging reflection and transformation within the viewer. Jones additionally uses her studio practice and background in jewelry to create everyday wear jewelry that is fun through color experimentation with enamel and bead and wire techniques (a self-taught skill that she has developed over the years).
Cindy Liebel · Fredericksburg, VA · As an artist, Cindy Liebel has been a passionate visual storyteller for as long as she can remember. Her grandfather first inspired her love for photography, a craft she explored and honed during her formative years. The opportunity to learn and develop basic metalsmithing techniques in 2007, captivated her creativity and ultimately inspired her to rebrand and launch Cindy Liebel Jewelry in 2014. Since then, she has been refining her craft and continually seeking new ways to evoke emotion and delight customers through intentional design.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Cindy Liebel Jewelry is jewelry for the individual, the ever-curious collector who actively engages with the world and thrives on exploration. For every empowered individual, each piece is made to feel effortlessly comfortable, making style easy and timeless. You'll always find a diverse assortment of styles, crafted to outlast trends, gift giving, and for regular enjoyment, from leisure to your next noteworthy event.
My unwavering commitment to ethical and sustainable sourcing pushes the limits of my creativity and invites me to explore new opportunities in design. All jewelry is mindfully crafted with sustainability in mind. I intentionally source all materials from supply chains that focus on environmental stability and that educate consumers about sustainable mining and ethical trade. To that end, I use recycled sterling silver, gold and other precious metals acquired from trusted, responsible suppliers, or I will recycle the metal myself. Whenever possible, I reuse raw materials and incorporate post-consumer materials in the packaging.
I draw inspiration from features of Scandinavian design aesthetics, contemporary architecture and Art Deco, including geometric patterns and abstract line art. My designs start with a hand-drawn sketch and are transformed into scaled paper models, allowing me to see the form and shape of the design in a more tangible way.
Exhibiting artists Teresa Faris and Ashley Rivers also have artwork in the shop!
