FANTASY
A collective from SOUP experimental, Tallahassee FL:
Featuring artists Ashton Bird, Sierra Kramer,
Matthew Lawrence, Chelsea Raflo, and Lucia Riffel
Opening Reception: Thursday, August 24, 7–10pm
Exhibition dates: Aug. 24–September 16, 2017
Viewing hours: Weds., Fri., Sat. 11am–5pm, or by appointment.
Day & Night Projects is pleased to present FANTASY: a collective of artists who utilize various modes of painting, installation, and sculpture to depict delusions within perspectives and interpreting reality.
Matthew Lawrence’s physically imposing paintings flash, goop, and tear as they dissect representations of abstracted celebrity archetypes as well as reveal what might be choreographed moments in domestic spaces.
Sierra Kramer’s otherworldly installations proposes you role-play as deity ubiquitously spying on imaginary environments inside of cardboard boxes.
Chelsea Raflo’s oil paintings use both invented landscapes and expressionless beings to externalize subconscious space where floating objects and their apparent lightness form the composition. Raflo questions heavier themes related to human existence comparing intra and external perspectives of oneself.
Lucia Riffel uses oddly recognizable globule-like forms that act as portals allowing the viewer to hide within, seek refuge and peek through holes to witness the outside world. These are safe-spaces of existence.
Ashton Bird’s objects reference memories that have been manipulated by time and age, where both the original object and its meaning fade into ambiguity as it is marked and deconstructed, allowing new unintended content to emerge.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Ashton Bird is an installation artist and mixed media printmaker that was raised outside of Vermillion, South Dakota. While he was a kid, he passed most of his time nailing or whittling strange objects out of wood and thrown out tractor equipment. An odd hobby, but probably an obvious foreshadowing of his future artistic pursuit. Much of these creations can still be found around his family’s farm. In high school, he received several creative awards, graduated and enrolled at Minnesota State University Mankato where he obtained his BFA in Studio Art with concentrations in ceramics and printmaking. As an exhibiting artist, Bird has shown work in Minnesota, South Dakota, Ohio, Florida, Washington D.C. and Seoul, South Korea. In 2015, he was awarded the Artist Career Development Grant from the South Dakota Arts Council and a full-tuition scholarship from Florida State University Master of Fine Arts program located in Tallahassee. In February of 2016, Ashton founded the contemporary arts gallery SOUP experimental and continues to expand his personal definition as a creator and artist. After graduating in 2018, Ashton will further push himself in his creative endeavors as both a working artist and gallery director.
Lucia Riffel was born in Duluth, Minnesota, and grew up on the Iron Range in Northern Minnesota. She earned her BFA in Studio Art and Art History from the University of Minnesota Morris, graduating with high honors in 2015. Following undergraduate, Riffel received a full-tuition scholarship to the Florida State University MFA program in Tallahassee, Florida where she currently resides. She has recently exhibited work in Florida, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota. Riffel works across many mediums in her interdisciplinary practice, but currently utilizes installation, digital animation, and projection to navigate the space between physical, psychological, and digital realms.
Sierra Kramer is an installation artist from Columbia, South Carolina. She received her BFA from Clemson University in 2013 and a MFA from Florida State University in 2017. Sierra currently resides and works in Tallahassee, Florida.
Matthew Lawrence is a New England-based artist who received his degree from The Rhode Island School of Design. Lawrence’s work tries to focus and spotlight the visually chaotic quagmire we all face through the use of abstract icons and social signifiers to create attainable experiences of the ephemeral. Alongside his custom design studio, Sterling & Lawrence, his paintings and sculptures have been showcased at Metro 250 Gallery, Woods Gerry House, Expose Gallery, Metcalf Gallery and SOUP experimental.
Chelsea Raflo is a visual artist from Atlanta working in sculpture, drawing, and animation. She is interested in ways of visualizing what we cannot physically see: psychosomatiscapes (a made-up word to describe landscapes of the interior world), possible futures, gut feelings, and stacked odds. She likes to play with language and cultivate a sense of the poetic within her work.
ABOUT SOUP EXPERIMENTAL
SOUP experimental showcases high-quality artworks made by the emerging artists from the surrounding area as well as provides a location to bring awareness of the contemporary creativity that Tallahassee emits. Within our city, many artists explore a variety of different genre by blending beautiful concepts with physical medium. This hybrid way of thinking cultivates our curiosities and continuously pushes our standard of exposition. SOUP experimental wants to share the definition of contemporary art with the community by offering rotating fine art exhibitions, artist performances, artists’ lectures, an online artist archive, and a yearly hard-copy review containing a documentation of the exhibiting artists from that year. It is our objective to become distinct and transform Tallahassee into a noticeable new phenomenon.
Art’s definition is continuously changing—art is malleable and dynamic. SOUP experimental seeks to become a platform for as much as possible and is fortunate enough to be a part of the unique, creative mind that exists solely in our neighborhood.
For more information on FANTASY, the artists, or to arrange a private viewing of the exhibition, please contact Steven L. Anderson at steve@stevenlanderson.com or call 404-623-7289.