“Imag[in]ing America” exhibition
we are very excited to announce the opening of a new exhibition...!
Imag[in]ing America
by Jennifer Garza-Cuen
Opening Reception Saturday 19 March from 4 - 7pm Exhibition runs from the 14 March - 30 April 2022
The gallery is open by appointment and has open days advertised on social media and the website. www.melhopgallery.com
contact hello@melhopgallery.com to visit
Untitled - Man on White Horse, Buffalo, WY
EXHIBITION STATEMENT
Imag[in]ing America
Our society treats place as a central identifying characteristic, second only to name and followed closely by profession. We all have a catalogue of images in our mind that we call upon when a city, town, or country's name is mentioned and those images help us to form an opinion of place, and those we meet from there.
What is it that makes us ‘of’ a place? As a former American expatriate and one who has lived my adult life essentially placeless this is a central question in my work. In my ongoing project Imag[in]ing America, I am interested in investigating national, regional, and local identities as well as ideas of otherness as they relate to place and documentary photography in America.
Photographs have the ability to expand and compress time. They speak of what was, what is, and what will be. We look to photographs to remember and often reenact what we see, pushing old images into the future. Imag[in]ing America depicts a series of locations in the United States as a residue of cultural memory, an inheritance. It is a metaphorical memoir, a narrative re-telling of facts and fictions and a discovery of the dreamland that still is America.
Untitled - Piano Room, Detroit, MI
Untitled - Ranch Hand, Buffalo, WY
ARTIST SHORT BIO
Jennifer Garza-Cuen is an artist from the Pacific Northwest. Currently Assistant Professor of Photography in the Department of Art + Design at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, she received her MFA in photography and MA in the History of Art and Visual Culture with honors from the Rhode Island School of Design. Her BA summa cum laude in comparative literature was completed at the American University in Cairo, Egypt. Garza-Cuen is the recipient of numerous grants, awards, and fellowships including the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship for Photography, the Robert Rauschenberg Residency Award, and the British Journal of Photography and 1854 Media’s Female in Focus Award.
ARTIST NEWS
JULIA SCHWADRON MARIANELLI
Julia has one of her paintings on a massive billboard in an industrial sector of Reno, it looks as if it is singing above the gloomy area.
The project was initiated by the Holland Project.
The Holland Project’s Billboard Gallery showcases the work of exceptional emerging and established regional artists on billboards throughout Reno’s surface streets. Three new artists are installed every four weeks in 2022.
EUNKANG KOH
Eunkang has a show on now titled I am Dreaming of... at Brandstater gallery at La Sierra University in Riverside, CA. You can make a virtual visit here and the exhibition catalogue is available here.
GALEN BROWN
OCD,2 exhibition might have closed but Galen Brown has not stopped his continuous art practice. This dark and velvety textured long wave drawing was delivered a couple of days ago.
Detail of the latest wave drawing by Galen Brown. Pen and ink
Detail of the latest wave drawing by Galen Brown. Pen and ink
KELLY POPOFF
Kelly has launched into a new series of paintings called American Remnants. You will be hearing more of Kelly Popoff, she will be having a solo exhibition at the gallery in May/June this year.
Remnants, oil on canvas 23 x 37 inches, 2022
from American Remnant series, 8 x 5 inches each with variation, ink and gouache on watercolor paper, 2022
STEWART FRANCIS EASTON
Stewart has just finished another incredible embroidery piece...and it has already headed off to a private collection in London.
We like Folk… who cares destroy us. Stewart Francis Easton hand embroidery on fabric, 2022. Approx 1.5 meters x 1 meter x 3cm