Firehouse Center Artist-in-Residence
About the program
The FCVA Artist-in-Residence program was created in 2004 to invigorate the
dialogue between artists and the viewing public in downtown Burlington.
After four successful residencies, we temporarily closed the fourth floor
due to necessary renovations. However, in spring of 2007, we re-launched
the residency program. Artists are invited to submit a proposal for the
available residency periods, which range from one to three months in duration.
During this time, artists can use the beautiful fourth floor studio at the
Firehouse as well as Burlington City Arts' clay, photography, and printmaking
studios. The resident works with Burlington City Arts staff to offer a workshop,
lecture, or special project that engages the public in his/her creative
process. The ideal applicant should be a local artist with a history of
formally or conceptually rigorous work, excellent communication skills and
enthusiasm for interacting with the public.
Current FCVA Resident
Graziella Weber-Grassi and Monalice Haener with guests POL 5
At the Firehouse Center, 4th Floor, there will be an opening “picnic” on Thursday, August 12th from 4-8pm which will feature discussions, participation based workshops, and talks with the artists to celebrate and explore the themes of (N)IMBY in a public forum.
Burlington City Arts is thrilled to host the exhibition/residency (Not) in My Backyard, or (N)IMBY, July 31st 2010 – August 28th 2010 featuring Swiss-national artists Graziella Weber-Grassi and Monalice Haener with guests POL 5, the Swiss-based artist collective. On the Firehouse Center’s 4th Floor dedicated artist-in-residence studio, Haener and Weber-Grassi have created a series of interactive installations and active work-spaces. Changing each day, the exhibition is a work in progress and invites the public to visit and participate within the series of room/corridors created by sheeting plastic, insulation foam, bright, inorganic materials and specialized lighting. Maps and paintings introduce the theme of borders and fluidity, and open writing spaces invite visitors to comment on their preferences of what they allow in private space vs. what is designated to the public domain, highlighting such issues as the billboard ban in Vermont and the controversy over introducing turbines into the rural landscape. In addition to the (N)IMBY installation by Haener and Weber-Grassi, the exhibit also includes retrospective objects, slide projections, and images on digital monitors describing past collaborative projects completed by the artists and the POL 5 team in locations such as Iran, Africa, and Mexico. As a continuation of the these global public intervention/site specific installations, the current (N)IMBY exhibit works to engage particular communities to reveal cross-cultural connections.
Highlighted also is the large-scale participatory collaborative project,
Suddenly Visible, executed as part of the Burlington International Waterfront
Festival in summer of 2009. As an outdoor installation referencing the global
financial crisis, the installation took the form of a consistent visual
vocabulary of pink insulation foam to “wrap” trees, buildings,
and city infrastructure in its viral aesthetic, and pulled from participants
from all over the world to represent global interconnectedness. The project
still exists in digital form at www.suddenlyvisible.com,
and provides list of VT-based participating artists, as well as many other
artist contributors from around the world.
(N)IMBY is a tool to speak to the invasiveness of public life into private life in an increasingly global, border-fluid world. The concept asks such questions as: what would you accept and what would you not accept in your own back yard, in you’re private space, and what would you reject? Is there a public good vs. private good, and is there a hierarchy of importance? What is a compromise of your space, are you willing to sacrafice your space for the “public good”?
These questions come into tangible form when we consider the billboard ban law in and the continued controversy over energy generating turbines and windmills in the Vermont Landscape. Recognizing this issue of a crisis of choice, the discussion continues with the outlawing the Burka in France, the Islamic Minaret architecture in Switzerland; and the current immigration issue in Arizona. Confronting delicate moral issues surrounding the vernacular of place and giving way to a more homogenized globalilzed visual culture, (N)IMBY asks every visitor and participant in the exhibit to consider these issues thoughtfully.
Previous FCVA Residents
Beth Robinson
Burlington City Arts is pleased to announce its newest Artist-in-Residence,
Beth Robinson, who will be in residence on the fourth floor of the Firehouse
Center for the Visual Arts on Church Street in Burlington from now until
July 24th, 2010.
These odd dolls are not something you will find in a toy store. They are hardly something you would buy for a child. They are misproportioned, strangely dressed, and they have a character uniquely their own. Each doll is entirely hand made using polymer clays, vintage fabrics, acrylic paint, and sometimes real human hair or teeth. Each piece is one of a kind. Beth Robinson is a self taught artist who has been living in Vermont for 15 years. While she has dabbled in a variety of mediums, it was the discovery of polymer clay that allowed her to combine her interests in design, sewing, sculpting, and painting and gave her a concrete foundation of expression in the form of Strange Dolls.
Since 2003 she has been creating macabre and grotesque characters in clay for collectors across the globe. She is currently represented in Berlin/NYC/London by Strychnin Gallery. Robinson's dolls have been featured in the magazines: Art Doll Quarterly, SPIN, "Stuff" in the US, "Maxim UK" and "Maxim Hong Kong," "Rue Morgue" in Canada, "RIP" in Russia, and "Nordic Vision" in Norway.
"Now here's a doll May Canaday would make if she watched The Brothers
Quay Collection while listening to Nightmare Picture Theatre and hadn't
slept in a week. Weird, misshapen and tortured, these unusual handmade dolls
are...definitely not for children, unless you want them to have nightmares."
-Rue Morgue, 2005
Website: www.strangedolls.net
Adam DeVarney
DeVarney, who received his Bachelors of Fine Art from the Pratt
Institute of Brooklyn, creates graphic and illustrative works through the
use of painting, drawing, and collage, often pulling from an eclectic and
assorted subject matter with a contemporary urban aesthetic. DeVarney describes
his work as being in "a world of [its] own and a place where there
are no rules and an abundance of freedom in its most absolute form."
Tara Jensen
During the Firehouse residency, Jensen will create an installation comprised
of hand-made dolls and inflatable creatures contextualized in a landscape
of painting and light. Using craft methodology and the everyday object in
a field that is typically dominated by video, sound and metals, the installation
of intimate, humble objects is an answer to the question: How does the feminine
take up space? Jensen envisions a colorful and organic landscape in which
there are various dolls of different scale. Small and alone, groups clustered
together in mountains and stalactites, and others inflated up to twenty
feet tall, the doll becomes the ultimate vehicle to discuss femininity and
power.
Joseph Campanella Cleary
During Cleary's residency, he will be creating the genome for a geometrically
integrated five piece modern mandolin family, from cello to piccolo range,
based on his “Due” model mandolin and inspired by the drawings
and patterns left by Antonio Stradivari in Cremona, Italy. The objective
of this project is design: using traditional graphic media in large format
drawings and pattern making: using Vermont maple wood for forms and counter
forms, and aluminum sheet stock and heavyweight paper for patterns. Concept
drawings will also be produced which explore aesthetic possibilities on
paper before committing to them on the plan or patterns. Joseph is a graduate
of the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, with a Bachelor
of Arts in Anthropology and a Minor in Music and Geology. He is the owner
of Campanella
Strings in Burlington, and was the recipient of a Creation Project grant
from the Vermont Arts Council in 2005.
David Kearns
Kearns’ goal for the residency project was to do a visual survey of
the city of Burlington. The work consists of a series of large-scale acrylic
on paper paintings and a body of sketchbook drawings documenting the source
material for the paintings, providing a thorough visual investigation of
lesser-seen details of the city. David currently teaches Advanced Drawing
at Johnson State College, VT and will be an MFA candidate at Johnson State
for May of next year. Kearns has a B.A. in Studio Art from Yale University,
and has shown his work throughout the state of Vermont, as well as in Boston,
MA and New Haven, CT.
Jennifer Koch
Vermont artist Jennifer Koch, the 2007 Barbara Smail Award recipient, was
a FCVA resident September-December 2007. The residency contributed
to her exhibition at the Firehouse Gallery, Specimen and Marriages of
Reason, December 14, 2007 to January 26, 2008. This exhibition
featured multi-media works and box constructions, successfully integrating
objects, oddities, and images in pleasing and humorous compositions and
adopting the language of display found in natural history museums.
In addition, Koch collaborated with her husband, Gregg Blasdell, to create
dynamic and graphic woodcut prints also on view. Jennifer Koch is
a custom picture framer by trade and operates Frames for You and Mona
Lisa Too in Burlington, VT.
Lucinda Mason
Lucinda Mason, a Johnson, VT-native, received a Bachelor of Arts from Bennington
College, VT and a Masters of Fine Arts from Concordia University, Montreal.
She worked in our fourth floor studio during January with support from the
Vermont Arts Council to create new works for the exhibition "Big Beautiful
Paintings" at the Firehouse Gallery February 2–March 3, 2007. In her
large-scale oil paintings, Mason explores the micro and macro elements of
the world.
Oxygen, 2006, 4'x4', oil paint on canvas
Catherine Hall
Catherine Hall, our 2005 Barbara Smail Award Recipient, was in residence
November–December, 2006. She created work for her solo exhibition
in the Firehouse Gallery, including a series of encaustic panels inspired
by Pompeii frescoes and sculptural pieces for her installation based on
the Temple of Hera at Samos. Hall's exhibition, "Pasts and Presences," ran
December 31, 2006–January 27, 2007.
Untitled, 2006, monotype using flattened packaging
Clark Russell
Clark Russell, a Burlington artist, in residence April – June, 2005,
applied oil-based paints in a variety of experimental fashions to metal
panels, glass, wood, old topological maps, and other assorted paper. From
some of these foundational paintings, the artist pulled monoprints, thereby
add layering and texture to the original surface. The experimental abstract
paintings and prints created during the residency compliment his more well-known,
rigid metal wall sculptures.
Untitled, 2005, monoprint using mixed inks and metal plates
Tove Ohlander
Tove Ohlander, a glass artist from Sweden, in residence January –
March, 2005, expanded her work through the introduction of images of people,
engraved through various color surfaces in the glass before the piece is
blown. In the fourth floor studio, she sketched, engraved, and prepared
the glass parts and then blew the pieces into their final form at the Church
& Maple Glass Studio.
Out of the Blue, glass, 2004, 8.6" x 3.5" x 3.5"
Randy Gaetano
Randy Gaetano, a Burlington native, completed a large-scale, commissioned
painting during his residency, November, 2004 – January, 2005. Gaetano's
work explores the way human kind controls and reshapes nature. He was also
featured in "Trickle Down" as both artist and curator.
Joe's Garden, 2005, oil on canvas, 5' 2" x 6' 2", wenge frame by
artist
Leslie Fry
Leslie Fry, a Vermont-based sculptor, created a new series of cast paper,
relief sculptures during her residency from June – October, 2004.
This body of work served as the basis for her solo exhibition “Cast-offs:
Girls, Riddles, Fate.” Her art melds images from the natural and human
worlds, allowing reality and fantasy to coincide in singular, resonant forms.
Desire of the Rascal (detail), 2004, ink on cast paper, epoxy,
aluminum, 17" x 2"6 x 4"
