Jonathan Gitelson
Free!
“For the past two years, I have been collecting “FREE” signs from curbsides throughout Southern Vermont. It is a common practice here to discard unwanted goods on the curb with a handmade sign designating them as free. Driving past, I’ve been struck by this word, with its various meanings, embedded in the landscape. In 2017, I began collecting these signs (replacing each one with a “free” sign that I had made”. -Jonathan Gitelson
Marginalia
“The following pieces were inspired by the used books in my collection. Many of these books had been heavily marked with neon highlighters, in some cases all of the words on the page were covered. The three highlighter prints in the exhibition are reproduced with the text digitally removed leaving only the strokes of the highlighter. The purple highlighter is A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid (pg 57), the blue highlighter is The Disuniting Of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. (pg 137), and the pink highlighter is Froissart Chronicles (pg 439). The Star Chart is a digital composite featuring hundreds of hand drawn stars scanned from the margins of the used books”. -Jonathan Gitelson
Let’s Start By Stating The Obvious
Let’s Start By Stating the Obvious consists of eight 11x15 inch screen prints, the text of which were sourced from a Google search for the phrase "Let's start by stating the obvious.” Each piece consists of the first sentence from one of the top eight search results.
Robert Moeller
Sit Down
This body of work situates the International Symbol of Access (commonly referred to the Handicapped Symbol) as an avatar or proxy for not only the human form but also a multitude of human experiences. The use of the symbol as a stand-in is at once highly specific while providing complete anonymity to the composite subject matter relating to the “figures” in the work. The paintings are a series of large-scale vignettes and portraits that explore the intersections between abstraction and figuration, movement and, most essentially, personal narrative. On a formal level, the act of portraiture is muted and indistinct. The figures float above, or within an armature of thickly layered geometries. The structures around the figures are both supportive and disabling. Lines or blocks of color interrupt movement or propel the figures forward. The obstacles are intrinsic to the imagined or observed experiences represented and conjure up the familiarities of a lived-in moment, and the preponderance of associated frailties faced by us all.