INFINITE: //\\ :INTIMATE
Red Truck Gallery. New Orleans, LA // October 22, 2016
Red Truck Gallery is extremely proud to present INFINITE://\\:INTIMATE, a group art show featuring Monica Canilao, Lauren Napolitano, Jason Borders, and Caitlin McCormack. They are leading the way in repurposed American craft and installation. In addition all four artists works seem to draw from iconography and symbolism that relates to a world myth presented in a contemporary context. Their art is simultaneously ancient and modern while invoking the future.
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Infinite::Intimate is the first manifestation of a collaboration between Monica Canilao and Lauren Napolitano. The show title stems from critique of Woman Hollering Creek by Sandra Cisneros. “…the women in these stories offer tales of pure discovery, filled with moments of infinite and intimate wisdom...” –The Washington Post.Her writings about women and their relationship to the world around them leave you feeling empowered and closer to oneself. This body of work is inspired by Cisneros’ investment in the tradition of oral storytelling. Infinite::Intimate calls on Cisneros’ belief that a story was only a story if you listen and it stays with you.
Canilao & Napolitano take this idea and translated it to objects. This process, like oral storytelling is based mostly on intuition. Placing and replacing until the right combination of pieces captures the perfect essence of their spirit, defined or imagined. By allowing those deep and intimate spaces within ourselves to come to surface and be seen and most importantly, celebrated.
Within the act of conjuring their own inner folk-craft spirit Canilao & Napolitano are continuing the analog and handmade traditions of women working together. Collaborating to create something beyond their individual capacity. Creating something timeless through the process of collecting and integrating objects from both past and present, remnants scavenged on travels and passed down. Found parlor portraits exist as ghost images long lost to any lineage that knew them, and by working into them the artists resurrect their spirits. They are enshrined, re-imagined and gifted a new life.
