TEMPORARY HOME
June 3 – July 16th 2011
Temporary Home is an exhibition of artists who use their interest in the transitory nature of current events as a starting point for their art. Each in their own way finds the ability to comment on the world around them without being overtly political or didactic.
Works by: Becky Alprin • City Blossoms • Jason Hughes • John Lehr • Christine Rogers
Curated by: Carl Gunhouse
The best of dreams and aspirations tend to get bulldozed by history, which makes fools of even the most enlightened of prognosticators. Our current state of economic turmoil, with its sluggish recovery and disappointing gains, seems more than ever to indicate that the uncertainty of history has become a certainty. The recession has ended the middle class’s expected birthright, to reach or exceed the standard of living of their parents. Gone is a shared confidence that through hard work and education a college graduate can find a job that provides healthcare, a comfortable retirement, and the ability to buy a home.
Becky Alprin earned her MFA from MICA’s Mount Royal School of Art. Her work has been shown nationally and internationally at venues including the Baltimore Museum of Art, Arco International Contemporary Art Fair in Madrid, and Art Chicago International Art Fair. She has been an artist in residence at the Vermont Studio Center twice, and at the Kala Art Institute in Berkeley, CA. She is the recipient of a 2009 Maryland State Arts Council Grant and a 2009 Baker Artist Awards People’s Choice Award. She lives and works in Chicago.
City Blossoms is a non-profit organization working out of the Washington D.C. and Baltimore area to create urban gardening experiences that will enrich the lives of children and their communities. It has designed a unique method of developing and managing robust green spaces in underused locations, where children and young people are engaged as the main cultivators. In bringing these urban gardens to communities, City Blossoms embraces an art-based, hands-on approach, aiming to work with the local environment and neighborhood to increase awareness of the need for caring about the community environment and building self-esteem among local youth.
Jason Hughes is an artist and curator currently living and working between Los Angeles, CA and Baltimore, MD. He graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2004. Hughes is represented by Curator’s Office in Washington DC and has exhibited his work nationally and internationally since 2005. He has received several awards for both his studio and curatorial practice over the last decade. Hughes was also a founding member of Gallery Four, the much-heralded 10,000 sq ft artist-run live/work/exhibition space.
John Lehr is a photographer from Baltimore, MD, where he received his B.F.A. in photography in 1998 from Maryland Institute College of Art. He went on to receive his M.F.A. in photography from Yale University in 2005. He has exhibited his work at the Museum of Modern Art, Walker Art Center, the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Kate Werble Gallery, and Yancey Richardson Gallery. Lehr’s work is included in numerous public and private collections including the Yale University Art Gallery, the Museum of Modern Art, The Corcoran Gallery of Art and the Cleveland Clinic.
Christine Rogers, is an artist from Nashville TN. She received a BA in Anthropology in 2004 from Oberlin College and her MFA in Studio Art from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts/Tufts University in 2008. She has exhibited at Atlantic Works Gallery, Jewett Art Center, Wellesley College, The Aidekman Art Gallery, Tufts University, Courtyard Gallery, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Foundation Art Fair and Bridge Art Fair.