Artist talk – Joan Tanner & Jamie Treacy

GearBox Gallery presents AKIN, an exhibition of sculpture and drawings by Joan Tanner and painting by Jamie Treacy. These artists share a connection as great-aunt and grand-nephew with a long running dialogue about their art practices. Tanner was an early influence on Treacy’s decision to become an artist, and after he moved to California in 2004 their discourse about the practice of art increased. Now exhibiting together for the first time, this show begins by looking at the role of bravery in the life of the artist and how kinship can shore up one’s boldness.

Joan Tanner’s recent body of work builds on five decades of painting, sculpture, and mark-making. Her drawings present contradictory forms that emerge from an indistinguishable and murky baseline. Her sculpture resists easy interpretation but seems related to its drawn counterparts in the way she transforms industrial materials into an awkward stance capable of imminent movement.

Jamie Treacy’s acrylic paintings beckon one into an uneasy terrain populated with fictional plants with vague architecture. After years of carefully observing real plants, Treacy began this new series with the idea of inventing his own entangled flora. In the spirit of world-building he interrupts his opulently drawn organisms with elements of city infrastructure with pylons, pipes, fractured walls and reckless wires. Combining his love of Brutalist architecture with the practice of teaching perspective drawing, Treacy signals the viewer’s journey through a turbulent, densely intermingled, internal world.

Artists’ reception: Saturday, March 25, 1-4pm
First Friday: April 7, 5-8pm
Gallery Hours: Thursdays-Saturdays, 12-5 pm and First Fridays, 5-8 pm