Overview
Incorporating a variety of artistic disciplines including site-specific installation, painting, collage, silk screening and sculpture, the four dynamic artists presented in Natural (dis)Order -- Jessica Cebra, Señor Tangcito, Christine Buckton Tillman, and Chad Yencer -- share playful contemplation and conceptual interpretation of themes related to nature, animals, and human connection to the natural world with their work.
Jessica Cebra's The Gilded Geo series reflects her interests in the human pursuit of knowledge, sophistication, beauty and destruction. Magazine cutouts immediately reference icons of mass culture or materiality--the imagery's luscious textures and surfaces mimic the seductive structures and sublime elements of the universe. Imagining a post-apocalyptic future of monolithic ruins and luxury goods, with fibers encrusted and crystallizing in the absence of humans, Jessica's work shows a fascination for the value of aesthetic and surface, how it molds human ideals, and how it will mold the coming ages. "I'm drawn to the elegance of the visual, and the force of the physical," states Jessica. "Georges Bataille wrote, 'In morphological progress, men apparently represent only an intermediate stage between monkeys and great edifices.' I am interested in portraying this idea of a reifying evolution of physical matter; a surrealist vision of the leftovers of human excess, where natural resources are null."
Jessica Cebra received her BFA in Fine Art Photography with Honors at the Corcoran College of Art & Design, Washington, DC, May 2006. She spent one semester at AICAD/Parsons New York Studio Program, New York, NY, Sept. - Dec. 2004 doing independent studio work. Jessica received the Stephen Lee Szabo Memorial Award for Photography, 2006; Academic Studies Faculty Award for Writing, 2006; Academic Studies Creative Writing Award, 2005; Faculty Award for 2nd-Year Photography, 2004; Foundation Year Award, Margaret D. Rust Scholarship, 2003. Exhibitions include: All Senior Show, 2006, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, Paul Roth, Curator; Senior Thesis Exhibition, 2006, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Juried Exhibition, 2005, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, Terri Weissman, Juror; and Sincerely Yours, 2004, New York Studio Program, New York, NY.
Señor Tangcito's new site-specific installation at Transformer, Sweet Installation, is based on his most recent backpacking trip to South America (Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina), where he spent many hours hiking and riding on buses over numerous mountains. Throughout the countries where he traveled, he marveled at how wonderful the people are, the beauty of the natural world around them, and their interaction with nature. The experience was an inspiration for his installation at Transformer where he visually interprets some of the wonder he experienced in his travels. Señor Tangcito received his BFA in Fine Art at the Corcoran College of Art & Design, Washington, DC in 2004. He attended the Skopelos Foundation for the Arts in Skopelos Island, Greece in 2003. Señor Tangcito is a Teaching Assistant at the Corcoran College of Art & Design in the Printmaking Department, and is a Studio Assistant at the Hand Print Workshop International in Alexandria, Virginia.
Christine Buckton Tillman's work draws from her collection of images and objects in which she sees an inner dichotomy - objects that are at the same time happy and sad, full of joy and yet utterly hollow. These objects lose something in translation: the phenomena of a rainbow becomes trite and cliché on the cover of a notebook; likewise, the lack of texture of the fake wood pattern on wood grain contact paper. Christine presents two new bodies of work at Transformer that further explore these dichotomies. With Double Decker Coneflower - a site specific installation in Transformer's storefront window, Christine layers two wool felt panels creating a lush, abstract drapery of wildflowers. "I am very interested in the contemporary resurgence in craft, and our use of domestic materials to talk about the natural world. Wool felt embodies the contradiction. It is natural and made from wool, yet it is dyed using contemporary chemistry to replicate color only found in the natural world," states Christine. Her ceramic pieces featuring hybrids, and antlers, all made by slip-casting. The antlers are ceramic casts of actual antlers with candy colored pastel glazes; the hybrids are a combination of a rock form (cast from a stone found in her neighborhood), and old commercial molds of butterflies and birds also glazed in candy colors. All ceramic work was begun at Baltimore Clayworks in Summer 2006, and finished at The Park School in 2007.
Christine Buckton Tillman grew up in Chicago's Northern Suburbs. It was in this endless network of suburbs that she developed her sincere fascination with artifice. Christine went on to spend seven years in the great state of Iowa, earning her BA from Coe College and her MFA from the University of Iowa. She adopted two cats, fell in love with a nice boy, moved to Maryland, and got married. Christine, the two cats, and the nice boy now live in Baltimore. Christine exhibits her work frequently in the Mid Atlantic and beyond. She is a member of the Upper School Faculty at the Park School of Baltimore, where she also serves as Exhibitions Educator.
Chad Yencer developed The Spirit Animals series presented at Transformer in the early winter of 2005. The series is based on the idea that everyone has a "spirit animal" and has been conceived in both a serious manner and half-hearted, comical way. In both cases the assumption is that within one's being exists an animal in conjunction with, or parallel to, their soul. With some the concept is carried to a further conclusion; one's soul is best summarized or materialized as an animal. "I select people I know and decide on a spirit animal for them. I then run a Google image search using the name of the prescribed animal. My challenge is to discover a picture that embodies the personality and physical nature of the individual I have selected. This series began as a way to step back from the more serious/labor intensive painting I was working on at the time," states Yencer. "I had been and still am very interested in the work of Luc Tuyman and Wilhelm Sasnal; intrigued by their technique and process, I set myself up to use a limited amount of color (three, plus white and raw umber), several brushes, and the mind set to finish a painting within one sitting. To prevent myself from becoming too serious I chose to use found animal imagery from Google. I have been interested in the role humor can play within painting, so I felt exploring the spirit animal concept would be perfect. I have tried not to reveal too much within the painting, to remain neutral to an extent, so the perspective of whomever viewing it stands clearer than my own."
Chad Yencer was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. He received the Koenig Scholarship in 2002, enabling him to attend the Corcoran College of Art and Design. In 2006 he graduated with honors and received a B.F.A. with a concentration in painting. Chad was awarded for best thesis show from the college faculty. Over the last year he has shown at Knew Gallery and Meat Market Gallery in Washington, D.C. as well as the Rockville Art Center. He was also selected as a finalist in the Mid-Altantic New Painting competition. Currently he lives and works in Indianapolis.
