Courtney Mattison: Sea Change Crystal Wagner: Surface TensionNew Waves 2016ARTlabJohn Rudel: Absorb, Resist, Edit, and SeekJust Add Water

WINTER/SPRINGJAN 30-APR 17, 2016

IDEAS FOR ENJOYING THE GALLERIESTry this looking guide for the young, and young-at-heart, museum visitor.

START WITH LOOKINGMost works of art do not reveal themselves in just a glance. Try “reading” the work. Find a point that captures your eye and then move your gaze across and around the work. Try looking from different places (near or far, standing vs. sitting). You’ll be surprised by what you can learn just by looking. Parents: You can help model looking by verbalizing where your eyes are moving to and why.

ENCOURAGE QUESTIONSWhether visiting with a youngster, friend, or by yourself, it’s important to recognize the questions that surface. What are some types of questions you might consider? Try these as you look:

• Is there a story? What is it? • Is there a message or symbolism?

• What feeling does this work project? • Do you get a sense of time or place?Parents: You can incorporate counting, word choice and the 5 senses into your discussion. Try asking:

• How many ___ do you see? • How would this color taste?

• What 3 words describe what’s • What might this feel like if you could happening? touch it?

TRY ACTIVE LOOKINGImagine you are inside the work of art. Where would you explore? Try standing like something or someone in the piece. You can also make a tiny telescope with your hand (make a circle with your thumb and fingers and look through it). This will help you find details and focus your looking. Parents: This is a great way to make looking fun. Play “I Spy.“ Choose an artwork with lots of details and describe a section to your child. Have them guess where it is. Reverse roles and enjoy!

WHEN YOU’VE TRIED IT ALL, THEN READResist the urge to start with the wall label, and trust your looking. After you’ve shared your questions and interpretations, compare your ideas to the wall label. Often, there is additional information you may not have gained just by looking - but you’ll be surprised how much you learned on your own. Parents: This is a great opportunity to impart lifelong skills, such as reading and writing. Look for new words and read together!

COURTNEY MATTISON: SEA CHANGEThose of us who live in Southeastern Virginia understand our dependence on its waterways. Access to the Atlantic Ocean and river inlets are not just means of economic and physical sustenance for the region, but for the entire country. With that in mind, our winter exhibition series explores and celebrates humanity’s dependence on this vital resource.

Artist and ocean advocate Courtney Mattison creates large scale ceramic installations and sculptures inspired by science and marine biology. Her intricate hand-crafted porcelain and stoneware artworks celebrate the fragile beauty of endangered coral reef ecosystems and promote awareness to conserve and protect our natural world.

Coral reefs are full of life, with many ocean species reliant on them as a source of food and shelter. They evoke tropical warm waters and colorful underwater life. But, they are susceptible to environmental changes caused by greenhouse gas emissions, pollution and overfishing. With a background in marine conservation ecology, Mattison brings these fragile underwater worlds to the surface. She provides us the opportunity to engage with unknown worlds. Mattison believes that art has the power to motivate change. She hopes to inspire individuals to learn more and make changes in their daily lives that can mediate negative effects on the environment.

Mattison references her firsthand knowledge of reefs to craft ceramic artworks that incorporate the colors, textures and subtle forms of coral reef ecosystems. She pinches together long coils of clay to make hollow forms and uses a variety of tools and glazes to add unique textures, colors and surface finishes.

In the first gallery, Aqueduct is a visual feast of colorful anemones, sponges, corals and other tropical marine invertebrates invading the gallery through a porcelain air vent. They spill down the wall occupying the gallery floor. This new installation explores sea level rise

Courtney Mattison. Our Changing Seas III, 2014. Glazed stoneware and porcelain. Courtesy of the Artist. Photograph by Arthur Evans.

and its effects on human and ocean life in the future. According to the World Resources Institute sea level rise in Hampton Roads is increasing at twice the global average and at the highest rate on the U.S. East Coast. In Norfolk alone, the sea level has risen over 14 inches since 1930, a trend that isn’t slowing down anytime soon. Simultaneously playful and menacing, this installation envisions interior spaces being overrun by the ocean and its creatures.

Moving into the second gallery, Mattison’s expansive installation Our Changing Seas III invites us to explore an exquisite and yet disturbing representation of a coral reef. Brightly colored ceramic corals swirl in the center of the work; they appear alive, healthy and full of movement. However, they are slowly being invaded by coral bleaching, represented by the white encroaching surrounding forms. Environmental changes such as rising water temperatures cause coral bleaching. The corals lose the symbiotic algae that produce the food colonies needed to survive and flourish. Their vibrant colors fade to reveal the white skeletons inside. This powerful representation is the artist’s call to action.

Also on view in this section of the gallery are Mattison’s Hope Spots. They are a series of hand-sculpted sculptures portraying areas of the ocean identified as deserving special protection. Each sculpture represents an area of the ocean in its most ideal and healthy form

and is named after the location. Find out more about how you can get involved in water conservation and learn more about sea level rise in Hampton Roads in MOCA’s ARTlab.

Born and raised in San Francisco, Courtney Mattison received an interdisciplinary Bachelor of Arts in Marine Ecology and Ceramic Sculpture from Skidmore College in 2008. She received a Master of Arts in Environmental Studies from Brown University with coursework at the Rhode Island School of Design in 2011. Mattison has exhibited her work nationally including at the Tang Museum in Saratoga Springs, NY, the headquarters of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Washington DC. She lives and works in Denver, Colorado.

Courtney Mattison. Fossil Fuels: Oil Can, 2014.Glazed stoneware and porcelain. Courtesy of the Artist.

Courtney Mattison. Hope Spot: Coral Triangle, 2015.Glazed stoneware and porcelain. Courtesy of the Artist.

MOCA would like to thank artist Courtney Mattison for her help in realizing this exhibition.

NEW WAVES 2016 This year the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art celebrates its 21st juried exhibition, New Waves 2016. MOCA is honored to support regional contemporary artists. The Commonwealth of Virginia holds a vast array of artistic talent.

This year’s juror is Jan Tumlir. Tumlir is an art-writer and professor based in Los Angeles. He is a founding editor of the art journal X-TRA, and his articles appear regularly in Artforum and Flash Art. He has written catalog essays for such artists as Bas Jan Ader, Uta Barth, John Divola, James Welling, Jorge Pardo and Cyprien Gaillard. A member of the MFA faculty at Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA this year Tumlir is visiting Washington University in St. Louis as the Wallace Herndon Smith Distinguished Professor of Art. Tumlir’s latest book, The Magic Circle, On The Beatles, Pop Art, Art-Rock and Records has just been released.

Clockwise: Andy Harris. Steak on a Stick, 2015. Mixed Media. Courtesy of the Artist. | Stephanie Robbins Thulin. Box D, # 6: Sweden & Canada, 1972, 2013. UltraChrome Inkjet Print. Courtesy of the Artist. | Brad T. Birchett. Partisan Fera (detail), 2014-2015. Mounted pigment prints on archival paper with sound. Courtesy of the Artist. | Jere Williams. We’re Having Fish for Dinner Honey!, 2014. Wood (Ash), Steel. Courtesy of the Artist and Page Bond Gallery, Richmond, VA.

Take part in our 21st year celebration by voting for your favorite artwork! As you move through the gallery, you will see a ballot box asking for your vote for the People’s Choice award. MOCA will announce the winner at the end of the exhibition.

ALEX ARZT (RICHMOND)

MICHAEL AUGUST (VIRGINIA BEACH)

BRAD T. BIRCHETT (RICHMOND)

CASEY CRIDDLE (RICHMOND)

ANDREA DONNELLY (RICHMOND)

GREG GRIMSBY (MANASSAS)

CARSON GRUBAUGH (NORFOLK)

ANDY HARRIS (VIRGINIA BEACH)

CHRISTI HARRIS (HAMPTON)

JEFFREY HEWITT (NORFOLK)

NIKKI LEONE (VIRGINIA BEACH)

JON MCMILLAN (FREDERICKSBURG)

R. MERTENS (HARRISONBURG)

MEGHAN MEYERHOFF (VIRGINIA BEACH)

SUSAN MULLALLY (WILLIAMSBURG)

DANIELLE O’BRIEN (FALLS CHURCH)

TARA OTT (HARRISONBURG)

KELLY QUEENER (HENRICO)

STEVEN RANDALL (RICHMOND)

EVA ROCHA (RICHMOND)

YING-FANG SHEN (RICHMOND)

R-N-R SHOWPRINT (DAVID SHIELDS AND

IVANETE BIANCO-NORFOLK)

MG STOUT (STAFFORD)

STEPHANIE ROBBINS THULIN (RICHMOND)

SASHA WATERS FREYER (RICHMOND)

JERE WILLIAMS (RICHMOND)

MEGAN WYNNE (CHESAPEAKE)

CRYSTAL WAGNER: SURFACE TENSION

Artist Crystal Wagner’s vision is a delicate balance between natural and manufactured worlds. Her installations are vast, swirling maelstroms of color and texture formed from quotidian objects: Plastic manufactured items like disposable tablecloths. Wagner weaves them onto a wire armature where they take on a life of their own. They evolve from their own mundane beginnings and begin to resemble waves, amoebas, algae, or fungus. They mimic the natural world as they creep, stretch and grow in, around and through their environments.

These complex structures give you the feeling that they are growing and dividing. Mankind’s manufacturing efforts replicating cell division taken to an extreme. Our culture produces simple plastic materials again and again until their value shrinks down to mere cents for the consumer. Unlike organic forms, these materials are slow to experience decay. They are unnatural and stay around for hundreds of years. They are very much part of the environment that we have created for ourselves.

The monetary cost of using cheap plastic materials seems minimal at first. But, there is a higher price to pay. These objects are not truly disposable. Their breakdown poisons our waters, in the ground, rivers, lakes and oceans. Wagner herself recognizes this tension. She reuses the materials in the different installations as they are born and expire at different sites. Under her determined guidance, they emerge from the clutter that is the background of our lives and assert themselves. A visual tsunami, their mass gathers, swells and asserts itself into our personal space, demanding reconciliation.

Resolving this seeming paradox has been part of Wagner’s oeuvre since the near beginning of her artistic practice. She has a background in both sculpture and printmaking. Combining her artistic practice with her philosophical and worldly concerns has led her to different avenues of creation.

Here, at MOCA, Wagner has created a work using the museum as the substrate for the installation. MOCA’s unusual architecture, location near the oceanfront and Wagner’s concern that viewers experience physical nature of her work informed the creation of the installation. Although contemporary art is easy to find online, it is only through firsthand knowledge that we can truly understand it. Our flattened experience of digital technology expands to reopen perception and broaden horizons. MOCA is also presenting a selection of Wagner’s small sculptural pieces, or “terrariums.” Deep, wood shadow boxes house

Crystal Wagner, Aphotic VI, 2015. Courtesy of the Artist.

delicate, cut paper sculptures. They seem fragile, yet ready to burst from their confines. A bit like humanity itself, they are life that defies its container.

Crystal Wagner lives and works in Harrisburg, PA. She received her MFA from the University of Tennessee and her BFA from the Atlanta College of Art. Her exhibition schedule includes growing large-scale installations all over the United States. Past installations include Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts (Grand Rapids, MI), National Museum of Singapore, Singapore and in Times Square, NYC. Wagner is a recipient of the 2015 Pollock-Krasner Grant. She is represented by Hashimoto Contemporary, San Francisco, CA.

MOCA would like to thank artist Crystal Wagner, her assistant Matthew Crumpton and Ken Harmon at Hashimoto Contemporary for their help in realizing this exhibition

butler gallery ARTlabExperience MOCA’s winter/spring exhibitions through ARTlab, an interactive space for all ages! Learn about coral reefs and help create one. Discover how you can assist your local waterways and create your own water inspired artwork. MOCA would like to thank Lynnhaven River Now and Courtney Mattison for their assistance.

community gallery JOHN RUDEL: ABSORB, RESIST, EDIT, AND SEEK Digital culture has changed the way society views the world. Imagery from little flat screens inundates our lives. At some point we have to question the value of reproductions instead of looking in real time. This is the concern of artist, John Rudel. He chooses imagery that seems familiar and gives us a frame of reference as a starting point, like a crowd scene or clouds. From there, the exploration of patterns, texture, layers, form and mass begins. Time spent simply looking at a work of art becomes a meditative act. It frees the viewer from everyday distractions.

Rudel created these works from found pieces of stainless steel, cast-offs of a manufacturing process found among heaps in a scrap yard. These objects have allowed the artist to abandon the constraints of traditional rectangular paintings. They are the cut-outs, the parts left behind when constructing a useful object such as a washing machine. Rudel has reengaged these pieces and forces a reexamination of them. Perhaps this is a hint, a metaphor for our own lives. Should we examine constructs that form who we are? If we are less in a hurry to discard what doesn’t work, will we discover a different vision for ourselves?

John Rudel is Batten Associate Professor of Art at Virginia Wesleyan College where he also serves as Curator of Exhibitions. Rudel was awarded the Batten Professorship in 2014. He has exhibited his work across the country in venues including the Georgia Museum of Art (Athens, GA), the University of Miami Art Museum (Oxford, OH), the Lauren Rodgers Museum (Laurel, MS), the Williamsburg Art and Historical Center (Brooklyn, NY), and the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art (Virginia Beach, VA).

John Rudel. Calendar (Overtaken by Blue), 2015. Courtesy of the Artist.

price auditorium JUST ADD WATER MOCA presents a contemporary animated short film exhibition celebrating filmmakers who include water as a significant role. Each film takes a different approach to both storytelling and animation. They all incorporate

different facets of the relationship we all have to this essential element. It gives us life, shapes our surroundings, and dictates how we communicate and what we look like. Yet, for a planet that is mostly water, it is under threat as a resource.

The exhibition loops daily in MOCA’s Price Auditorium. Screenings are free with museum admission.

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COVER CREDITS L to R: Courtney Mattison, Our Changing Seas III (detail), 2014. Courtesy of the Artist. Photograph by Arthur Evans. | Crystal Wagner, Aphotic V (detail), 2015. Courtesy of the Artist. | Kelly Queener (detail), Palace of the Peacock, 2015. Courtesy of the Artist.

MOCA’S WINTER /SPRING E XHIBIT IONS ARE SUPPORTED IN PART BY

I N - K I N D S U P P O R T FROM

The Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art is funded in part by the citizens of Virginia Beach through a grant from the City of Virginia Beach Arts & Humanities Commission, and by the Virginia Commission for the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, Business Consortium for Arts Support and Hampton Roads Community Foundation.

The Deep (Still), Courtesy of PES.