APRIL 29 – MAY 25, 2019
Opening Party: April 29
Pop-Up Exhibit at Alley Bar
Photos from Opening Night
Originally from Portland, OR, Elyse Gambino is an artist and educator living in Lansing and working throughout Mid-Michigan. With a background in craft and an MFA in painting, she primarily focuses on painting and digital collage. Gambino teaches art courses at colleges and universities throughout the state as well as The Ann Arbor Art Center.
Artist Statement:
“My recent work examines the human impact on the natural world and the destructive force of time on the built environment. Living in the Midwestern United States, I am surrounded by urban structures in contrasting conditions of existence: buildings slowly crumble in the shadow of shiny new construction; layers of paint peel away from walls and doors while the refuse from renovations sits in twisted piles on street corners. I cannot look at the contradictions of materials and resources that manifest within the urban environment without analyzing the systematic inequality within the community.
Whether my work features familiar imagery or leans toward total abstraction, I’m thinking about the lack of emotional and political stability we must address as our everyday experiences become increasingly global. Rabbits become a mediator between urban and rural spaces: although a city is not their natural habitat, it provides refuge from their predators. Populated by growth and destruction, clarity and ambivalence, my work searches for hope within impending catastrophe.”