Amelia Rina

  • Jovencio de la Paz, Bionumeric Organisms 2.0, 2021, handwoven Thread Controller 2 textile and canvas, 36 x 24".
    picks May 14, 2021

    Jovencio de la Paz

    The fiber works in Jovencio de la Paz’s solo exhibition “Cumulative Shadow” are not as simple as they appear. For most of these pieces, de la Paz employed a computerized Thread Controller 2 loom and custom weaving software to create textile swatches with unpredictable patterns, which were then sewn together with panels of raw canvas and wrapped around stretchers. The resulting compositions oscillate between glitchy-looking digital images and lushly wrought abstractions—renderings that grew from a deft combination of order and chaos. These objects go beyond the two-dimensional: Each work comprises

  • View of “Vo Vo: Things that have to do with fire,” 2021.
    picks March 12, 2021

    Vo Vo

    “Fire, never a gentle teacher”; “the economy will be perfect when all our workers have died”; “NO SWERFS NO TERFS THANKS”; “USA = no. 1!”; “What does your solidarity look like?” Phrases such as these, interspersed with various kinds of imagery, are emblazoned across bedsheet-size banners that hang from ceiling of this gallery. Throughout this exhibition, Portland-based artist Vo Vo seeks to maintain the vocabulary and spirit of resistance in the wake of 2020’s endless crises and chaos.

    Vo worries that we’re relaxing too much in this new, post-Trump landscape. They know that we can’t go back to

  • Summer Wheat, Wrestling an Alligator, 2018, aluminum on acrylic mesh, 68 x 96".
    picks June 01, 2018

    Summer Wheat

    The experience of viewing Summer Wheat’s paintings and sculptures for the first time produces an inordinate number of pleasurable surprises. From afar, her large-scale wall pieces playfully fluctuate between being tapestries and paintings; yet upon closer inspection, they are indeed both. Wheat works by pushing thick, claylike paint through sheets of mesh. The resulting textures resemble rich, woven textiles, or rows of tassels.

    Wheat’s subject matter also rewards prolonged contemplation. In Gamekeepers (all works 2018), different kinds of animals, including a horse, snake, bear, and fish, blend