Opening Reception: Driftless / Distress Cycle

Date and Time for this Past Event

• Friday, Apr 19, 2019  6 PM - 8 PM

Location

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Event Cost

Free

Details

Two exhibits, four artists, one amazing reception! Join your friends at the Rochester Art Center for a joint opening reception for Driftless by artist Alessandra Sulpy and Distress Cycle by artist Jon Allen in collaboration with Heather Acerro and Eric Tarr. DRIFTLESS DATES: 3/29 - 5/11 DESCRIPTION: Driftless is a series of diptychs exploring how transient artist Alessandra Sulpy responds to her new, permanent residence of Winona MN. Taking in all the area in and around Winona, Sulpy offers to viewers the area’s alluring past and present in sometimes unusual ways; a house rots around a 55-ton boulder, glass-eyed exotic animals gaze out at bank patrons, classrooms hide equipment from courses not taught in decades. Sulpy is fascinated and charmed by these often bizarre local elements and relates her own experience of settling down in the town and community she has come to think of as home. ABOUT THE ARTIST: Alessandra is a figurative artist and educator based in Winona, MN. She received her Bachelors in Fine Art from the Maryland Institute of Art and her Masters in Fine Art from Indiana University. She is currently Assistant Professor of Drawing and Painting at Winona State University. She has previously taught at University of North Carolina Charlotte, Indiana University South Bend, Winona State University, Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, and Southern Utah University. She lives with her fantastic husband, fat kitties, and a big house occupied by too much stuff. DISTRESS CYCLE DATES: 4/12 - 5/18 DESCRIPTION: Distress Cycle is an audio-visual commentary on the ways in which we present ourselves to others, how we are perceived, and how this exchange can alter our sense of self . The work is the result of three artists collaborating through different media with illustration, textiles, and video in conversation with each other. Each component in the installation serves as a subjective perspective on a shared narrative which revolves around a dress as the central figure. ABOUT THE ARTIST(S): Jon Allen was born in Cincinnati, OH. He moved from his home state to pursue a degree in Film Studies at the University of Kansas. While attending KU, Jon was able to study under film scholar and experimental filmmaker Dr. Edward S. Small - whose “direct theory” had a tremendous impact on Jon’s creative process. Jon’s work has been shown in The Olive Gallery in Lawrence, KS, AS220 Project Space in Providence, RI, The Ragtag Theater in Columbia, MO, The Kansas City Film Festival, and Rochester Art Center. Jon proudly calls the Midwest home. Heather Acerro was born in Ventura, CA at a time when peas and carrots shag carpeting was all the rage. She graduated magna cum laude from San Francisco State University earning a degree in Drama with an emphasis in Costume Design. She has designed or assisted with shows in Ventura, CA; Ojai, CA; Oakland, CA; San Francisco, CA; and Leysin, Switzerland. She recently picked up embroidery and has shown work at: Altered Esthetics in Minneapolis, MN; San Francisco School of Needlework and Design in San Francisco, CA; Reserve and Renew Mental Health Zine; Café Steam in Rochester, MN; and this will be her third time at Rochester Art Center. She lives in a 100-year-old bungalow influenced house on what was once Orange Street in Rochester. Find her on Instagram @heddastitches Eric Tarr was born in the Midwest, and recently moved a bit more west, to nestle in the even more middle. He went to middle school, and beyond. He was middle of his class. He learned things and listens. He thinks about things. He makes things. With things and thinks that he has. And sometimes he even shows them to people. He likes people. He likes when people see things. He likes to surround himself with the people and the things that he likes. To be in the middle. It is a good place. The heart is in the middle.