real time
nelson kaufman
artist statement
My work is a compilation of how I feel about social media and how I feel about the day-to-day. It’s about how we gather information and process it. My work is made from an unconscious mind, like free-flow jazz. There is an element of meditation within it. I dance in and out of an astral plane when constructing a work. Sometimes relying on the conscious mind to place an iconic reference and other times letting my unconscious make wistful marks. It is like composing a puzzle without ever seeing the original image. Layers of info and marks that intertwine and come together as a tangled mess. Creating a simulacrum of another dimension. It's a lucid DMT trip.
biography
Nelson Kaufman is an interdisciplinary artist living and working in Atlanta, GA. He received his BFA from Indiana University in 2015. Recent works have been on paper, wood, and digital drawings on Samsung devices. Working themes include disorder, congestion, sarcasm, fragmented perspective, and gestural digital compositions influenced by the omnipresent whirlpool of social media.
laura youngquist
artist statement
Everything is always everywhere, and there is no getting around it. All of what we know and understand in our reality is a construction for civilization to strive, but with human advancement reality is becoming more and more abstracted. Making sense of the mythical realities that human consciousness creates is necessary for me to keep my head on straight as I struggle within structural hegemony in its many states. Testing the boundaries of life and art formulates new wisdoms with which to understand with. Wisdom is the light that helps lead me down the path of life. The illusions of modern living leave me feeling synthetic. Why don’t we clothe the homeless? Life lacks sympathy, and empathy is left behind for ecstasy. Living in the city I see so many people wanting new things. My art deals with the construction of identity and fabrication of the self. I choose to use fabric to symbolize the body; it references clothing and the individual. Sharing is caring; I want my art off the walls and on the people. T-shirts are for you and me, they are comfy, easy to work with and easy to share. I want my art to touch people. Each shirt is made individually, from scraps and pieces of other shirts, thrift store shirts and shirts gifted from friends, are reassemblaged, abstracted, and recreated to live a new life.
biography
Born and raised in South Bend, Indiana, Laura also stayed in Indiana for college. She received a BA in Gender Studies and a BFA in Sculpture from Indiana University. After undergraduate school, Laura finally left Indiana for Atlanta where she currently works in her studio and in a kitchen, living with her boyfriend and puppy.
*THIS SHOW WAS IN CONJUNCTION WITH STOVEWORKS’S “MELT MY HEART BUT SPARE MY SOUL” LOCATED AT 917 E 16TH ST, CHATTANOOGA TN*
