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s'LOTTERY!

For Immediate Release: January 22, 2004

For more information contact:
Julie Ann Cavnor 410-962-8565 / jcavnor@mdartplace.org

Fifteen Maryland area artists exhibit their recent works:

Palma Allen, Beth Ashton, Margaret Boozer, Julianna Dail, Jennifer Dixon, Sean Flannigan, Sam Holden, Orlando Johnson, Viki Keating, Emily Michael, Shannon Oliverio, Win Peterman, Michael Sharp, Angela Wheeler, and Irene Woodbury

Who was it that said that being an artist takes about five percent talent, and another ninety five percent of knuckle-grinding, back-breaking, bank-emptying hard work? Artists (and the people who know them) can attest to the enormous challenges required to forge a life in the arts. There are common issues most artists face: how to maintain studio space; where to find time to balance jobs with the struggle of making art (and still have a “life”); how to face technical dilemmas while managing to facilitate one’s ideas in the best way possible…and more.  One of the more challenging obstacles regardless of what stage in one’s career: how to bring your work to audiences and to be sure that it will be seen and understood? . Securing exhibition venues NOW for your latest work is often nearly as arduous as planning an expedition to scale Mount Everest, since most gallery programming is booked well into the coming year (or two.) Ask any artist you know and they’ll tell you that it is unlikely that all but the most successful artists will find frequent opportunities to share their latest work…

Baltimore, MD – On a recent Saturday afternoon, despite the frigid temperatures outside, a group of artists from diverse backgrounds gathered at Maryland Art Place, filled with anticipation that their name may be drawn (at random) from a paint bucket loaded with entrant’s names. A board member of Maryland Art Place dipped his hand into the bucket, drawing each of the fifteen winner’s names. “This is really brave,” a candidate commented, knowing that few art galleries would have the careless abandon to eliminate all rules, regulations, and gate-keeping procedures in order to give artists from any stage in their career an opportunity to exhibit their work. By the day’s end, the names were announced, and winning artists quickly explored ways utilize their allotted gallery spaces.

The result? The competition submissions represented a diverse group of artists, from emerging artists and students participating in their first gallery exhibition, to mid-career artists who have gained substantial recognition for their work. The winning s’LOTTERY artists reflect that diversity, presenting a dynamic new exhibition of work by artists from Baltimore and well beyond the borders of the city, to Maryland communities of Riva, Clarksburg, Severn, Pasadena and Prince Frederick, as well as Washington, D.C.

The s’LOTTERY exhibition may be a surprise to many audiences, exposing many artists whose names you may not know, paired with others whose work and names may be more familiar. s’LOTTERY seems to have opened a door to the vibrant arts community around the state. Our hope is that regardless of where each artist currently finds themselves in their career, that this exhibition will lead to many more opportunities to share their upcoming work.

THE s’LOTTERY ARTISTS:

Palma Allen: a mother of three, originally from New York and longtime resident of Clarksburg, who acquired a Canon AE1 in 1984, to make painterly photographic images of people and sites in her community. www.palmaallen.com

Beth Ashton: an emerging artist, self-proclaimed feminist and current MICA student focused on figurative drawing as a means to subvert “canonical images of woman [that] have always been filtered through the gaze of men.”

Margaret Boozer: a well-regarded Washington, DC sculptor and ceramist who studied at Auburn University and Alfred University, and currently teaches at her Red Dirt Studio in Mt. Rainier, MD and Gallaudet University. Her work is included in the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution and many private collections.

Julianna Dail: a contributing artist to the ongoing project of Art*o*mat vending machines in D.C., VA, NC, the Whitney in NY and the Museum of Contemporary Art in CA. Dail received a Ukrainian Language Certificate from Harvard University in 2000, and her paintings appear in a number of private American and European collections.

Jennifer Dixon: an artist whose influences are vast, ranging from: Captain Kangaroo thermos bottles; memories of visits to Hutzlers; work by the 1980s painters David Salle and Sigmar Polk; the ‘myths’ found in Dick and Jane books; 80s punk rock, and more, leading to work that (in her words) is a “sort of fairy tale gone awry.”

Sean Flanningan: moved to Baltimore from Maine five years ago, and this exhibition is his first public showing in his adopted city. Flannigan chose to depict babies and kittens in his MAP exhibition, as “human signifiers for innocence and cuteness,” though the huge scale of his drawings twist those qualities into far more than representations of cuteness and innocence.

Sam Holden: is a professional photographer whose commercial work is often seen in publications (Forbes Magazine; Time Magazine, The City Paper and Baltimore Magazine,) on billboards, and many other venues. Holden’s exhibition photos on view at MAP reflect a multi-year project from his private portfolio, intended for publication as a coffee-table book in the near future.

Orlando Johnson: was a student in Atlanta when someone asked him to identify the core of his soul as an artist. His answer was simple. “I’m from Baltimore. I know and love the things about the city--this is my home.” Johnson’s electrically-bright paintings of Baltimore architecture resembles Shakespearean stage-sets, subtly suggesting the people residing within.

Viki Keating: is the longtime owner and designer of the Stained Glass Creations glass studio, located in Riva, Maryland. Keating has been commissioned for numerous public murals that have been installed throughout the state.

Emily Michael: is an emerging artist who is drawn to self-reflexive inspiration and the use of natural products and materials in order to explore the unnatural. A student at Anne Arundel Community College, Michael utilizes traditional media in her work.

Shannon Oliverio: claims to be “a sales clerk by day, artist by night, on the weekends, and of course holidays,” though if her work is closely scrutinized, it is quickly evident that she is an artist ‘24/7.’ A 2002 BFA graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art, Oliverio’s meticulously rendered works reflect a strong sense of narrative and allegorical impulses.

Win Peterman: grew up surround by nature in the Appalachian Mountains of Pennsylvania, where at eight years of age, Peterman faced what she calls an artistic “awakening, so hard to describe, [that] lives within me and I call it my “magic moment.”  Peterman now lives and works in Prince Frederick, Maryland, creating a prolific number of drawings and sculptures each year.

Michael Sharp: has served in the US Army Reserves and has studied fine art, communications security and for the military police. He attempts to “create an overall feeling of something happening just below the surface” within his work.

Angela Wheeler: is the sole artist in s’LOTTERY! to present a collaborative project exhibiting paintings on cast-away doors. To Wheeler, “the door symbolizes comings and goings and beginnings and endings” and this exhibition at MAP is the first time her project, started in 2000, has been publicly exhibited.
           
Irene Woodbury: divides her time between Italy and America, where she makes books, prints and drawings that have been inspired by the human figure, language, history poetry and neoclassical sculpture (among other influences.)  www.geocities.com/thinkxpressly

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Maryland Art Place (MAP) is a non-profit center for contemporary art established in 1981 to: develop and maintain a dynamic environment for regional artists to exhibit their work, nurture and promote new ideas and new forms, and facilitate rewarding exchanges between artists and the public through educational leadership. MAP is fully accessible to persons with disabilities. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 11am to 5pm. There is no admission charge to enter the gallery.  For more details, contact MAP’s Director of Programs, Lisa Lewenz at 410.962.8565 or llewenz@mdartplace.org or go to MAP’s web site: www.mdartplace.org