Cherisse Alcantara, Cheryl + David Calleri, Pamela Merory Dernham, Cheryl Patrice Derricotte, Barry Ebner, Evan Holm, Irene Imfeld, Sandra Kelch, Christy Kovacs, Walter James Mansfield, Jos Sances, Rosella Scapini, William Schwob, Peter St. Lawrence - scroll down to see the show!
I hope this finds you and your friends, family, and community safe and well.
Answering the common question “How are you?” during the current state of the world seems trickier than ever. The last six months have been filled with an array of events and emotions. Navigating pandemic uncertainties requires our full attention and concentration. It takes tremendous stamina, and we need clarity of vision and mind, and collaboration, to endure such stressors and significant issues. It is humanly impossible to constantly give energy to every task without replenishing. What becomes clear is our need to cultivate resilience and find ways to recharge, as we seek a semblance of order, light, ease, beauty, and tenderness.
This pandemic reveals truths as we excavate history, and presses us to face the future of humanity, but these uncertain times bring to light the importance of our connection to one another. Enjoying art is a natural activity of connection - the connection of intellect, heart, and soul. Today an artist's practice can be a time of respite, recharge, focus, distraction, or therapy. Central to our work at Vessel Gallery is being a conduit for such connections and activity to occur. Acclimating to evolving circumstances, we rescheduled this years' fall exhibit to a group show reflecting this new collective social and emotional climate.
In March, healthcare workers and essential workers had to keep working. We owe tremendous gratitude to these heroes who take risks every day to ensure the health and safety of our communities, and provide for societal well-being that operates and functions. Our recognition of their work is crucial.
In June, it became clear under COVID that operating the gallery in our new space would not be possible. We adapted to this reality by revising, and re-arranging our show programming, and moving exhibitions online. We also created artist talks to keep in sync with our program events (visit our ONLINE EVENTS, often!) All the while, Vessel has been anxiously awaiting news from the state and county allowing cultural arts businesses to re-open.
The term "essential workers" triggered a curiosity of how artists and cultural producers were faring under the state’s mandates. Art provides fuel for human energy, so was born the investigation of the importance of art creation during turbulent times, and to examine how art functions during a pandemic. I asked artists to share how they were adapting under COVID-19, and how “shelter in place" (SIP) has impacted their art practice. How has their practice changed, shifted, or responded during these times? Ruminating on questions like “What is our tolerance?” or “What is art’s role towards November 3rd” or “Is art an agent of change, of healing, of uniting or dividing?” It is my belief that art can serve as a catalyst to address difficult conversations. Art can provide meaning and purpose in academic, political, interpersonal, communal, community/local, national, and international dialogues through a direct and kinesthetic experience. Throughout time the art experience provides meaning and purpose to the creator and viewer.
These works were created during the outbreak of COVID; most were completed during SIP, whether exploring the value that "Art Is Essential”, or embodying it by their existence, even documenting salient events. Through “Art Is Essential", we hope to provide you an opportunity to connect, find nourishment or refuge, and feed your soul.
We invite you to gaze, reflect, and enjoy this online show!
— Lonnie Lee
Artworks may be collected on the spot, just click! Please share your thoughts and responses in the comments section at the bottom.
If you like, we’ve two playlists for your listening pleasure, on Spotify while you enjoy the show (click links below):
MAKING THE MOST OF IT
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5PJ2K0gcP0KrNgXrIxoqn4?si=d56J6yRkQbGj8XyrFvqukw
SWEATING OUT THE SUMMER
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5yPJig6CJ5fwKsHEZdfpiC?si=_lZmRTLtQv6_CzuDirs4bw
Shed Obscura by Cheryl & David Calleri | 8 x 12 in. | Pinhole photography, archival pigment print < Click to purchase the artwork >
Statement
During Shelter in Place, we launched a collaboration that transformed our 10x10 ft. backyard shed into a camera obscura. Basically, the room became a pinhole camera. Turning our garden upside down and bringing the outside in seemed appropriate, as the rest of our life felt like it had been turned upside down and strangely inverted.
Ladder by Cheryl & David Calleri | 8 x 8 in. | Pinhole photography, archival pigment print < Click to purchase the artwork >
Statement
During Shelter in Place, we launched a collaboration that transformed our 10x10 ft. backyard shed into a camera obscura. Basically, the room became a pinhole camera. Turning our garden upside down and bringing the outside in seemed appropriate, as the rest of our life felt like it had been turned upside down and strangely inverted.
UNDER SHELTER, Art during the COVID-19 Pandemic by Jos Sances | The cover of the portfolio: 20 x 13.5 in. 5 - 19 x 13 in. panels, 2 - 9.75 x 13 in. panels, The overall print size 114.5 x 13 in. | Portfolio Book
ABOUT THE PORTFOLIO BOOK
"Nothing could be worse than a return to normality.”
Arundhati Roy, The Pandemic is a Portal, April 3, 2020,
Jos Sances created this portfolio sheltering-in-place during the COVID-19 outbreak, March 12 to June 6, 2020. It was created by making half-sized screen prints of seven new scratchboard drawings. The work explores the corona virus pandemic as a new type of American crisis illustrated through the clash of values that have preceded these maybe not-so-unprecedented times. It also continued his ongoing investigation into the environmental crisis.
An Edition of 10 screenprints each done on 100 lb, acid-free Bristol
George Floyd by Jos Sances | 8 x 8 in. | Scratch Board
Selma 1965 / Portland 2020 by Jos Sances | 18 x 24 in. | diptych on Scratchboard < Click to purchase the artwork >
Statement
This has been 6 months, unlike any others. Fear, astonishment at the lack of leadership on any level to deal with the multiple crises. The climate crisis, probably the most serious of all the horrors of this moment, is completely ignored. My work right now documents this darkness, still, I continue to look for signs of hope and goodness in the human spirit and it is there to be found. Waiting for the fires to cease and the air to clear, so we can once again breathe deep.
Selma 1965 / Portland 2020 signed silkscreened posters available < Click to purchase the poster >
70% of sales profit will be donated to Black Lives Matter Oakland Chapter
New Subjectivity by Peter St. Lawrence | 8 x 15 x 8 in. | Ceramic < Click to purchase the artwork >
Statement | Art is essential
For expressing pure emotion
Not limited by spoken or written language.
For crystalizing in-between-moments that defy categorization
With a nuanced perspective that may not be defined as good or evil.
For dipping it’s toe into the vast river of our collective consciousness And emerging with it’s own purity of truth.
For being the axe that shatters the icy walls we build around our hearts To prevent ourselves from being vulnerable.
For reducing the noise
And providing ambiguity that makes sense of chaos
New Subjectivity details
3rd and Chavez by Barry Ebner | 27 x 39 in. | Sumi ink, conte, charcoal < Click to purchase the artwork >
Statement
The image is from a photo of the grain silo on 3rd and Chavez in the city. Looming, monolithic, and very present in a threatening way. Fits the political tension in the air. Art is essential, without the practice of creating art, the isolation of Shelter in Place would become very depressing. With all the things happening in the world at the moment, art becomes a refuge.
Dreaming Figure by William Schwob | 74 x 13 x 15 in. | Ceramic, wood-fired clay < Click to purchase the artwork >
Statement
As Covid 19 began to spread back in February this year, I started this piece. It is a continuation of an ongoing series that I started 10 years ago that broadly focuses on Climate Change and it's potential effects on humanity but now with the added concern of a Global Pandemic. As I observe our collective reaction to the pandemic I can see that there are serious problems concerning our relationship with scientific facts and our willingness to ignore those facts when they impede on our personal ideas of what kind of behavior we believe we are entitled to, regardless of the facts. I want this work to pose questions as in: What kind of sacrifices are we willing to make for the greater good? What kind of dream of the future do you have?
Figure with Uncertain Future by William Schwob | 79.50 x 13.50 x 15.50 in | Ceramic, wood-fired clay < Click to purchase the artwork >
Statement
This piece speaks for itself and is part of an ongoing series that I started about 10 years ago. The focus of this series is Climate Change and the real possibility that life on earth will be completely altered and that all human life is at risk unless we drastically change our global behavior. The science tells us that. As I make these pieces I try to imbue them with the sense that the future is not fully written yet (all of my figures are still standing). I hold onto hope that humanity can find a way to mitigate the worse effects of climate change.
Gattacat by Rosella Scapini | 23 x 6 x 6 in. | Plaster, concrete, steel < Click to purchase the artwork >
Statement
Colony collapse. Pollution. Climate change. Habitat loss. Species extinction. Sars-Cov-2.
This last word follows as a linear logical consequence.
Of the many calamities threatening humanity, insect extinction might have the most devastating effects, as they are the very pillars on which the whole ecosystem depends on. Insects are deeply intertwined with our food chain- and survival- they’re ingrained with our own existence. Still, their disappearance has gone mainly unnoticed and reached the news only when one group, the bees -a crucial farming asset- started dying on a mass scale.
These reflections were stirring in my head when the Covid-19 outbreak revealed the deep connection between different species, as well as the fragility of our unbalanced ecosystem. Manifesting those feelings through art was the right way to express them, using the visual language to compensate my lack of better words.
Inside My Head by Pamela Merory Dernham | 15 x 9.5 x 1 in. | Painted annealed steel wire < Click to purchase the artwork >
Statement
Inside My Head arises from the time when the events of the outside world began to influence the story in my art. I was containing conflicting feelings of hope and despair, finding a way to balance them so I could function in my life. This balancing act has only become more precarious.
The Long View by Pamela Merory Dernham | 36 x 15.5 x 3 in. | Black annealed steel wire
Statement
The Long View is about the persistence and resilience of the human spirit to make life better for self, family, and community.
Orange Path by Cherisse Alcantara | 24 x 30 in. | Oil on canvas < Click to purchase the artwork >
Statement
Orange Path is a work from pre-covid but reflects the desolate post-apocalyptic and futuristic spaces I am now preoccupied with.
Mindscape No.1: The Lockdown and Mindscape No.2: Dark Forest, Diptych by Cherisse Alcantara | 24 x 30 in. each | Oil on canvas < Click to purchase the artwork >
Statement
The Lockdown and 2: Dark forest is a diptych that is shown together as I explore pairings and ideas of proximity in my new works. They are made in April-May during the early days of Covid. I am investigating surreal spaces that carry psychological states related to my lived experiences but as well as responding to the contemporary moment. "The Lockdown" is about a deeply felt space that expresses the feeling of compression, while "Dark forest" is rooted in the idea of searching the light within darkness.
Mindscape No. 2: Dark Forest by Cherisse Alcantara | 11.5 x 14.5 in. | Oil on gessoed paper < Click to purchase the artwork >
Still She Rises by Christy Kovacs | 36 x 24 in. | Oil on canvas < Click to purchase the artwork >
Statement
At the beginning of Covid, while the outside world was falling apart, my inner world was simultaneously darkening. I had trouble finding anything hopeful or positive to hold onto. I started seeing Phoenix imagery everywhere, on semi-trucks, on stickers on the sidewalk, in song lyrics, on food labels and it seemed to me such an obvious symbol for 2020. My feathered fire deity is a nod to Maya Angelou's poem "Still I Rise" and to the black women on the streets demanding justice for their dead husbands, sons, and fathers. She is a nod to nature who is pissed right now and storming across the country burning and flooding everything in sight, a nod to the pandemic burning down businesses, and a nod to the literal burning and riots in the streets. It was cathartic for me to channel all this destructive fire into a strong female energy that is just plain fed up and has a plan to rise up and spark some much needed change in a world that has been asleep for far too long.
Palms, Red (2750) by Irene Imfeld | 15 x 36 in. | Dye sublimation print on aluminum < Click to purchase the artwork >
Statement
I can go quite a long time working by myself. Now I really miss seeing everyone and seeing art in person. The first two months of the COVID shutdown were very productive. I finished images, made final prints, added to ongoing series, and made new small series. It took another two months to look through older work and complete the details on several handmade book editions.
Palms, Golden (2687A) by Irene Imfeld | 15 x 36 in. | Dye sublimation print on aluminum < Click to purchase the artwork >
Statement
I can go quite a long time working by myself. Now I really miss seeing everyone and seeing art in person. The first two months of the COVID shutdown were very productive. I finished images, made final prints, added to ongoing series, and made new small series. It took another two months to look through older work and complete the details on several handmade book editions.
Pour Country by Walter James Mansfield | 36 x 48 in. | Acrylic on canvas
Statement
Stay at home! Wash your hands! Wear your mask! Time stopped and when I looked up I did not recognize my surroundings. Is this America?
Are we Americans? Eventually, I found the map and traced the familiar outline of this odd shaped place in my mind. Is this still us?
Evenfall by Christy Kovacs | 24 x 56 in. | Woven photography < Click to purchase the artwork >
Statement
Being in nature, meditation, and creating art have all helped me to survive the year. Not coincidentally, all these things require turning inward and being present in your emotions, thoughts, and place. Evenfall is a playful celebration of the present moment, which cannot be better encapsulated visually than by a sunset in which you are constantly aware of it's imminent end. In slowing down and turning inward, I have been more able to appreciate the small pleasures in life, or the "sunset moments" as I like to call them -- the moments that we try so hard to savor because we know they will soon be gone.
Evenfall details
Pandemic Bookkeeping 1: Modern Bedroom by Cheryl Derricotte | Edition Size 5. 8 x 10 in. & 11 x 14 in. | Giclee Print, 100% Cotton Archival Rag < Click to purchase the artwork >
Pandemic Bookkeeping 2: Dessert Fruit by Cheryl Derricotte | Edition Size 5. 8 x 10 in. & 11 x 14 in. | Giclee Print, 100% Cotton Archival Rag < Click to purchase the artwork >
Pandemic Bookkeeping 3: Dinner Table by Cheryl Derricotte | Edition Size 5. 8 x 10 in. & 11 x 14 in. | Giclee Print, 100% Cotton Archival Rag < Click to purchase the artwork >
Pandemic Bookkeeping 4: Fancy Cakes by Cheryl Derricotte | Edition Size 5. 8 x 10 in. & 11 x 14 in. | Giclee Print, 100% Cotton Archival Rag < Click to purchase the artwork >
Statement
For the “Art is Essential” show, I created my own take on all of the “plague journals” that artists are making. From the new weekly mainstay in the Sunday New York Times to many of my friends’ Instagram feeds, “plague journals” (and “protest signs”) will be the way history remembers 2020. We all seem to be counting. Counting the days, counting the stages of re-opening, and counting the number of Zoom meetings. Lots of counting.
I am counting, too. It is not unusual for me to count, as I make art from research. Identities shaped by home (or homelessness); natural beauty (or disasters), memories of happiness (or loss) inspire my artwork. Home has taken on new meaning during the time of COVID-19, as home = work + daycare + school +restaurant + date night++++ -- pick the equation combination that fits your reality.
My reality always involves an art practice that brings historical images into contemporary dialogues. I keep a daily journal, and for the back-drop of these artworks, I was drawn to one of the blank journal pages of Clara Barton. A revered civil war nurse, often traveling with the Union Army, she is best known as the founder of the American Red Cross. I was also drawn to the images of the 1861 British classic “Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management.” Unlike Clara Barton, Isabella Beeton devoted herself to her husband and domesticity. It should be noted that a significant portion of this book details how to hire and manage servants!
It is not lost on me that I would occupy the position of a servant on either side of the Atlantic “pond” in the 1860s. This year, 2020, has often felt like I woke up in a Dickens novel in the middle of the Civil War. And yet today, like many women, I am required to embody both Clara and isabella: focused career woman, (serving society) and a goddess of domesticity, (understated beauty with a well-appointed home).
My new series, “Pandemic Bookkeeping“ shares an assessment of how I stack up against the standards of running a Victorian/Civil War-era middle class household that haunts us today. Like it or not, I am occupying the precariously demanding positions of mistress, housekeeper, and cook. Clearly I have enough bed pillows, but really, only two demitasse spoons? This is my plague journal. I am counting.
Iso by Sandra Kelch | 42 x 42 x 0.5 in. | Collage assemblage of printed paper on die cut wooden panel < Click to purchase the artwork >
Statement
The time during 'shelter in space' encouraged many people to look inward which often resulted in expression through creative outlets. Many people discovered new passions, and finally had the time to develop new skills and creations. When people are isolated, alone, and anxious, creative expression surfaces as a human need, just as essential as eating or sleeping.
Iso is a piece about urban complexity. An implied isometric grid defines spatial boundaries of the city that contain the many-layered influences that converge and contribute to the richness of urban environments.
Haven by Sandra Kelch | 13 x 16 in. unframed, 16 x 20 in. framed | Giclee print of a printed paper assemblage < Click to purchase the artwork >
Statement
The time during 'shelter in space' encouraged many people to look inward which often resulted in expression through creative outlets. Many people discovered new passions, and finally had the time to develop new skills and creations. When people are isolated, alone and anxious, creative expression surfaces as a human need, just as essential as eating or sleeping.
Haven was created during my quarantine isolation. While being confined to my home, my tropical garden became my refuge. It represents a place of inner peace, contrasted with the uncertainty of the outside urban space.
Pixelate by Sandra Kelch | 38 x 99 in. | Mixed media print (relief, paint, drawing, die cutting on archival giclee) < Click to purchase the artwork >
Statement
The time during 'shelter in space' encouraged many people to look inward which often resulted in expression through creative outlets. Many people discovered new passions, and finally had the time to develop new skills and creations. When people are isolated, alone, and anxious, creative expression surfaces as a human need, just as essential as eating or sleeping.
Pixelate is an oversized mixed-media print that emulates the complexity of post-industrial urban environments in a virtual and global world. The composition represents the synthesis of physical and virtual space. Made up of fragments of urban imagery and industrial shapes, it highlights artifact and interstitial shapes as a visual language
Pixelate Details
Orb Series by Evan Holm | Variable size | Plaster, pigment
Statement
These Orbs represent for me spiritual harmony and a calming balance. In times of Covid, I've needed to shift towards ways of sharing art with the public outside the gallery walls, and so have pivoted my studio outside as well, into the forest. Working there amongst the trees, also free of walls, I've developed this series of orbs to share a moment of calm and balance.
Orb Series, outdoors in forest
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