Jami Porter Lara
LDS-MHB-AMBR-0419CE-05, 2019
Pit-fired foraged clay
15 x 4.5 x 4.5 inches
$2,200

Albuquerque-based artist Jami Porter-Lara uses a 2000-year-old process to make objects that resemble a ubiquitous icon of modern life—the plastic bottle. It has always been Porter-Lara’s interest to claw back what is redeemable from the plastic bottle: to recognize that it belongs to the long human history of functional vessels that we use to contain and transport the necessities of life; to see the iconic forms embedded in its design (the spiral, the pentagon) and the human creativity that gave rise to it; and to recognize that these qualities exist alongside everything else that is bad, absurd, ugly, and unsustainable.

Porter-Lara’s process consists of little more than mud and fire. She harvests clay from a site near her home, and then soaks, strains and dries it. Each vessel is built by hand from coils of clay, polished to a high sheen with a stone, and pit-fired in her front yard. She does not use a wheel, kiln, or glazes.

Scott Hazard
Echoes, 2020
Mixed media sculpture, framed
16.5 x 16.5 x 6 inches
$2,800

The origin of the English word “garden” refers to a sense of enclosure; the oldest use of the word indicates the fending off of wilderness to cultivate a more or less safe haven. In a world with a seemingly endless amount of stimulus, information, and virtual spaces, Scott Hazard’s work creates space for a sensory pause to remove or alter the viewer’s existing frame of reference and provide an opportunity for a different presence of mind, a distilled frame of reference. He builds intimate portal-like spaces and micro-landscapes using numerous layers of paper that are carefully torn or cut, spaced apart and aligned to define sculptural voids. In these spaces, wilderness becomes less defined as nature but rather the constant flow of information, language and symbols that habitually surrounds us. Hazard works to craft new places in this wilderness, instead cultivating the wild in the enclosed.

As the viewer’s gaze enters and traverses the layers of paper in each work, vision becomes tactile, lending an articulated viewing experience and a space for the eyes to linger. Words are carefully and repeatedly stamped on the layers of paper to create muddled mounds of language or textured geometric forms which become landmarks in these psychic topographies. The movement and placement of words in and around the work provides for a kinesthetic reading experience that draws the viewer in for momentary reflection and a temporary departure. The viewer looks ‘at’ and ‘through’ each composition simultaneously.

Jeremy Holmes
Multiples, 2019
White ash, walnut, and cherry
62 x 68 x 13 inches
$14,000

Jeremy Holmes constructs abstract ash wood sculptures that emphasize materiality and an engagement between the viewer, the site, and the work. Seen as three-dimensional line drawings in space, the installations collaborate with unique found architecture to construct a new and unexpected space. Holmes constructs thin boards using traditional woodworking techniques, soaks the wood in water, and then uses a free form bending method to mold the lengths into abstract shapes. Once the wood has dried, he joins the segments together into different configurations, to create both small and large sculptures: freestanding, wall, or ceiling mounted.

t.w.five
Blockbuster Bookshelf, 2020
Hand-cut adhesive backed vinyl on panel
60 x 48 inches
$20,000

The international art duo known as t.w.five carefully applies shapes hand-cut from strips of large rolls of solid-colored, adhesive-backed vinyl onto surfaces. They create illusions with scale and color and group subject matter around themes such as Blockbuster movies. Architectural proportion is achieved in the book cover reference to Hitchcock’s “The Birds” and Anderson’s “The Grand Budapest Hotel” rendering on the top shelf. Text is used on the spines of the books to connect the viewer to the film references, including Brazilian and Swedish genres and movements promoting the artists’ origins. No detail is spared, nor too small to be rendered in vinyl - from Dorothy’s gingham dress to R2-D2’s droid controls.