GABRIELLE

TESCHNER

MYTHS

GABRIELLE TESCHNER

MYTHS

APRIL 19 - MAY 6, 2023

Art/artefact is pleased to present its inaugural installation, Myths, a collaboration with Gabrielle Teschner featuring recent work by the artist complemented by objects of contemplation and a floral sculpture by Rhea Calpeno curated by Audra Kiewiet de Jonge, art and interiors advisor and founder of Art/artefact.

INSTALLATION VIEWS

Art_artefact_Myths_Gabrielle_Teschner_floral_wall_tyrolean_chairs_web.jpg

Art_artefact_Myths_Gabrielle_Teschner_Rhea_Calpeno_installation II_web.jpg

Art_artefact_Myths_Gabrielle_Teschner_Before_the_Bridge_Stands c web.jpeg

Art_artefact_Myths_Gabrielle_Teschner_Hot_Clime_detail.jpeg

Art_artefact_Myths_Gabrielle_Teschner_installation_web detail.jpeg

Art_artefact_Myths_Gabrielle_Teschner_Drawing cropped.jpeg

Art_artefact_Myths_Gabrielle_Teschner_installation_web.jpg

Photography by Gordon Gregory

ABOUT MYTHS

At first glance, the series of paintings by Teschner readily recall floral studies, but their subjects arose intuitively from memory. These paintings are presented for the first time alongside Teschner’s sculptures-that-are-flat, architectural constructions built from ink-brushed cotton muslin joined by thread. It also marks the debut of a new series of labyrinthine sculptures inspired by this collaboration. The juxtaposition of the two bodies of work illustrate Teschner’s unique ability as an artist to sculpt in two dimensions and conceptually explore the properties and illusions of volume as a sculptor. The exhibition title, Myths, and the titles of each painting, invoke the kernels of truth and doubt present in every memory and mythical elaboration.

Teschner’s work is complemented by objects of contemplation curated to evoke the feeling of wonder and spirit of questioning all too often absent from contemporary life and to place the viewer of her work in conversation with the exercise of wondering and questioning that is so central to her artistic practice. This feeling is further expanded upon in a site-specific installation of an ephemeral aerial sculpture by floral artist Rhea Calpeno.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Gabrielle Teschner (b. Newport News, VA) lives and works in Richmond, VA. She received her BFA in Sculpture from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2003 and her MFA from California College of the Arts, San Francisco in 2007. Exhibiting nationally and internationally, her work is in the permanent collections of the De Young Museum, San Francisco, CA, Soho House, Facebook/Meta, Google, the Ritz-Carlton, Washington DC, among others. She is represented by The Tappan Collective in Los Angeles.

EXHIBITION STATEMENT

In my artistic process, I build rooms. My sculptures and my drawings—they are places to dwell in, to hold a thought. I started with oil sticks for this series because I suspected they would show the character of my gesture. The actions involved are pushing and digging, different from the watery washes of my textile sculptures. The physicality appealed to my sculptural interests.

In the making of a myth, a little piece of truth or reality is embellished with the things we desire, or fear, or mysteries we hope to understand. In the process of creating these, I would start with the stroke and try to dig myself out of the shadows in a way. Sometimes I would think of the center of a bush–the thick overgrowth where the leaves and branches are indistinguishable from the darkness.

The resulting paintings are the action of flowering–like painting flowers in a storm, a struggle to catch them as they shift and move. Like a mythical construct, they are each an untying, an unraveling, a rough tracing of things I think I've come to know.

The question becomes: is it a myth which confirms or challenges the thing?

Audra

Audra Kiewiet de Jonge guides her interior design practice with an art-first approach built upon years in the art world and formal training as a painter. Her work carries the hallmark of an eye attuned to the exceptional and unexpected with an approachability that feels fresh and unencumbered.

At the root of Audra’s work is the concept of value, and creating lived environments for the pieces that hold value in our life — whether a child’s finger painting or one by Cy Twombly. Previously Audra has held positions with Galería OMR in Mexico City, with Kate Brodsky of KRB in New York, and Maja Smith of Found by Maja in San Francisco.