Brandy Wolfe - "Stuffed"

Stuffed, Boston-based arist Brandy Wolfe's installation is in our space until April 6th. The installation includes family photos the artist found from the 1930’s to the 1950’s. They are accompanied by her own sewn stuffed animals that mimic the memories shown in the photographs.

Wolfe’s exhibit focuses on the connection between individual memories with specific material objects. The piece began with Wolfe purchasing displaced family photographs from online auctions, focusing on those that depicted children with stuffed toys. By recreating the inanimate characters from these photographs, pinning some on the wall and letting the others pile up below, she has put on display a dissection of these memories and alluded to the difficulty of actually recreating them. Like the displays in a natural history museum, Wolfe’s piece reflects the malleability of collective memory.

(Wolfe now residing in Brighton, MA has been featured in many exhibits throughout the U.S. She received her BFA in Painting from the Maryland Institute College of Art and Masters in Art History from Ohio State University. Wolfe has recently exhibited her work at the MCLA Gallery 51 in North Adams, MA, KSpace Contemporary in Corpus Christie, TX, the Atlantic Works Gallery in Boston, MA and will be installing work in the group exhibition Yellow at the Boston Children’s Museum this year.)

Autumn Patricia Ahn - "Hallow Halos"

Autumn Patricia Ahn's piece, Hallow Halos was the first exhibition of 2010 in Frame 301!

Ahn’s intricate work draws in the attention of viewers by reflecting on and incidentally playing a part in the experience of a shared visual landscape.

A multilayered piece in conception and construction, Hallow Halos transformed our storefront gallery into a temple of coiled figures and messages. This powerful, celebratory shrine commemorates the human response to our daily overstimulation of imagery. Ahn’s work uses narrative visual languages often found in religious iconography, offering her viewers signs, symbols and clues to create a unified statement.

Hallow Halos is constructed from layers of neon paint, string, masonite and vinyl. Utilizing every perspective available in this unique space, Ahn adhered vinyl to the outside of the glass to create a foreground, designed an altar of solid color and writhing characters on the wall itself and constructed elements that hang in the space between the glass and dry wall.

(Ahn is Somerville-based artist, current working as part of the collective artist studios at 9 Olive Square, Somerville, MA. Since acquiring her BFA in Painting at Boston University in 2008, Ahn has shown regularly throughout the Boston area. She is sought after for her ability to create large, enaging images, such as the commissioned murals she has recently completed with Underground Snowboards/Indoor Skate Ramp in Boston, MA and Firebeat Dancesport Studios in Allston, MA. She was also recently included in the Hey I Know That Guy exhibit at the Washington Street Art Center and Off-the-Wall Paper at Gallery 5 in Boston, MA.)

Wendy Kawabata - "Withdrawn from Circulation"

We had the pleasure of exhibiting Kawabata's Withdrawn from Circulation from November 5th through December 1st. The Hawaii-based artist's piece was constructed out of books pulled from circulation from Honolulu libraries, which Kawabata bought for a dollar a piece. The books are exaggeratedly dog-eared, their interiors becoming exposed and rearranged.

“The interior of a book is traditionally an individual and private experience,” the artist explains, “for these books….the private experience is no longer accessible. They have been quieted, now the barnacles growing on library walls as people move towards new ways of engaging with text”.

Kawabata’s interest in topics of interior and exterior mimic the underlying themes of Frame 301 so we were excited to exhibit this work in our storefront window which exits as a gateway between many public and private spheres.

(Kawabata received her BFA in Art History at Massachusetts College of Art and completed her MFA in Studio Art at the University of New Mexico. She is currently based in Honolulu, where she is an Assistant Professor with the department of Art and Art history with the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Kawabata has shown regularly over the last ten years in both group and solo shows nationally and has made public presentations a regular part of her exhibition process.)