DANIELLE GUSTAFSON-SUNDELL
tomorrow

project room:
MELANIE SCHIFF
new photographs

March 5 - April 24, 2004

Danielle Gustafson-Sundell's sculptures from the past few years have confronted the formal side of sculpture with the placement of soft forms against hard-edged geometric shapes. Ideas of minimalism influenced the placement of construction materials such as cement blocks, bricks and 2x4's, which were conversely softened by the addition of stitched, and appliquéd fabrics like felt and corduroy and titled to imply narratives that often involved love and sex. Danielle Gustafson-Sundell's current body of work titled tomorrow comments less on feminizing minimal sculpture but rather explores a personal agenda focusing on emotional themes such as loss, love and relationships. This collection of sculptures and wall pieces reference a 1970's aesthetic as a metaphor for a failed utopic model and a familiar harbinger of what is to come. The sculptures now pair found objects with a hand-made thrift store craft reaching from unlikely motifs such as patchwork, iron-on, sand-art and tattoo design. The work presents a distinct longing to recapture a certain place, time or moment in which the artist has lost.

Danielle Gustafson-Sundell (b. 1967, Minnesota) lives and works in Chicago. She has exhibited solo exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, 12x12 New Artists/New Work, and Vedanta Gallery. She has also been included in exhibitions at Gallery 400, University of Illinois at Chicago, and The Evanston Arts Center. Her work is included in the Altoids Curiously Strong Collection, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, NY.

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Melanie Schiff is attracted to the residue of contemporary life, the awkwardness of waning youth and the unforgiving gaze of a young woman. Her photographs are as much about personal, quiet and private moments as they are about breathing life into the history of the representation of the landscape, still life, and portrait. Schiff's images present a juxtaposition between monumental concerns of classical painting, using personal symbolism which takes its inspiration not directly from pop culture but rather from personal effects, clothing, objects and people that surround her which may coincidentally be related to a rock band, the use of marijuana, or the androgynous beauty of a young man.

Melanie Schiff (b. 1977, Illinois) lives and works in Chicago. She has exhibited her work in group exhibitions at Vedanta Gallery, Here and Now at The Chicago Cultural Center and Gallery 400, The University of Illinois at Chicago. Schiff has an upcoming exhibition at Suitable Gallery, Chicago in July 2004.

Image:
Tomorrow, installation view Vedanta Gallery