Joe Nanashe and Jamie Powell “Somewhere”

Arts + Leisure

poster for Joe Nanashe and Jamie Powell “Somewhere”
[Image: Jamie Powell "Guardian of the Gate" (2018) Acrylic and spray paint on dyed torn canvas, 48 x 20 x 3 in.]

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Arts+Leisure presents Somewhere, a collaborative exhibition of work by Jamie Powell and Joe Nanashe. In their first exhibition as a couple, the two navigate the vicissitudes of geography and place, modes of labor, and the cycles of experimentation and failure that underscore the artistic process. The exhibition’s title, drawn from various sources including “Over the Rainbow” sung by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz and Tom Waits’ cover of “Somewhere” from West Side Story, reflects feelings of longing, desire, and hope, as well as Nanashe’s perception of “an American delusion,” a particularly trenchant observation given the urgent realities of displacement endemic to contemporary America.

Raised in West Virginia and Ohio, respectively, Powell and Nanashe embrace the dynamics of materiality, socialization, and labor intrinsic to their hometowns. Inspired by the “humble culture of reuse, repurposing, patching and stitching” that defined her upbringing in an Appalachian family of factory and farm workers, Powell’s work, formed of dyed and painted canvas, complicates conventional distinctions between art and craft and calls attention to the expressive potential of domestic work. While Powell revisits a culture of reclamation and reuse, Nanashe’s work documents the ruthless efficiency of factory labor, transforming everyday utilitarian objects into vehicles for his parable-like meditations on the futility and emptiness of failing labor structures. Nanashe’s work thrives in the gray areas, deftly avoiding absolutes of meaning.

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Schedule

from January 26, 2019 to February 24, 2019

Opening Reception on 2019-01-26 from 19:00 to 21:30

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