Housebound

Rachel Farbiarz, Bella Foster, Allison Gildersleeve, Allison Reimus, Ann Toebbe, and Augusta Wood

Housebound:  Rachel Farbiarz, Bella Foster, Allison Gildersleeve, Allison Reimus, Ann Toebbe, and Augusta Wood

November 2, 2012 - January 5, 2013

Opening Reception: Friday, November 2, 6-8 pm

Heiner Contemporary is delighted to present Housebound, a group exhibition exploring the depiction of domestic space featuring work by Rachel Farbiarz, Bella Foster, Allison Gildersleeve, Allison Reimus, Ann Toebbe and Augusta Wood. Practicing in different media, these artists address various definitions of home, shifting between its public and private nature. For many, home is a reflection of the self, where rooms become extensions of one's personality. It is a place where possessions are gathered, memories held, and lives are recorded through belongings and their use. Augusta Wood memorializes her grandparents' former home by projecting family snapshots in layers onto the walls of the now vacant house. Her haunting photographs provide an interesting comparison to Ann Toebbe's cozy, created-from-memory, cut paper and painted rooms, which play with perspective and color, and Allison Gildersleeve's intimate, impressionistic vignettes depicting interiors drawn from her daily life.

While domestic space may be linked to private moments and personal histories, it can also function publicly as a showcase for entertaining that speaks not only to the way one lives, but the way one wishes to be perceived. In this vein, Bella Foster's whimsical, idealized living spaces filled with bold textiles, bawdy wallpaper, and objets d'art bring to mind a well-heeled, international set, and Allison Reimus's textured vessels and abstracted architectural details reference home décor and interior design. In contrast, Rachel Farbiarz's socially conscious installation removes the home from its bricks and mortar context and investigates the way it exists as a mental construction for certain populations. Viewed together, the works in Housebound consider the relationship between domestic space and personal history, identity and memory.

Rachel Farbiarz lives in Washington, DC, where she works as a writer and artist.  She is a graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School and worked as a clerk for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.  Farbiarz practiced law focusing on civil rights and is especially interested in the humane treatment of prisoners; she helped to improve the basic living conditions on death row at California's San Quentin State Prison.

Bella Foster studied painting at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Her work was recently featured in the solo exhibition Interior and the group exhibition Objects, Furniture, and Patterns at Art Since the Summer of '69 Gallery in New York City. In 2009 Kate Spade commissioned Foster to illustrate a 2010 monthly calendar. The Brooklyn-native now lives and works in Los Angeles.

Allison Gildersleeve graduated from the College of William and Mary in 1992 and the Milton Avery School of Art at Bard College in 2005. Recent solo and dual exhibitions include Let Me Show It To You Unfixed at Asya Geisburg Gallery and Allison Gildersleeve and Erik Jeor at Allegra Laviola Gallery, both in New York. Gildersleeve currently lives in Brooklyn.

Allison Reimus graduated from Michigan State University in 2005 and received an MFA from American University in 2009. Her work was featured in Gute Naht at Kunstraum Tapir in Berlin and a three-artist exhibition titled Home Again, Home Again at REDUX Contemporary Art Center in Charleston, SC. Reimus lives and works in Chicago.

Ann Toebbe graduated from the Parson's School of Design NY Studio Program in 1995 and then received a BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art and MFA from the Yale School of Art in 2004. The same year, she was awarded the DAAD scholarship from Universität der Künste in Berlin. Her recent solo exhibitions include 12 X 12 at the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art and Housekeeping at Steven Zevitas Gallery in Boston. Toebbe lives in Chicago.

Augusta Wood graduated from Cooper Union, New York and received an M.F.A. from the California Institute of the Arts. Her work has been shown at Angles Gallery, Los Angeles, Anton Kern Gallery, New York, and The Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, California. It has also been featured in Artweek, The Los Angeles Times, and Black Clock. Wood lives in Los Angeles.

Housebound will be on view at Heiner Contemporary November 2, 2012 - January 5, 2013. The gallery will host an opening reception on Friday, November 2, from 6-8pm. Heiner Contemporary is located at 1675 Wisconsin Avenue, NW. For more information email info@heinercontemporary.com.

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