ISA GAGARIN WEST
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Front and Back Cover Images: Isa Gagarin, single drawing from August 21, 2017, 2020, Charcoal, water soluble crayon, earth pigment, and collage on Stonehenge paper, Grid of 8 drawings, 30 x 22.25 inches each, 61 x 92 inches overall with 1 inch spacing. 2
PAGE BOND GALLERY
ISA GAGARIN WEST
AUGUST 27 - SEPTEMBER 26, 2020
1625 WEST MAIN STREET RICHMOND VIRGINIA 23220 USA P 804 359 3633 F 804 355 4854 PAGEBONDGALLERY.COM
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ISA GAGARIN WEST Page Bond Gallery is pleased to present West, an exhibition of new works on paper by Isa Gagarin. The perceptual experience of color and its capacity to be embodied in a variety of materials is central to Gagarin’s interests and to the development of her work. These new drawings combine charcoal, pigment, and collage to depict botanical imagery. Silhouettes of plants are rendered softly in grey charcoal, disrupted with colored collage elements that feel like slivers of reflective light piercing through a forest. Gagarin works on these multiple collages simultaneously, using scraps of torn paper to freely explore color relationships in varied compositions.
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The perceptual experience of color and its capacity to be embodied in a variety of materials is central to Gagarin’s interests and to the development of her work. These new drawings combine charcoal, pigment, and collage to depict botanical imagery. Silhouettes of plants are rendered softly in grey charcoal, disrupted with colored collage elements that feel like slivers of reflective light piercing through a forest. Gagarin works on these multiple collages simultaneously, using scraps of torn paper to freely explore color relationships in varied compositions. Trained as a painter, Gagarin works both on paper and with site specific installation. In her installation work, color’s relativity becomes exponential in terms of the scale, lighting and the overall feel of a space. The works in West are individual drawings shown in multiples, as grids, triptychs, and diptychs. The edges of each drawing and the colored collage elements converse and relate with one another, forming a sense of larger space. Gagarin describes: “One aspect of my work that has surprised me is that there are often formal elements within my installations that resonate with my origins as a Pacific Islander. I was born on Guam and raised mostly in Hawai’i, and I come from a Chamorro maternal lineage. My work holds a certain reverence for beauty and quietude, which originates from my experiences as a surfer and my intuitive understanding of waves and tidal movements.” The drawings in West invite us to become aware of the unique ways in which we experience color, light and space.
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August 21, 2017, 2020 Charcoal, water soluble crayon, earth pigment, and collage on Stonehenge paper Grid of 8 drawings 30 x 22.25 inches each 61 x 92 inches overall with 1 inch spacing $9500 unframed 6
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Untitled (West Series) 2, 2020 Charcoal on Stonehenge paper 44 x 30.5 inches $ 2500 8
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Green, 2020 Charcoal, earth pigment, collage on Stonehenge paper Triptych 50 x 38 inches each 50 x 116 inches overall with 1 inch spacing $7500 unframed 10
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Untitled (West Series) 3, 2020 Charcoal, earth pigment, and collage on Stonehenge paper 44 x 30.5 inches $2500 unframed 12
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Slant, 2020 Charcoal, earth pigment, and collage on Stonehenge paper Diptych 38.5 x 25 inches each 38.5 x 51 inches with 1 inch spacing overall $4000 unframed 14
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Untitled (West Series) 4, 2020 Charcoal, earth pigment, and collage on Stonehenge paper Diptych 30.25 x 21.5 inches each 30.25 x 44 inches overall with one inch spacing $3500 unframed 16
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Untitled (West Series) 1, 2020 Charcoal on Stonehenge paper 44 x 30.5 inches $2200 unframed 18
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Untitled (West Series) 5, 2020 Charcoal, earth pigment, collage on paper Grid of 27 drawings 12 x 9 inches each 38 x 89 inches overall with 1 inch spacing $7500 20
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Occultation (Crescents), 2020 Charcoal, earth pigment and collage on paper 44 x 30.5 inches $2500 unframed 22
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Isa Gagarin Lives and works in Minneapolis, MN
Education
2018 MFA Painting and Printmaking, Virginia Commonwealth University 2008 BFA Painting, Minneapolis College of Art and Design
Solo Exhibitions 2020 2019 2019 2019 2016 2012 2011 2011 2011 2009
West, Page Bond Gallery, Richmond, VA Estuary, Hair and Nails Gallery, Minneapolis, MN Synchronous, Page Bond Gallery, Richmond, VA Color in Motu, Forage Modern Workshop, Minneapolis, MN Heliotuduc, The White Page, Minneapolis, MN Occultation, Kiehle Gallery, St. Cloud University, St. Cloud, MN Sea of Fecundity, Emerging Artist Exhibition, Rochester Art Center, Rochester, MN When Her Son Flies in the Sky, Dressing Room, Minneapolis, MN (catalogue) Marsh of Sleep, Art of This, Minneapolis, MN (catalogue) Beru, Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis, MN
Selected Group Exhibitions 2020 2019 2019 2019 2018 2018 2018 2017 2017 2017 2016 2016 2016 2015 2014 2014 2014 2013 2013
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Future Future, Hair and Nails Gallery, Minneapolis, MN Phone Home, EFA Project Space, The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, New York, NY (curated by Wendy Vogel) Group Exhibition, Hair and Nails Gallery at 9 Herkimer Place, Brooklyn, NY Two-Person Exhibition, Intervals, RCA Emerging Artist Series, Regis Center for Art, Minneapolis, MN Two-Person Exhibition, juntos pero no revueltos, Good Weather Gallery with PARQUE GalerĂa and Condo, Mexico City, Mexico (with Hugo Montoya) Gather, Page Bond Gallery, Richmond, VA Emerge VII, Page Bond Gallery, Richmond, VA Two-Person Exhibition, Page Bond Gallery, Richmond, VA (with Jaydan Moore) Emerge VI, Page Bond Gallery, Richmond, VA The Candidates, Virginia Commonwealth University Painting + Printmaking MFA Candidacy exhibition, Richmond, VA Selected Works, Public Functionary, Minneapolis, MN Art: Group Exhibition, Page Bond Gallery, Richmond, VA Current Location, Waiting Room, Minneapolis, MN Topographies, MCAD Main Gallery, Minneapolis, MN Trieste, Grimm Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (catalogue) Addendum, Chicago Artists Coalition, Chicago, IL Objects for Consideration, Soo Visual Arts Center, Minneapolis, MN A Study in Midwest Appropriation, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL (curated by Michelle Grabner) You Must Stand This While Reading There, David Petersen Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
2012 2010 2010 2009 2009 2009 2008 2008
Tropical Art Show, Stevens Square for the Arts, Minneapolis, MN A Theory of Values, Soap Factory, Minneapolis, MN FLATLINE, Sellout Gallery, Minneapolis, MN The Sensual World, Synchronicity, Los Angeles, CA September Sounds from a Silver Shape, Art of This, Minneapolis, MN Systems and Process, Sound Gallery, Minneapolis, MN Meander, Soap Factory, Minneapolis, MN La Raccolta, Plateau, Minneapolis, MN (catalogue)
Awards and Residencies
2018 David Wurtzel Artist Fellowship and Residency (July 1-23), Montespertoli, Italy 2016 Artist Residency and Exhibition Program, The White Page (February 12–March 11), Minneapolis, MN 2016 Artist Grant and Residency, Vermont Studio Center (January 2–January 29), Johnson, VT
Selected Publications 2015 2011 2010 2010
Aposiopesis. Minneapolis: Wopozi, 2015. When Her Son Flies in the Sky. Minneapolis: Dressing Room, 2011. Location: Volume 1. Minneapolis: Location Books, 2010. Sea of Waves. Minneapolis: Hot Off The, 2010.
Related Professional Experience
2020 “In Response: Rituals of Regard and Recollection,” panelist, Law Warschaw Gallery, Macalester College, St. Paul, MN, March 3. 2019-20 Adjunct Faculty, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Minneapolis, MN 2019 Lecture/Presentation, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, October 11. 2019 Lecture/Presentation, Williams College, Williamstown, MA, October 24. 2019 Lecture and Graduate Critiques, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, February 27. 2019 Artist Talk, Hair + Nails Gallery, Minneapolis, MN, November 13. 2018 Adjunct Faculty, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Minneapolis, MN 2017-18 Instructor of Record, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 2016-17 Teaching Assistant, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 2014 Lecture and Graduate Critiques, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, October 27. 2014 Lecture and Undergraduate Critiques, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, April 14.
Bibliography 2019 2016 2016 2014
Sara Fowler, “Color and Sense,” MAKE MN, Vol. 4 No. 2 September 2019. Mia Lopez, “Heliotuduc,” Inreview, Spring 2016. Vincent Ulribe, “Artist of the Week,” LVL3, April 28, 2016. Jay Heikes, “Trieste,” Grimm Gallery, 2014.
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Isa Gagarin is an interdisciplinary artist whose work explores subjects including color, natural phenomena, and autobiography. Using painting, drawing, installation, performance, and video, Gagarin explores color relationships with an emphasis on working responsively to site. The transient qualities of natural phenomena such as solar eclipses, tides, and rainbows prompt Gagarin to draw connections between her work and personal-political experiences of place in Hawai’i and Guam. Gagarin holds an MFA in Painting and Printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University (2018) and a BFA in Painting from Minneapolis College of Art and Design (2008). Gagarin lives and works in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
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