NEW YORK -- Artists Romina Gonzales and Edison Zapata will be presenting conceptual glass-blown, sculptural works at UrbanGlass Agnes Varis Art Center, coinciding with the first Spring season UrbanGlass studio is open to the public after 2 years of major renovations. Their work takes advantage of situations that can be seen as mistakes and exploits them to create a distinctive visual language.
“Off-center”, in glassblowing vocabulary, refers to a shape displaced from its axis, which is considered a fault that needs immediate solution. By allowing glass to spontaneously wrinkle, drip, collapse, wave and fold, these two artists create functional and decorative pieces that challenge the established conventions of glass and design.
Their belief in what they make comes from their own critically informed experience and dialogue within art and design. Gonzales encourages an unconventional deconstructive but playful methodology while Zapata compliments her style of working by adding a firm understanding of glass making processes.
Together, these artists strive to circumvent traditional processes, and approach “making” with naivety and experimental abandon. OFFCENTRE’s approach is raw and instinctive with the overall intention to give the viewer a more subversive, and fresh aesthetic experience.
The show is located at UrbanGlass Agnes Varis Art Center, 647 Fulton Street New York, NY 11217. Opening reception with the artists, Thursday March 27, 2014 6-9pm. Exhibit runs March 27 - May 17, 2014. Gallery hours Wednesday through Saturday 12-6pm.
“OFFCENTRE” by Romina Gonzales and Edison Zapata’s will also be featured in Art + Design New York at 82 Mercer Street in Soho from May 7-10, 2014 and BKLYN Designs at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Dumbo from May 9 -11, 2014.
About the artists:
Romina Gonzales is a clasically trained artist born in Lima, Peru and graduate of New York University. Her work exists as an inquiry into re-building aesthetics by executing investigations that negate and deconstruct established social and artistic conventions. She is essentially a mixed media artist utilising painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, video, installation, performance, and glass. She has exhibited in Lima and New York, creating site-specific installations that invite the viewers to interact and physically alter her work. Her work has been featured in the New York Post, The Examiner, Glass Quarterly Magazine among others, and most recently a featured artist in a video series for ‘Elements of Design exhibition’ at Cooper Hewit, The Smithsonian Design Museum New York.
Edison Zapata creates work that engages the viewer with mixed media and installations that ‘capture the imprecise transfer of information between people from different walks of life’. Born in Venezuela, he has lived extensively in Australia, Japan, and the USA. He has a BFA from Canberra School of Art and completed an MFA from Tama Art University in Tokyo. His work revolves around the topic of failed communication, which has developed out of his varied life experiences as an outsider assimilating the cultural norms of where he has relocated. He is currently guest professor at New York University, his work has been featured in UrbanGlass Quarterly, Wheaton Fellows “The Space Between”, Japan Times, New Glass Review, Craft Arts International, and Asian Art News, Japan, and The Examiner. Zapata has been exhibiting extensively in the last decade including ‘Art London’ at Saatchi Gallery and most recently a featured artist in a video series for ‘Elements of Design exhibition’ at Cooper Hewit, The Smithsonian Design Museum New York. Zapata is part of the permanent collection at the Museum of American Glass, The Australian National University and most recently the Ebeltoft Glass Museum in Denmark.
For further information and images please visit:
www.off-centre.com
www.urbanglass.org
Media Contact
Susana Villaran
917.509.0443
info@off-centre.com
