"The Great Deluge" - a solo multi-media exhibition by Doria Grace
| Start Time: | Saturday, 29 May 2010 at 18:00 |
| End Time: | Tuesday, 22 June 2010 at 21:00 |
| Location: | Full Circle Gallery |
| Street: | 29B Eglin Pkwy SE |
| Town/City: | Fort Walton Beach, FL |
Description
RECEPTION and ARTIST TALK: Saturday, May 29th from 6-9! FREE FOOD AND WINE!
"The Great Deluge" is a multi-media exhibition and pictorial panorama by artist Doria Grace dealing with environmental issues related to water and the iconography of "Deluge" (flood) mythology. The exhibit will consist of a 25 foot mural of ink, acrylic, spray paint as well as some large format digital photography and paining on canvas, and finally a time sensitive sculpture made of ice, water, clay, steel, and masonite.
Artist Statement:
Doria Grace is an artist who has been recreating her personal dream-imagery for over a decade. This exploration intensified in the year 2002 in the city of Montreal, Canada. At that time Doria’s displacement from the tropical waters of her home in Florida prompted her to investigate the significance of water’s reoccurring imagery in her work. During the 7 years she spent in the northeast surrounded by snow and ice, Doria began digging deep into the dreams and memories of her lifelong engagement with large bodies of water. Doria Grace started by first confronting her emotional body, her childhood self, which had long resided in the Deep South, filled with folklore, mystery and horror. Those first few series of underwater self-portraits pertained to the abjection of the body, the mystical, the fantastical, and the autobiographical. Although her early work and self-portraits sometimes offer a fleeting glimpse of a sinking subject, there is no apparent threat, danger, or urgency. She drifts through a serene, womb-like garden of ephemeral emotion in calm control, yet maintains a subtle vulnerability. For Doria Grace the ancient element of water signifies and embodies all that is hidden behind the veil of consciousness, and in which she explores that, which lies beneath the surface.
Over the past few years Doria Grace has moved on to look at water as a signifier on a more global scale. Her research has taken her into ancient “deluge” (or flood) mythologies, which can be traced back to every culture, from Judeo-Christian to American Indian. Scientists’ say that those stories originated and were formed the end of the Ice Age, when glaciers across the world began to melt, displacing villages and tribes in their wake. These stories resonate with Doria Grace at this particular point in time due to the melting of our modern day ice caps. This, her fourth solo show, demands awareness while investigating the theoretical and imagined impact that the melted water from our ice caps would have upon our coast lines and major cities throughout the world. Doria began planning this exhibition long before news of the oil spill hit the Gulf Coast, and it seems sadly appropriate that the reception will take place along the community’s efforts to save our wildlife and our waters. Doria Grace hopes that this show will be an arena for community dialogue as well as a place to gather in reverence to the fragility of our planet.
Bio
Doria Grace is an artist, curator, graphic and interior designer, art instructor, and stylist consultant. She has taught, lived, promoted, and exhibited art such metropolitan areas as New York City, Los Angeles, Boston, and Montreal Canada, as well as her home state of Florida. Doria Grace is also known for promoting film screenings, performances, festivals, and private music events. Her work is featured in private collections throughout the United States, as well as Germany, Canada, and most recently by the faculty of the Cambridge Research Institute in England.
"The Great Deluge" is a multi-media exhibition and pictorial panorama by artist Doria Grace dealing with environmental issues related to water and the iconography of "Deluge" (flood) mythology. The exhibit will consist of a 25 foot mural of ink, acrylic, spray paint as well as some large format digital photography and paining on canvas, and finally a time sensitive sculpture made of ice, water, clay, steel, and masonite.
Artist Statement:
Doria Grace is an artist who has been recreating her personal dream-imagery for over a decade. This exploration intensified in the year 2002 in the city of Montreal, Canada. At that time Doria’s displacement from the tropical waters of her home in Florida prompted her to investigate the significance of water’s reoccurring imagery in her work. During the 7 years she spent in the northeast surrounded by snow and ice, Doria began digging deep into the dreams and memories of her lifelong engagement with large bodies of water. Doria Grace started by first confronting her emotional body, her childhood self, which had long resided in the Deep South, filled with folklore, mystery and horror. Those first few series of underwater self-portraits pertained to the abjection of the body, the mystical, the fantastical, and the autobiographical. Although her early work and self-portraits sometimes offer a fleeting glimpse of a sinking subject, there is no apparent threat, danger, or urgency. She drifts through a serene, womb-like garden of ephemeral emotion in calm control, yet maintains a subtle vulnerability. For Doria Grace the ancient element of water signifies and embodies all that is hidden behind the veil of consciousness, and in which she explores that, which lies beneath the surface.
Over the past few years Doria Grace has moved on to look at water as a signifier on a more global scale. Her research has taken her into ancient “deluge” (or flood) mythologies, which can be traced back to every culture, from Judeo-Christian to American Indian. Scientists’ say that those stories originated and were formed the end of the Ice Age, when glaciers across the world began to melt, displacing villages and tribes in their wake. These stories resonate with Doria Grace at this particular point in time due to the melting of our modern day ice caps. This, her fourth solo show, demands awareness while investigating the theoretical and imagined impact that the melted water from our ice caps would have upon our coast lines and major cities throughout the world. Doria began planning this exhibition long before news of the oil spill hit the Gulf Coast, and it seems sadly appropriate that the reception will take place along the community’s efforts to save our wildlife and our waters. Doria Grace hopes that this show will be an arena for community dialogue as well as a place to gather in reverence to the fragility of our planet.
Bio
Doria Grace is an artist, curator, graphic and interior designer, art instructor, and stylist consultant. She has taught, lived, promoted, and exhibited art such metropolitan areas as New York City, Los Angeles, Boston, and Montreal Canada, as well as her home state of Florida. Doria Grace is also known for promoting film screenings, performances, festivals, and private music events. Her work is featured in private collections throughout the United States, as well as Germany, Canada, and most recently by the faculty of the Cambridge Research Institute in England.
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