"Artists Choose Artists" To Open at Parrish

[caption id="attachment_56868" align="alignright" width="426"] Jackie Black, The Gun Show: Manurhin MR73.[/caption]

By Dawn Watson

Art can be about much more than a pretty picture to hang on a wall. It encompasses many things, including provocation, exploration, creation, deconstruction and even just plain old whimsy.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with creating and enjoying art for the aesthetics of it. But for Jackie Black, there’s simply more to it than that. The Shelter Island-based photographer uses her camera and other materials to express a point of view, to influence and touch the viewer in a significant way, and to shine a light into the dark.

Her work, often provocative and political, is not always appreciated.

One such piece, “Sandra Bland,” was removed from a group exhibition at the Shelter Island Public Library in August. The reason given for its removal was “political content.” Reproductions of the image have been taken down from most public places that the professional artist—whose work has appeared at Guild Hall in East Hampton, the Alternative Museum in Manhattan, and a number of galleries—has tried to post them, she reports.

“They get taken away immediately,” says Ms. Black. “I guess the subject matter is very polarizing.”

There are no disturbing images shown in “Sandra Bland,” nor are there curses, vulgarity or anything else that could be deemed offensive within a glancing view. But what looks like a fairly innocuous sheet of regular printer paper made to resemble a tear away flyer is apparently too hot for some to handle.

[caption id="attachment_56871" align="alignleft" width="443"] Jackie Back, #Remember Sandra Bland (O Superman).[/caption]

“Wanted: Justice for victims of police brutality. Freedom and justice for all citizens. De-militarization of our police departments,” the typed artwork, an 8½-by-11-inch ink on paper, reads. Below that, “Justice for all citizens does not preclude support for those who serve in blue.” And the 12 tear away strips at the bottom of the sheet, two removed, the words “Remember Sandra Bland” are printed.

Ms. Black created the piece to draw attention to the wrongful death of a 28-year-old black woman who was found hanged in a jail cell in Waller County, Texas. On July 10, 2015, that same woman, Sandra Bland, had been arrested and hauled into jail after being stopped for a minor traffic violation—failure to signal a lane change. She was found dead in her cell three days later.

Though “Sandra Bland” it was ousted from the library show, the work has made it to a museum wall. That piece and several others of Ms. Black’s photographic pieces, including selections from her “Last Meal” (reconstructed photos featuring the last meals of executed inmates) and “The Gun Show”(portraits of weapons) series’, will hang in the upcoming “Artists Choose Artists” exhibition at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, opening on October 30 and on view through January 16.

Now in its third iteration, the group show connects seven distinguished artists, who serve as jurors in selecting two emerging artists each to contribute. This year’s exhibit includes work by 21 artists, including: Ms. Black and Marianne Weil, selected by Tony Oursler; Toni Ross and Bill Komoski, selected by Cindy Sherman; Dinah Maxwell Smith and RJT Haynes, selected by Tina Barney; Garrett Chingery and Saskia Friedrich, selected by Lynda Benglis; Suzanne Anker and Ben Butler, selected by Donald Lipski; Anne Bae and Monica Banks, selected by Jorge Pardo; and Karin Waisman and Almond Zigmund, selected by Leo Villareal.

“As an artist, one hopes that your vision or point of view is going to be noticed, that your concerns will reach a bigger audience,” says Ms. Black, who has now achieved her goal in ways she couldn’t foresee when she created “Sandra Bland.” “I’m excited and feel so fortunate to be included in this group of heavy hitters.”

Art need not be controversial to make it to museums spaces. Ms. Ross’s creative output is a prime example. Her sculptural works, which explore the architectural and cubic aspects of vessels, containers and totems, have been featured in a number of exhibitions and gallery shows.

In the past year alone, Ms. Ross’s art has appeared in a Parrish “Road Show” exhibit at Marders in Bridgehampton, a solo exhibition at The Drawing Room in East Hampton and a solo show at the Ricco/Maresca Gallery in Manhattan. The artist’s work is also included in the “Artists Choose Artists” exhibit.

[caption id="attachment_56870" align="alignright" width="419"] Jackie Black, Last Meal of Charles Francis Rumbaugh.[/caption]

For the exhibit, she chose to create an ambitious site-specific, horizontal, wall-mounted piece that is approximately 17 feet long and 22 inches wide. Its 33 sections (“You can’t fire something like this all in one piece,” says Ms. Ross.) will be mounted to appear as one.

Titled “April 13,” the stoneware and slip composition stems from Ms. Ross’s “Strata” series of installation of stoneware sculptures, which seem to reflect on the qualities of balance and equilibrium.

Though based on previous work, the Parrish piece takes her in a new direction, according to the Wainscott-based artist, who is also the “Toni” in East Hampton’s legendary Nick & Toni’s restaurant. “April 13” is related to the concept of birth and the birth of a new direction in work, she says somewhat enigmatically.

Ms. Ross can say with certainty that the sculpture is a direct result of a benchmark period in her life: one of the most productive and fruitful in her artistic career.

“This entire year has been one of those ‘pinch me’ years,” she says. “The opportunities have presented me with something really new to contemplate, pushed me to go deeper.”

The Parrish Art Museum’s third “Artists Choose Artists” group exhibition will open with a special members reception and talk on Sunday, October 30, at 11 a.m. The show, which features painting, sculpture, photography, and mixed media from a total of 21 artists, will remain on view through January 16. For additional information, visit www.parrishart.org.