NOT YOUR RUN OF THE MILL

October 7-November 17, 2016

Leeza Doreian
Jacqueline Norheim
Sandra Ono
Dimitra Skandali
Ruth Tabancay
Claudia Tennyson
 

Chandra Cerrito Contemporary is pleased to present the group exhibition Not Your Run of the Mill, including painting, drawing, sculpture, and installation art by six artists whose work references textiles in unexpected ways. Featured artists include Leeza Doreian, Jacqueline Sherlock Norheim, Sandra Ono, Dimitra Skandali, Ruth Tabancay, and Claudia Tennyson.

The phrase run of the mill originates from early American factories (such as a textile mill producing fabric) and referred to work that had yet to be graded and therefore was not exceptionally good or bad. Now however, the phrase refers to something that is commonplace or that which ordinarily occurs.

Contrary to the commonplace or conventional uses of textile, the exhibition highlights imaginative concepts that challenge the viewer's perception of what they see in the work as it relates to textiles. Paintings and sculpture resemble fabric and fabric appears as paintings. One wall piece is embroidered with material uncharacteristic of the handicraft, while familiar fiber is stitched onto unexpected material in another piece.

Leeza Doreian meticulously renders folded fabric in her painting and drawings. The artist's interest in both high and low art is reflected in the use of discarded mass- produced fabric items from thrift stores, combined with the formal precision of representational painting.

Jacqueline Sherlock Norheim folds, overlaps, and hooks together nylon mesh to create wall pieces that subvert the literal view of the object and image, challenging the viewer's perception of contrast, depth, and recognizable form.

Sandra Ono shapes scented trash bags into a wall piece with densely textured form similar to the coarse fabric of a hook rug. Ono's creative use of ubiquitous, utilitarian products re-contextualizes the materials to create new, non-functional and organic forms. 

Dimitra Skandali creates work inspired by the Greek island where she grew up. To create the piece in the show, Skandali used Kofto, a traditional technique of embroidering from the Cycladic islands in the Aegean Sea. Used by generations of women including the artist's own female family members, the craft is also practiced by young women when preparing for a new domestic life after marriage.

Ruth Tabancay's embroidered works are based on the micro-organisms such as bacteria, fungi, human cells and tissue that she worked with as a hospital laboratory technologist.  The attention to detail necessary to make the hand-sewn pieces is much like the assiduousness required in a lab while working with microscopic cells.

By using materials such as tape, rubber bands and glue, Claudia Tennyson's work is often inspired by the idea of repair. For her installation in the exhibition, she demonstrates such ideas through the act of stitching thread on vellum and wood veneer, and patching layers of paper into delicate collages.

About the Artists

Leeza Doreian lives and works in Oakland. She received her BFA from Ohio State University and earned her MFA from The University of Texas at Austin. She has exhibited her work throughout the United States and in Bay Area venues such as the Bedford Gallery in Walnut Creek, Pro Arts in Oakland, The Lab in San Francisco, and the Institute of Contemporary Art in San Jose.

Jacqueline Sherlock Norheim is a recent MFA graduate from Mills College. The artist was born in Berkeley and lives and works in Oakland. She has participated in artist residencies at Vermont Studio Center, Teton Art Labs in Jackson, Wyoming, Wassaic Projects in New York, Helene Wurlitzer Foundation in Taos, New Mexico, Brightworks in San Francisco, and in late 2016, she will be a Local Language Artist in Residence in Oakland.

Sandra Ono graduated with a BA from the University of California, Davis and earned her MFA from Mills College. She has exhibited her work throughout the Bay Area, and in New York, New Jersey, and Texas. She has received numerous scholarships, awards and residencies including most recently the Minnesota Street Project Tosa Studio Award. Ono is a Visiting Artist Lecturer in Contemporary Art: Ideas and Practice and Beginning Painting at Mills College.

Dimitra Skandali received university degrees from Athens School of Fine Arts and Athens Polytechnic University (TEI of Athens). She earned her MFA in New Genres from San Francisco Art Institute in 2013. She has been awarded residencies throughout California and is a recipient of The Murphy & Cadogan Contemporary Art Award and Fellowship among others. She has exhibited her work throughout the Bay Area, New York and Los Angeles, as well as in the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Philippines and Greece. She lives and works in San Francisco, CA and Paros Island, Greece.

Before receiving a Certificate in Fiber Arts from the University of Washington, and a BFA in Textiles, with High Distinction from California College of Arts and Crafts, Ruth Tabancay earned an MD from University of California School of Medicine in San Francisco. She also received her Medical Technologist License from University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Tabancay recently exhibited her work at the Museum of Craft and Design, San Francisco, the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, and the Schweinfurth Art Center in Auburn, New York. Her work is included in the permanent collection of the Oakland Museum.

Bay Area-based artist Claudia Tennyson has exhibited her work throughout the Bay Area at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, Oakland Museum, Fresno Metropolitan Museum, and in San Francisco at the Exploratorium, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and Root Division. She earned her MFA from California College of the Arts and BA from the University of California, Santa Cruz.