[ad_1]
When Queer Eye star Jonathan Van Ness moved to Austin last March, he was excited to begin production of the sixth season of the Netflix reality series. Van Ness immediately absorbed the city’s creative culture and southern hospitality and looked forward to meeting a new group of contenders for big lifestyle changes, or as they are called on the show, heroes. When the pandemic stopped the production of Queer Eye, Van Ness took on new hobbies and interests.
Like all of us, Van Ness knew he would be staying home indefinitely. In the early stages of quarantine, he looked for ways to spice up his new Austin digs.
“When I moved to Austin, I had a lot of wall space and wanted to do some art,” Van Ness tells the American statesman. He took to Instagram to find artwork and discovered Philadelphia-based canvas artist A’Driane Nieves and Houston-based multidisciplinary artist Lanecia Rouse Tinsley through his Explore feed.
More:The Queer Eye Fab 5 is back in Austin to film season 6
“However, all of her work was where I couldn’t get or see her. And of course we weren’t on the road, ”says Van Ness. “So I commissioned a piece from A’Driane. It was just the nicest thing I’ve ever got. And that was also the case with the Lanecia. I really wanted to have some of her work in the house because I just enjoyed it so much. “
Last month, Van Ness partnered with Austin gallery West Chelsea Contemporary to launch On The Wall, an exhibition of artwork by emerging contemporary artists from communities that are often overlooked and marginalized by the gallery system. The exhibition features work by Nieves, Rouse Tinsley and Van Ness’ longtime friend Ben Medansky, a ceramist from LA
Since moving to Austin, Van Ness has found solace in various art forms. He likes to pass the time in the Umlauf sculpture garden & museum. The discovery of West Chelsea Contemporary also enabled him to learn about various artistic opportunities.
“I love art, but I’m not that good at it,” says Van Ness. “(West Chelsea Contemporary) is the first place I’ve ever been to ask questions about art and really experience what artist processes are and what art can represent. It really opened up a whole world for me that I never knew existed. “
Over the past year, as he immersed himself in the world of art, Van Ness befriended the artists whose work he had commissioned. He featured Rouse Tinsley on an episode of his Getting Curious podcast where she talked about her child who was born prematurely and died two hours after it was born.
After that podcast conversation, Rouse Tinsley put her phone on airplane mode and decided to reconsider those feelings of sadness. Over the course of a weekend, she created an abstract piece entitled “Baptized on the Bone Where the Water Broke”.
“There was a shift,” says Rouse Tinsley, “that happened in life but also happened creatively for me. I wanted to create something new, so I painted over a number of pictures that I had taken before the quarantine. I faded them out with black paint and started experimenting in my work and finding new forms of expression. ”
The work, made up of wood panels, acrylic paint, spray paint, textures, and found objects, is one of two works by Rouse Tinsley in the gallery. The other, “Test of Time,” consists of newspaper clippings from Sunday papers that she reads with her husband every week.
“I would take these papers,” says Rouse Tinsley, “and the articles that really touched me or just lingered on me, I started putting them on the canvas. I would cross out the newspaper layers and play with uncertainty. I think one of the things people said during quarantine was, ‘Oh my god, life is so uncertain.’ I thought, ‘Oh, are we learning this? I always knew that. ‘ But what does it look like to explore that on my canvases and create something beautiful? “
Like Rouse Tinsley, A’Driane Nieves’ pieces are inspired by life events and memories. Nieves, who lived in Austin from 2012 to 2015, captures the identities that people embody and develop throughout their lives. Her work aims to tangibly reflect trauma and transformative experiences.
In a piece called “My Suppressed Subconscious” she creates a physical manifestation of trying to remember a childhood memory, but she struggles with it.
More:See This Art: Thread Unusual Beauty at Austin’s Lydia Street Gallery
“The memory has softened over time,” says Nieves. “The edges (of the painting) are kind of blurry. It’s not necessarily in full focus. It’s not really in my working memory, it’s definitely a lot deeper in my subconscious. The piece is really about my process of retrieving that memory and exploring the story behind it. “
Another piece of hers, entitled “My Coming Out Party (Paying Dust to Seeking Your Approval),” was inspired by events Nieves experienced growing up in an abusive household. As a child, Nieves tried to make himself “as invisible as possible” in order to protect himself from danger. She developed many philanthropic behaviors to avoid conflict and to draw attention to herself.
“I’ve spent many years in therapy and in the studio and learned to decondition myself from these things,” says Nieves. “And that’s what the piece is about (“ My Coming Out Party ”). The point is that I somehow declare that I am not burdened by the need for external confirmation or approval. And I will not play small or be afraid to be visible. “
On the Wall is open until July 11th at West Chelsea Contemporary. Van Ness, who in addition to being the curator of the exhibition is also in production for a new season of Queer Eye, hopes visitors will leave with new expressions and reflect their memories, both good and bad, through a new lens .
During his 15 months in Austin, Van Ness has spent much of his time strolling around Lake Austin and Lake Travis and soaking up the “eclectic, nature-oriented” vibe of the city in Mayfield Park, or as he calls it, “the place with the peacocks. “He has also found solace in eating Fr. Terry’s, Tumble 22, and Lupe Tortilla, which offer” the very best in Mexican food. “On Queer Eye, Van Ness encourages his heroes to stand out through their grooming and styling expressing himself, but learning more about art has enabled him to use other ways of self-expression and to experience people’s stories through other media.
“For me, art means expressing yourself and taking whatever you experience in life, and transferring it and transforming it into something that lets you feel all kinds of things,” says Van Ness. “But in the end it is a way to process our life experience.”
JVN X WCC ON THE WALL
The exhibition, curated by Jonathan Van Ness, runs until July 11th at West Chelsea Contemporary, 1009 W. Sixth St. With the artists Lanecia Rouse Tinsley, A’Driane Nieves and Ben Medansky.
Hours: Monday-Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday noon to 6 p.m.
Information: wcc.art
[ad_2]
