Topographies
November 13, 2009–February 28, 2010

ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

Polly Apfelbaum was born in Abington, Pennsylvania, in 1955. She received her BFA from Tyler School of Art in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, in 1978.  She also attended SUNY Purchase, Purchase, New York. She has exhibited in New York City and abroad since her first show in 1986.  In 2003, a mid-career exhibition, Polly Apfelbaum, highlighting fifteen years of work, opened at the Institute for Contemporary Art in Philadelphia. About her work, arts writer Lane Relyea wrote in the exhibition catalogue What Does Love have to Do with It, “Apfelbaum's work is both painting and sculpture, and perhaps photography and fashion and formless material process as well. Its all these things–wildly so and wildly not so.” Her work is in the collections of The Museum of Modern of Art, New York; the Whitney Museum of Art of American Art, New York; the Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California; and the Dallas Museum of Art, Texas, to name only a few. The artist has received important grants and awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship; an Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Richard Diebenkorn Fellowship; a Joan Mitchell Fellowship; an Artist's Fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts; an Anonymous Was a Women Award; and a Pollack-Krasner Foundation grant. The Albright-Knox Art Gallery’s collection has one work by Apfelbaum entitled Reckless, 1998, which was acquired by the Gallery after its inclusion in the exhibition Extreme Abstraction in 2005. Apfelbaum’s forms are intricate and psychedelic; Reckless is a part of her “Fallen Paintings” series, a group of works by the artist that are colorful, dynamic hybrids of sculpture, painting, and installation art.  The artist currently lives and works in New York City.

Jane Callister was born on the Isle of Man in 1963. She received a BA, with honors, from the Cheltenham School of Art, England, in 1987; an MA from the University of Idaho in 1990; and an MFA in painting from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, in 1994. Callister's work has been exhibited extensively throughout the United States, as well as internationally, at venues including the First Prague Biennial, Czech Republic, in 2003 and The Frankfurt Art Fair in 2001 and 2002. As a contemporary painter, Callister expands boundaries and context.  Her work incorporates sculpture and found objects with a main goal of bridging the gap between intellectual and popular pleasures.  Her work in the collection of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Spikey Beauty, 2005, is from a series of works called “Magic Landscape.” Mixing romantic landscape with abstraction, these works are deliciously retinal, incorporating colors such as electric orange, candy pink, and peppermint green.  The artist currently lives and works in Los Angeles, California.

Tara Donovan was born in New York City in 1969. She studied at the School of Visual Arts in New York City from 1987 to 1988 before earning her BFA from the Corcoran College of Art and Design, Washington, D.C., in 1991. She received her MFA in sculpture from Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, in 1999. Since 1998, Donovan has been the subject of more than twenty-five solo exhibitions nationwide, including at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego (2004); UCLA’s Hammer Museum (2004); the Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland (2003–04); and the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (1999–2000).  She has also participated in nearly seventy group exhibitions since 1996, including the 2000 Biennial Exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.  On September 23, 2008, The New York Times announced that Donovan was a recipient of a 2008 MacArthur “genius grant.”.  She was also the first artist to receive The Calder Prize, awarded annually by the Alexander Calder Foundation, in 2005. That same year, she was granted an artist’s residency at the Atelier Calder in Saché, France. Among Donovan’s many awards and distinctions are the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Willard L. Metcalf Award (2004); the National Academy Museum, Helen Foster Barnett Prize (2004); the Women’s Caucus for Art, Presidential Award (2004); a New York Foundation for the Arts grant (2003); a Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant (2003); a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Biennial Competition grant (2001); and the Joan Mitchell Foundation grant (1999).  Donovan fashions large volumes of everyday objects into layered, piled, or clustered forms to create her sculptural works, which ultimately assume forms that evoke natural systems and defy the laws of nature.  Using unique materials such as Scotch tape, Styrofoam cups, drinking straws, and Mylar paper, her work often takes on a biomorphic quality. About her work, Donovan states, “It is not like I’m trying to simulate nature. It’s more of a mimicking of the way of nature, the way things actually grow.”  Topographies will debut the installation of a recent acquisition of Donovan’s work by the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Untitled (Mylar), 2007. The artist currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

Teresita Fernandez was born in Miami in 1968.  She received her BFA from Florida International University, Miami, in 1990 and her MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, in 1992.  Her work has been featured in numerous solo exhibitions both nationally and internationally at sites including the Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C.; the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York; the Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga, Spain; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; SITE Santa Fe, New Mexico; Castello di Rivoli, Torino, Italy; the Witte de With, Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam; and the Miami Art Museum, Florida.   Fernandez is the youngest artist commissioned by the Seattle Art Museum for the recently opened Olympic Sculpture Park, where her work Seattle Cloud Cover allows visitors to walk through a covered skyway while viewing the city's skyline through tiny holes in multicolored glass.  She is the recipient of numerous fellowships and awards in the United States and abroad, including the 2005 MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, a 2003 Guggenheim Fellowship, and the 1999 Louis Comfort Tiffany Biennial Award, and she has had residencies in Japan, Italy, and at ArtPace in San Antonio, Texas. Her work is included in numerous major private collections as well as the permanent collections of the Saint Louis Art Museum; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami; the Miami Art Museum; and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, to name only a few. Her work is characterized by an interest in perception and the psychology of looking.  Moreover, it explores issues in contemporary art related to problems of perception and the fabrication of the natural world. She uses optical illusions to mimic the effect of natural occurrences, such as rainbows, sunlight, fire, and water.  The Albright-Knox Art Gallery’s collection includes two works by Fernandez.  One of these, Double Orange Climber, 2001, which was acquired by the Gallery after its inclusion in the exhibition Extreme Abstraction in 2005, will be part of Topographies.  Fernandez currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

Mark Fox was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1963.   He received an MFA in painting from Stanford University in 1988 and a BFA from Washington University, Saint Louis, in 1985. Solo exhibitions of his work have been shown at venues including the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2009); Rice University Art Gallery, Houston (2008); the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca (2006); and Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, California (2005). In 2000, Fox’s single-framed animated puppet film, Toy, was selected for the Super Super Eight Film Festival, which toured cities throughout North America, Europe, and Japan.  He has received numerous fellowships and project support from The Ohio Arts Council, The Jim Henson Foundation, The Puffin Foundation, and The Center for Contemporary Arts, Prague, to name only a few.  His work is also included in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; The Philadelphia Museum of Art; and other public and private collections.  Fox is best known for his iconic, large-scale paper constructions comprising hundreds of small drawings joined together by various means.  His work centers on the exploration of chance and the strange narratives that emerge from the random juxtaposition of images, and the complexity of his process embraces the chaos of contemporary culture. The Albright-Knox Art Gallery recently acquired Untitled (Fault), 2008, whichembraces linear elements whose origins stem from a calligraphic reproduction of sacred texts that have been, in the artist’s words, “meticulously cut from their paper ground and arranged in a large web-like configuration.”  The work’s title coyly refers to both the fallibility of human nature, something Fox obsesses over in his study of various religious texts, and the fragility of the Earth beneath our feet.  The artist currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

Ellen Gallagher was born in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1968.  Gallagher received the American Academy Award in Art in 2000 and a Joan Mitchell Foundation Fellowship in 1997. Some of her solo exhibitions include venues such as Tate Liverpool, England (2009); the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2005); the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami (2005); the Saint Louis Art Museum (2003); the Des Moines Art Center (2001); and ICA Boston (2001). Her work is included in museum collections, both nationally and internationally, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and Moderna Museet, Stockholm.  Gallagher’s work explores issues of race, identity, and transformation. Key subjects that have shaped the texture and subject matter of her work from the beginning are the writing of Gertrude Stein; the vaudeville tradition of black minstrels; science fiction; and advertising targeted at African Americans.  From these sources, she reworks images to create a tension between geometric and organic forms. In some of her earlier work, such as Bubbel, 2001, in the Albright-Knox Art Gallery’s collection, she envelopes the viewer in a textured, apparently abstract surface that is actually a historic cosmology of repeated shapes–the rubbery lips, bowties and rolling eyes of vaudeville minstrels.  The artist currently lives and works in New York City and Rotterdam, Holland.

Heather McGill was born in California in 1954. She is currently the Artist-in-Residence and Head of the Sculpture Department at the Cranbrook Academy of Art. She studied at the University of California at Davis and received her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1984. Prior to becoming Artist-in-Residence at Cranbrook, McGill taught at the University of California at Berkeley and at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University.  She has received numerous grants for both permanent and temporary installations from the National Endowment for the Arts, the LEF Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the California Arts Council, and the San Francisco Arts Commission. In 1999, she received the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award. McGill has created installations throughout the West Coast exploring the historical, environmental, and cultural systems specific to each site. Outdoor permanent sculpture by McGill can be seen in California in the city of San Rafael and at the Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve.  Her work was first introduced to Albright-Knox Art Gallery audiences through the exhibition Extreme Abstraction in 2005.  Since then, the Gallery has acquired numerous works by the artist, including several works on paper and a sculpture, all of which will be included in Topographies.  McGill currently lives and works in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan; and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Jorge Pardo was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1963. He grew up on the south side of Chicago, where his family relocated when he was six. After briefly studying biology at the University of Illinois at Chicago, he became interested in painting. In 1984, he moved to California, where he enrolled at the Art Center College of Art and Design in Pasadena, receiving a BFA there. Solo exhibitions of his work include venues such as the Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland, Ohio (2008); the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, (2007); Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach, Germany (1999); and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (1998).  Pardo also participated in the São Paulo Biennial (Brazil, 2004); the Liverpool Biennial (England, 2002); and Skulptur Projekte (Münster, Germany, 1997). He was awarded the Smithsonian American Art Museum Lucelia Award in 2001 and The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award in 1995. He has two upcoming solo exhibitions at K21 Kunstsammlung im Ständehaus, Düsseldorf, in 2009 and the Irish Museum of Modern Art in 2010. Pardo infuses his artmaking practice with the aesthetics of modern design in an attempt to merge art with everyday life, while also exploring the social dynamics of public and private space. Throughout his career, he has consistently created works that thrive in more traditional spaces, as well as developing projects that are intended to reside outside the conventional viewing box.  Recently the Gallery acquired two works by Pardo, Untitled (set of 7 hanging lamps), 2008, and Untitled, 2008, both of which will be included in Topographies. The artist currently lives and works in Los Angeles, California.

Emilio Perez was born in New York City in 1972.  He studied at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York from 1990 to 1992 before earning his BFA from the University of Florida, New World School of the Arts, Miami, in 1995.  Although Perez is an up-and-coming artist, he recently had a major solo exhibition in Berlin, Germany, in 2008.  Perez’s paintings are vibrantly evocative and abstract.  He combines freeform patterns with a highly meticulous process to create works that display an innate understanding of color and movement.  Interpretations of the work are as diverse as Perez’s influences—elements of animation, music, woodcuts, and the Baroque inform his practice.  His distinctive method involves applying layers of paint to a wood panel and then using a knife to slice and remove pieces of the top layer, revealing the colors underneath.  The Albright-Knox Art Gallery is one of the first museums to collect his work. One of his largest paintings to date, drowning on dry land, 2007, is a complex composition that reads from afar as strictly graphic, yet, upon a closer view, is elegant, intimate, and contains a strong sense of depth and texture.  The artist currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

Ara Peterson was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1973. He attended the Rhode Island School of Design and received a degree in Film, Video, and Animation in 1997. His work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally, including at the Liverpool Biennale, Liverpool, England (2004) and The Deste Foundation Centre for Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece (2006).  Most recently, Peterson had a solo exhibition at Ratio 3 in San Francisco, where he debuted a new series of sculptural works.  Peterson was also one of the founding members of the seminal collective Forcefield, who were included in the 2002 Biennial Exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. He continues to work collaboratively with former member Jim Drain, producing exhibitions at the Biennale D’Arte contemporain De Lyon (2003); The Moore Space, Miami (2004); and Deitch Projects, New York (2005).  Peterson’s early video works, such as the Gallery’s Vision Master I, 2003, are hybrid experiments that incorporate painting, video, and sculptural elements. These works envelope a fluid dynamic and kinetic energy that saturates the spectator with layers of evolving imagery. The artist currently lives and works in Providence, Rhode Island.

Ken Price was born in Los Angeles, California, in 1935.  He received his BFA from the University of Southern California in 1956 and went on to receive his MFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in 1959.  Since 1960, he has been the subject of more than eighty solo exhibitions throughout the world, and an equal number of group exhibitions.  His work is in included in an impressive array of museum collections, both nationally and internationally, including those of the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois; the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; the Denver Art Museum, Colorado; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. While the Albright-Knox Art Gallery owns several works by Price, Whitey, 2003, will be featured in Topographies.  Price, who has been dubbed one of the most “underrated living American artists” is best known for his abstract shapes, for which he culls inspiration from nature, constructed from fired clay that are typically not glazed, but instead are intricately painted with multiple layers of bright acrylic paint then sanded down to reveal the colors beneath.  The artist currently lives and works in Venice, California, and Taos, New Mexico. 

Clare Woods was born in Southampton, England, in 1972.  She received her BA from Bath College of Art in 1994 and went on to receive an MA from Goldsmith College, London, in 1999. Her work has been included in more than twenty-five solo and group exhibitions to date, in the United States and abroad.  Woods’s paintings are landscapes that explore dirty, strangled nature fighting its way thought murky backgrounds.  She is not interested in green, undulating hills or craggy mountain vistas, but in the world of undergrowth.  Woods is still an up-and-coming artist, and the Albright-Knox Art Gallery was the first American museum to collect her work.  Failed Back, 2004, came into the Gallery’s collection after its inclusion in the exhibition Extreme Abstraction in 2005.  Its inclusion in Topographies will mark the first time the work has been on view since that exhibition.  The artist currently lives and works in London, England.

Carrie Yamaoka was born in 1958.  She attended the Tyler School of Art, Rome, from 1977 to 1978 and went on to receive a BA from Wesleyan University, Connecticut, in 1979.  Yamaoka has had numerous solo shows, and her work has been included in group exhibitions both nationally and internationally.  For more than a decade, Yamaoka has been creating paintings out of reflective Mylar that are encapsulated in resin, such as the Gallery’s Koolpop #12, 2003. The artist works with a reflective ground that is empty of content but full of incident. The site in which the work is situated serves as the subject of the work. Yamaoka currently lives and works in New York City.