SHAPESHIFTERS AT THE DELAWARE CONTEMPORARY

JUNE 7 – AUGUST 25, 2024

Curated by Chase Dougherty and Amy Eva Raehse, featuring work by Andrea Finch, Susan Isaacs, Wayson R. Jones, Hillary Steel, Robert Straight

Shapeshifters at the Delaware Contemporary is a summer group exhibition that is running concurrently alongside seven other exhibitions in the space. The theme for the exhibitions as a whole is “Radius,” defining a geographic region of 250 miles from the gallery. This year Delaware Contemporary tapped four guest curators to work alongside DC staff for each of the exhibitions. One of the exhibitions, Shapeshifters, focuses on material, texture, and abstract forms. This show was put together by in house curator Chase Dougherty and Baltimore based guest curator, Amy Eva Raehse. Many of the works in the exhibition speak the language of painting but offer a unique riff on individual processes, resulting in many manifestations of the elusive ‘unknown’ in abstract art. As the exhibition title suggests, the organic forms feel familiar, but ultimately take their own unique paths. The artists in the exhibition range in age, processes, and location, covering a broad field of inquiry but resulting in a unified and lively viewing experience. 

I’ve spoken with both of the curators and the artists Susan Isaacs and Wayson Jones. All have offered their perspectives on their individual roles in making the exhibition happen and how they each feel about the collection that is now on view through August 25. 

Interview and text by Amy Boone-McCreesh

Chase Dougherty – curator, DC staff member

Amy: How long have you been at The Delaware Contemporary? Can you talk a little bit about the idea behind the concurrent summer group shows in the space and Shapeshifters specifically? 

Chase: I have been with The Delaware Contemporary for almost four years. One of the first initiatives that I worked on was establishing an artist registry, ArtSource, where artists can essentially have an affordable online portfolio where they can upload bodies of work, bios and statements, and events. The other piece of this was giving free access to regional arts organizers and cultural leaders to increase exposure for the artists. So, last year we took over our summer season and created co-curatorial teams made up of one staff member and one community member to select and curate an exhibition from ArtSource artists. So really, we are just trying to bring as many people into the fold as possible to showcase how big of a resource ArtSource can be! 

I co-curated this space with Amy Raeshe from Goya Contemporary and we are lucky that we have a very similar sensibility, I would say because we had a lot of common selections. We were both struck by artists working with “non-traditional” materials, but were also interested in how their choice of these materials were a way for them to shape shift themselves. All of the work ended up being very painterly, but the gestures are made through materials like fabric, buttons, pumice foam, etc.

A: The vision for this show includes artists using organic structures, challenging ideas around painting and material, as you mentioned, now that the work is on view together, are there any new observations that have presented themselves as you’ve been processing the exhibition?

C: I am not the type of curator who lays out an exhibition before seeing all of the work in the space. I really need to see everything and feel free to move things around to make those relationships. Something I didn’t expect when I physically had the work, but was surprised and happy about was the range of scale that we selected from each artist. Whether intentional or not, I feel like there is a good range of large to small, which just further showcases the transformative ways these artists are considering their work.

A: Are there any pieces in the show that you’ve found particularly striking or any that started to operate in an unexpected way once they arrived in the space?

C: Yes, I have to say I was especially struck by Hillary Steel’s work, Tels. The way that Hillary conceptualized the framing system for her textiles really presents them in such an excellent way.

Wayson Jones – artist, Washington DC resident

A: You have quite a few pieces in this exhibition, varying in scale and composition types – do you see these as individual works or series?

Wayson: Only the three “Migration” pieces are part of a series. Their titles refer to social or emotional aspects of the Great Migration that my family was part of. Formally, the wave-like forms suggest “migration” of the material across and down the surface. House Mother and Child is from old-school ballroom (specifically Paris is Burning), and me and my mom. The Unmelting was me wanting to something dense and painterly, and Petticoat is an early one of the more minimal stuff that’s happening now.

 A: Texture is a prominent feature of this exhibition, how do you utilize texture as it relates to composition and color?

W: The overarching idea is that form, color, and surface are tightly integrated, so that there’s a oneness of impact. I feel like it’s paradoxically related to flatness and staining type work, where the pigment and surface become one, except mine’s a kind of “anti-flatness.” Both the shapes created with tools and the granularity of the pumice gel influence how color is applied. I call it “obeying the surface.” So it becomes kind of rule-based in work like the Migration pieces: the color obeys the form.

A: After seeing your work installed in the exhibition, have you noticed anything interesting or unexpected about the show as a whole?

W: It was really interesting to me that a lot of the other work was fiber-based. I knew Hillary Steel’s work already, so it was cool to be showing and talking with that, especially her large piece Tels. I liked being placed next to Robert Straight’s work for its dimensional quality.

Susan Isaacs – artist and Delaware resident

A: I know that your ability to focus solely on your studio practice is relatively new and your are about to complete your MFA, how did you first feel when you were invited to be in this exhibition?

Susan: I was very excited. First, as a curator I’ve shown Bob’s work several times here at the DC and at Towson University. I’ve written about his work. So, it is an honor to be in a show with him—phenomenal. And then that Amy of Goya Contemporary was involved was very exciting because I’ve known her for many years and had worked with her before on an exhibition and catalog that we did at Towson of Joyce J. Scott’s (and Peter Williams’) work in 2017. And of course, although I used to curate for The Delaware Contemporary, I had never shown my work here.

A: I feel like it’s a nod from both of the places where you’ve spent so much of your time – in Baltimore and in Delaware.

S: Yes, it is in a way. It’s really interesting. And I thought that my work did go very much with the premise of the show.

A: You’ve had such a rich career as an art historian, writer, and curator – what is it like being on the other side of the curatorial process? Has it changed how you think about your art making practice?

S: In some ways it’s very disturbing in the sense that I’m a curator and exhibition designer, so losing that amount of control is difficult. I always see how I would do things differently.  When I go to see shows, I think, hmmm, maybe I would have done this or that. And I’ve also been an archival picture framer, so a lot of times when I’m going to shows I’m looking at presentation and framing and things like that. Clearly, I need to let go; that has been difficult.

But on the other hand, it’s balanced by the fact that I get to spend much more time in the studio. I never gave up my studio practice—I’ve made art and shown all along—but it was always something that came last in my entire practice.  Unless you can really spend a concentrated amount of time making, your development just slows down and prevents you moving forward.

The other thing that I really like, which relates to all the exhibition design experiences and curatorial things that I have done, is problem solving, receiving art for an exhibition and solving display problems. I have a meeting with the installer. We talk about things, talk to the artist, and figure things out. And I really like that. And that’s the same thing with sewing that I like, figuring out how you’re going to do things. In my artwork, I seem to regularly invent new problems that require serious problem-solving skills.

A: Can you tell us about the works in this show?

S: I’ve been making prints at Towson University in the print studio since 2017 minus the COVID period. I had done printmaking before, but never really enjoyed it, but a faculty member there, Tonia Matthews, encouraged me for years to come into the print studio. She said, “You paint in layers, you think like a printmaker.” And I said, “Oh, Tonia, I hate printmaking. You have to think ahead. You have to plan but so much of what I do is intuitive. She said, “No, no, no. You will find a way to adapt it and it might help you move faster.” I began with screen printing, which made me cry because I wasn’t good at it.  I’m not good at registration, but I’ve reached the point now where I don’t care about that. In fact, I prefer it when I’m off registration. And I have been finding I like doing mono prints, and wood cuts and linocuts. Some of the fabric in this piece here, this hanging piece is from a painting that I did that I scanned and sent to Spoonflower to create fabric of my own design. I also do a lot of Appliqué with scraps to create new fabric. I also make the buttons myself now with Sculpey. And I like to add things like zippers and other funky stuff. Some of the scraps are from fabrics that I made out of prints I had done too.

A: I see the little moments of the domestic in the details –  What about the forms themselves?

S: I like organic forms. I’m not a rectilinear maker. I had to do that when I was in art school. We did Bauhaus and Russian avant-garde stuff for a whole year, and my stuff was always put on another wall because it never worked. I would do the same assignment as the other students, but somehow mine looked different from everybody else’s. At the time it was a little humiliating. But now I realize it is okay to be different. And I’ve always just had a voice in my head telling me what to do.  I do listen to my committee and my colleagues. I do listen because I used to say to my students who would complain about a particular professor and so forth:  Try it. Sometimes it gives you a breakthrough and sometimes it’s a disaster, but you will still learn something more about yourself and your own vision.”

I do try things suggested to me, but I’m very lucky my MFA committee gets me. And then I’ve had other artists that I’ve worked with or written about who have also looked at my work and done crits for me. Because these are long-term relationships, they understand what I’m doing. So that’s very helpful. I would not have responded well to somebody on my committee who wasn’t into sewing, who wasn’t into decorative patterning, and who did not appreciate my deliberate lack of neatness. You must understand that I do know how to sew well. I made my husband a three-piece suit. I made all the curtains in our home. Back in the old days, I made my clothes. At that time, it was cheaper to sew than to purchase clothes. Now it’s cheaper to buy. But I don’t want to go back to making useful objects, though I do often give a nod to the domestic.

Recently I went to Penland School of Craft in North Carolina, which was a fantastic experience. I studied with Karen Kunc. And at the end of the two weeks, I was still struggling to register.  I was trying to register, and as usual, it wasn’t really going well. But then I would save it in the end in my own way. I make use of a lack of technique. It is part of my vocabulary. I like accident and chance. Karen was a fabulous teacher.  She said to me, “Susan, you really could learn to register if you wanted to.” And in my head, I thought, but where would the joy be? I would lose my joy. But I understood her point, that we each create in a way that fits with our unique vision.

A: After seeing your work in conversation with the rest of the exhibition, has you noticed anything interesting or unexpected about the grouping or the theme of the show?

S: Well, I thought that the curators did an excellent job. It’s really well done. And Chase did an excellent job designing the show. She works very differently from me. She lays out the show once all the work is in. I am a planner for exhibition design, but that’s just because of my background in museum studies.

I hadn’t seen Bob’s new work. I love it. And there’s other textile work in the show that is great. I really like the exhibition, and I am thrilled to be in it. And the space is fabulous of course. It’s one of the best spaces on the East Coast. I would say though that my work is probably the most accidental in character.  Even when there is a rough surface or whatever in the other artists’ works, there remains a precision, a formality. Surprisingly my sculptures seem to go fine with the other objects in the exhibition. But the most formal and precise thing I made is the rectilinear orange sculpture stand. Everything else of mine is full of irregularities and lumps and bumps. I’m so glad to see it out of my studio and in a real space alongside some excellent artistic production.  

Amy Eva Reahse – curator, director of Goya contemporary, Baltimore

Amy: What is your relationship with DC and how did you become involved in this exhibition?

AER: I was honored to be invited as a guest curator, a privilege I deeply appreciated given my longstanding admiration for the exceptional work conducted at Delaware Contemporary and the dedicated team that supports it. My collaboration with Lisa dates back years, during which time she was in Baltimore at the former Contemporary Museum. However, the opportunity to work alongside Chase on this project was particularly gratifying. Our selections were in perfect harmony from the outset, with our choices aligning more than 90% of the time. Chase was particularly receptive to my concept of the Shape Shifter, a theme that kept cropping up in my thoughts as we discussed our individual selections; and this shared vision propelled us forward, embracing it as a guiding principle for the project. Given Chase’s in situ location,  I assumed more of the writing role, confident in her ability to oversee the larger onsite installation process. Our collaboration was a testament to the power of shared ideas, all inspired by the essence of the work itself.

A: The exhibition seems to really highlight the use of organic structures, challenging ideas around painting and material usage. What was the process for choosing the work?

The work truly shaped our choices. We both found ourselves drawn to these highly materialized objects, and the statement about the Shapeshifter, to some extent, explains how this exhibition unites artists who explore shifting forms that symbolically reflect on the capricious nature of personal identity and our surroundings. These works challenge traditional structures, moving freely within the vernacular of materials. The exhibition invites us to view art as an experience and the art object as a means to enter. Materials hold such power, and artists are mirroring our changing world by reimagining traditional materials in new ways. Artists have always been catalysts for change throughout history, so it’s no wonder that these works captivated and excited us.

A: After the show was installed, were there any new discoveries that you didn’t expect? Did any works operate in unexpected ways?

 AER: For me, exhibitions produce knowledge, where there’s always something new to discover once the artwork is fully contextualized… even if I am the one charged with co-contextualizing it. Chase and I choose objects that live dimensionally in the world, and that yearns to be seen in person. Engaging with artwork is a full-body experience. It involves a quality that surpasses what can be conveyed in written accounts. So, in a way, it could be said that the unexpected is always expected, and yet delicious to discover every time.

You can learn more about the Delaware Contemporary, located in Wilmington, DE and the exhibition here. Text for the exhibition description is below:

Throughout history, artists have been agents of change, bearing witness to, interpreting, and revealing the human impact of our state of being, expressed through a metamorphosis of materials and evolving forms.  Whether political, physical, scientific, psychological, aesthetic, or intellectual, the artist as a shapeshifter initiates dialogue, placing them at the forefront of invention, transformation, and change. The result of this is reflected in bodies of work, but also in the artist. This exhibition brings together the work of Andrea Finch, Susan Isaacs, Wayson R. Jones, Hillary Steel and Robert Straight who collectively demonstrate shifting forms that, among other qualities, symbolically consider the capriciousness of personal identity with a literal investigation into transmogrifying material

Curated by Chase Dougherty and Amy Eva Raehse

Chase Dougherty is currently the Gretchen Hupfel Curator of Contemporary Art at The Delaware Contemporary, where she has curated and coordinated over fifty exhibitions featuring emerging and middle career artists within the Mid-Atlantic region. She holds a Masters of Fine Arts in Museum Exhibition Planning + Design from University of the Arts and a Bachelor of Arts in Art History from Sonoma State University. Her writing has been published in Art Maze Mag and the National Association for Museum Exhibitions, as well as contributions to several artist catalogs.

Amy Eva Raehse is Executive Director and Partner at Goya Contemporary Gallery which exhibits, represents and manages the careers of emerging and mid-career artists in a program focused on Contemporary Art in both primary and secondary markets. In her 25+ years in the field, Raehse has worked in the museum, gallery, not-for-profit, commercial, and academic sectors of the arts. A writer, educator, independent curator, and primary specialist on the work of MacArthur Fellow Dr. Joyce J Scott, Raehse is a co-founding member of the activist group Artists For Truth and has authored catalog essays and scholarly articles in various publications.