We are glad to welcome back the two artists that brought Non*Mart to our gallery in 2009: Sasha Petrenko and Kathryn Kenworth. Together with Tracey Snelling, these Bay Area artists present Staging Space: our upcoming exhibition at Y2Y Gallery in the Jeff King & Co offices. Please join us for the opening reception on Thursday, May 12, 2011 from 6-8pm.Sasha Petrenko’s contributions will feature both full scale and miniature architectural models including Pocket House, a prototype single occupancy mobile shelter pod, and a series of small-scale sculptures inspired by common domestic objects.
During her recent alumni visit to the Headlands Center for the Arts in Sausalito, Sasha began her “Remodel Abstraction” series that continues to infuse her current body of work. This series refers to the literal process of remodeling one’s home and its resulting psychic transformations. Inspired by Carl Jung’s concept of the home as a mirror of the soul, Sasha questions what it is that we really seek to change: is it the home, one’s relationships, self, image? Her most recent tangent on this point is energized by the idea of New Materialism: the inextricable relationship that human beings have to the material world. New Materialism examines inanimate objects that populate our lives as witnesses to our doings, relationships, losses, and everything in between. Beds and tables become intimate comrades and objects become our designs just as much as our equals.
Staging Space features new models relating to Sasha’s upcoming 2011 exhibitions in New York and San Francisco. In August, she will present a large-scale installation at The Lab, featuring a performance dance piece based on the patterns of sound and movement inherent in the manufacturing process. Performed by student dancers, the piece will illuminate the grace and movement of everyday activities and physical work. Sasha imagines the models and sculptures of Staging Space as parts of a set on which such a performance might take place.
Sasha has a B.A. from UC Berkeley and a Masters in Fine Arts in Sculpture from Mills College. She is an adjunct professor at the University of San Francisco and Diablo Valley College where she teaches drawing and sculpture. Her works have been exhibited at the San Jose Museum of Art, Southern Exposure, and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Sasha has been awarded residencies at the Headlands Center for the Arts, Kala Art Institute, the Watermill Center for Performance, NY and The Lab, SF.We hope to see you May 12, 2011 from 6-8pm to witness the work of Sasha Petrenko, Kathryn Kenworth and Tracey Snelling in Staging Space at Y2Y Gallery.
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