Reviews of Dan Tague's Work
"Cash Rules Everything Around Me"
Apr 19, 2008March 29

Links followed by date of entry:

http://hellojupiterart.com/blog/art/dan-tague-money-prints/   Date April, 7 2008

http://kiserblog.wordpress.com/ Date April, 13 2008

http://growabrain.typepad.com/growabrain/  Date April, 13 2008

http://powrightbetweentheeyes.typepad.com/pow_right_between_the_eye/ Date April, 15 2008

http://logicgui.com/  Date April, 15 2008

http://blog.groundswellcollective.com/   Date April, 17 2008

http://righthandthief.blogspot.com/search?q=dan+tague   Date April, 17 2008

http://thatveiledgazelle.blogspot.com/   Date April, 22 2008

http://www.bonvivantonline.com/    Date April, 24 2008
 
Cash Rules Everything Around Me
A Solo Exhibition by Dan Tague
through April 19 - Opening Reception on Saturday, April 5



The Jonathan Ferrara Gallery is proud to present "Cash Rules Everything Around Me", a solo exhibition by Dan Tague. The exhibition will be on view from March 29 through April 19, with an opening reception on Saturday, April 5, from 6 -10pm at Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, 400a Julia Street, in the New Orleans Arts District.

"Cash Rules Everything Around Me" is a politically charged exhibition of works created by multi-media artist, curator, and activist Dan Tague. In his latest suite of works, Tague addresses issues ranging from politics and religion to homelessness and terror. Tague executes his oversized giclee prints by meticulously folding and crafting dollar bills to convey politically and socially charged messages amidst the appeal of the abstracted imagery of the folded bill. The resulting phrases include ones dealing with fear mongering; STATE OF FEAR, THE END IS NEAR and TRUST NO ONE, others dealing with war; I HATE WAR, HUNT FOR OIL and THE OSAMA WARS. Then there is the ultimate praise of money in a capitalist society, THE AMERICAN IDOL. All told, there are twenty incarnations of these cryptic phrases derived from dollar bills.

Dan Tague holds an MFA in Studio Arts from The University of New Orleans, and is a multi-media artist, curator, and activist whose work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally. He is the recipient of several awards and residencies including grants from The Joan Mitchell Foundation and Pollock Krasner Foundation, and has been an artist-in-residence at the Santa Fe Art Institute, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and the Napoule Art Foundation in France.

in his own words…

"The appeal and power of money are the issues at the core of this series. In a capitalist society cash rules everything. Society teaches us that you can buy love, happiness, and status through possessions. You can even right wrongs by taking away a bit of someone's happiness through fines and lawsuits. Politicians buy votes through claims of lowering taxes, in other words letting us hold on to a little more of status… upper, lower, upper-lower class. Income tax, sales tax, and property tax all fund the war on terror, war on drugs, war on poverty, war on morality, etcetera. In fact our consumer pursuit of happiness is the cause and solution for all of these wars.

So in order to convey the allure of cash, I relied on the aesthetic qualities of the bills. Detailed decorative engravings, masterful portraits and architectural renderings, and elegant fonts create a decadent allure. I further the effect with folds and twists to abstract the imagery and create a collage of wonderful images. " -Dan Tague

"Cash Rules Everything Around Me" will be on exhibit from March 29 through April 19, 2008 with an artist's reception on Saturday, April 5, from 6 -10pm at Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, 400a Julia Street, New Orleans, 70130. The backroom gallery will feature new landscapes by Robin Durand. For images or more information, please contact gallery director Mia Kaplan, at 504-522-5471 or via e-mail: mia@jonathanferraragallery.com.

 
Material
Featuring Contemporary Ceramic Sculptors
Mar 31, 2008February 23

The Jonathan Ferrara Gallery is proud to present “Material”, a group exhibition featuring contemporary ceramic sculptors Casey McDonough, Sidonie Villere, Blake Jamison Williams, and Millicent Young with additional works by Casey O’Connor and Loren Schwerd in the back room. The exhibition will open Saturday, March 1st, 2008, from 6 – 10pm at the Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, 400a Julia Street, in the Warehouse Arts District.

The exhibition will be presented in conjunction with the NOLA FIRED UP Ceramics Conference, and draws attention to artists who use unconventional materials to define their perceptions of science, culture, spirituality and memory.

Casey McDonough holds an MFA in Ceramics from the Rhode Island School of Design, and a BS in Studio Art and Marine Biology from Eckerd College. Using his background in Science, his works relate to social interactions and their relationship to scientific principles.

Sidonie Villere’s works are primordial meditations on construction and deconstruction using loosely held together forms that reference dwellings and culture. Villere was born and raised in New Orleans, holds an MFA from the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. She has exhibited her work nationally and was most recently acquired by the New Orleans Museum of Art. She currently teaches Ceramics at the Louise S. McGehee School in New Orleans.

Blake Jamison Williams holds an MFA from Louisiana State University and is currently an assistant professor of ceramics at Michigan State University. She received a research and development grant from Dickinson College to produce her “Remnants/Relics” series and was recently awarded a Creative & Scholarly Activities Grant from Michigan State University to complete her latest series, “The Ossuary Project”, both of which are presented in the exhibition at JFG. Williams creates work about memory, recreating the process by using objects associated with sentiment and presenting them in a new light for consideration.

Millicent Young’s work addresses societal adaptation and its relationship to the adaptation of animals. Born in New York City in 1958, her work has been recognized by curators and directors from the Whitney Museum, the Guggenheim Museum, the International Sculpture Center, the Hirshhorn Museum, the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Merida, Mexico.

“Material” will be on view from February 26 through March 22, with an opening reception on Saturday, March 1st, from 6 -10pm at Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, 400a Julia Street, New Orleans, 70130. For images or more information, please contact gallery director Mia Kaplan, at 504-522-6471 or via e-mail: mia@jonathanferraragallery.com.

 
11th Annual No Dead Artists
A Juried exhibition of Louisiana artists
Sept 30, 2007September 8, 2007
6 - 10pm

September 4, 2007 (New Orleans, LA) — The Jonathan Ferrara gallery announces the opening of its 11th annual NO DEAD ARTISTS juried exhibit of Contemporary Art. The show opens on Saturday September 8, 2007 with an artists' reception from 6 - 10 pm. Each year the show draws attention to an emerging generation of contemporary artists who live and work in the state of Louisiana.  

For the past eleven years, No Dead Artists has provided the New Orleans community with the opportunity to see innovative works being produced within their own city. The concept for No Dead Artists was initiated in 1995 by Jonathan Ferrara and Alex Beard to feature New Orleans artists and help them gain recognition for their passions in life. Each year hundreds of artists submit their work to a jury of renowned arts professionals and avid collectors. Participation in the show has been a springboard for several artists to achieve national recognition, become part of private, museum and corporate collections, and has given many winners the opportunity to establish gallery representation. 

This year's selected artists are: Kelly A. Mueller, Terry DeRoche, Valerie Coradetti, Tammy Williams, Ze Daluz, Laura D'Alessandro, Sheila Phipps, Gretchen Wheaton, Mary Lou Uttermohlen, John M. Collins, Lou Blackwell, Dan Tague, Mike Jacobsen, David Armentor, Lauren Castle, Laurie Thompson, Cynthia Scott, Melissa Roberts, Jeff Katz, Angelle C. Caffery, Jason Langley, Krista Jurisich, Heather Weathers, and Stephen Collier. 

Over 200 artists applied and the above winners were chosen by the prestigious juror Dan Cameron, director of Prospect 1, the upcoming biennial scheduled for next year, and the new director of visual arts at the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans. The 2007 exhibition features painting, sculpture, mixed media, photography, and video by artists living and working in Louisiana. In addition to having their works exhibited at Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, selected jury winners will be featured in an article in the September 4th issue of Gambit Weekly written by D. Eric Bookhardt. The 11th Annual No Dead Artists, a juried exhibition of Louisiana Art Today, opens to the public at Jonathan Ferrara Gallery400a Julia Street, New Orleans, with a reception to meet the artists on Saturday, September 8, 2007, 6-10pm. For more information about No Dead Artists, please contact the Jonathan Ferrara gallery at 504-522-5471.
 
New Orleans, LA
May 24, 2007May 24

The Jonathan Ferrara Gallery is proud to announce the inaugural exhibition at its new location on Julia Street, the main thoroughfare of contemporary art in New Orleans. . "Organic Intervention" a solo exhibition of ceramic and mixed media works by New Orleans artist Sidonie Villere will open to the public on Saturday June 2, 2007 with a reception to meet the artist from 6-10pm.

"Organic Intervention" is Villere's first solo exhibition. The works are a geologically based exposition in clay, porcelain, plaster, concrete, wax, and paint. Her works are process oriented, using the material to construct, deconstruct, repair, and sanctify objects with architectural, biological, and biographical references. The exhibition has two distinct parts: clay forms as ceramic sculpture and paintings as assemblages that are deconstructed. The clay forms are personal and distinct and relate to a specific geological metaphor while also acting as a vehicle for self-expression. The paintings are another vehicle for her self-portraits. They inspire her clay work though material, form and color.

In her own words:
"The ceramic forms and their specific arrangements are created visually by borrowing a geological metaphor. I create moods through closely observing and then paralleling both the emotion to be expressed as well as the logistics of the geological metaphor. It is not just the colossal or the private that I want read in these pieces; it is the profound experience of their dichotomy that I give my viewer. My two-dimensional works hover somewhere between painting and sculpture, transcending the definitions of these particular media. I create works that are better understood by looking rather than by reading or describing. I am going after the empathetic, rather than the learned response."

Villere works under the premise that her objects possess a sense of history and reflect her current surroundings through constructing and deconstructing her forms, she expresses dichotomies such as architectural vs. geological, abstract vs. literal and gestural vs. minimal. Her works are physically transformed by her process, leaving the artist's mark on each piece; a subtle history evidenced by the raw wearing and tearing of time and intention.

Villere received her BFA from Tulane University and her MFA in Ceramics from the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. She also studied at Rhode Island School of Design. Her work has been exhibited in Oregon, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, New York, Maryland, Massachusetts and Louisiana. In addition to her work as an artist, she has been active as an exhibition curator (New Orleans and Portland, OR) and member of the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA). She currently teaches ceramics and art at the Louise S. McGehee School on New Orleans.

"Organic Intervention" is the inaugural exhibition at Jonathan Ferrara Gallery's new gallery space located at 400a Julia Street, New Orleans, LA, 70130. Gallery hours are Tuesday-Saturday, 11am-5pm and by appointment. The exhibition can be seen online at www.jonathanferraragallery.com. For further information and images, please contact gallery director Mia Kaplan at 504-522-5471.
 
To the Briarpatch and Beyond
Mixed media wood sculptures by Elizabeth Spotswood Alexander
Mar 31, 2007March 3
Opening Reception: March 3, 6-10pm

The Jonathan Ferrara Gallery is delighted to introduce a regionally acclaimed talent, North Carolina artist Elizabeth Spotswood Alexander. Alexander's works are surrealist sculptures and collages made from found objects and hand finished with materials that represent her upbringing in the South. With careful detail, she combines an array of techniques: collaging delicate tissue, cocktail napkins, leather and roofing nails in conjunction with areas of classically rendered facial expressions which personify the objects. In addition, Alexander explores the realm of woodworking with large-scale slabs of poplar and ash that are gouged and burned to create impressionist wood cuts. Her works possess a variety of textural patterns, creating whimsical narrative pieces that are unique from both the fine art and craft perspectives.

In her own words:
The greatest influences of my life have been the women that have raised me. Some have been white, some black but always Southern and always family. These women held me tight with their wrinkly fingers interlaced around my belly whispering stories in my ear about the Grey Man, my grandfather, and the bastard from Tangier.
It took me a great while to learn that these stories were told for the sake of extracting a lesson and while unique only to a small part of the world, they spoke of experienced lessons…They have become a type of collective experience that allows me to navigate through reality. In doing this, I always end up in a rich, dramatic, and superstitious dream world where who I remember, who I want to be and who I am harmoniously exist together.

Alexander holds an MFA from the University of Massachusetts and is currently an adjunct professor of Drawing and Design at Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, North Carolina. Her work has been shown in several museums, colleges, and juried exhibitions including the Kentucky Museum of Arts and Crafts, Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and the Evansville Museum of Art in Evansville, Indiana.

To the Brairpatch and Beyond is her first solo exhibition in a privately owned gallery. We are proud to have the honor of presenting her inaugural exhibition. The exhibition opens with a reception to meet the artist on Saturday March 3rd from 6-10pm, and will be on display through March 31, 2006. For more information or images, please contact Mia Kaplan, gallery director, at 504-522-5471 or mia@jonathanferraragallery.com.

The entire exhibition can be seen on the gallery's website at www.jonathanferraragallery.com
 
400a Julia Street      New Orleans, LA        70130       (504) 522-5471 tel      (253) 399-1649 fx      info@jonathanferraragallery.com