David Isenhour

–Distant Landscapes

Opening reception: Saturday, March 1, 4 - 7pm

Exhibition dates: March 1- April 12, 2014

New Smyrna Beach, FL ––The alt_space gallery presents Distant Landscapes, a solo exhibition featuring a collection of morphological sculptures by Orlando artist, David Isenhour. Isenhour’s body of work interweaves popular culture, scientific, and fine art motifs. The exhibition will be on view from March 1, 2014 through April 12, 2014, with an opening reception on Saturday, March 1, 4 - 7 PM. The opening reception and exhibition are free and open to the public.

Distant Landscapes draws from the cultural anxieties influenced by history, popular culture, and technoscientific advancements. “Narratives of vulnerability and failure due to human ambition are a common thread throughout my work. I address these themes using a symbolic visual vocabulary, which encompasses signifiers of genetic research, cloning, ecology, and pop cultural anxieties regarding the repercussions of these advances,” explains Isenhour.

Isenhour approaches the issue of man’s manipulation of nature with a blend of humor, pathos, and the grotesque. Isenhour uses industrial materials and processes such as urethane foam carving, fiberglass-resin, urethane life-castings, taxidermy, commercial stains, and automotive paints. His slick, highly-polished surfaces and forms have the appearance of the human body in a state of molecular breakdown, fluid transformation and metamorphosis.

David Isenhour received a BFA in sculpture from East Carolina University and an MFA in sculpture from Michigan State University. His work has been exhibited at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Atlanta, Georgia; Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Jacksonville, Florida; Kresge Art Museum, East Lansing, Michigan; Masur Museum, Monroe, Louisiana; Blue Star Contemporary Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas; University of Maine Museum of Art, Bangor, Maine; MorYork Gallery, Los Angeles, California; and the Janet Kurnatowski Gallery, Brooklyn, New York. He has received numerous awards and institutional research grants. Isenhour resides in Orlando and is an Assistant Professor of Sculpture at the University of Central Florida.

Located within Arts on Douglas, the alt_space gallery is an exhibition space dedicated to Florida artists working in a variety of artistic genres that can include: conceptual art, site specific installation, new media, digital media, video, sculpture, or any other experimental practice. The space was conceived in order to provide emerging and established visual artists with an alternative space to show their work, as well as to provide a platform to engage the community in a dialogue about art process, methodology, concepts, and materials.