New alt_space exhibition in November October 13 2022
JAN TOMLINSON MASTER:
Configured
November 5 - December 9, 2022
Opening Reception: Saturday, November 5, 4-7 PM
Artists Talk: Canceled Friday, December 9, 11 AM
CLICK TO BROWSE & SHOP EXHIBITION IMAGES
About the Exhibition
Jan Tomlinson Master builds sculptural installations that are balanced, held by tension, or stacked to form groupings as an allegory for relationships in the natural and human world. Her site-specific installations are ‘configured’ with components from nature (dragon wood, wheat, leaves, bark) and secured with man-made components (iron armatures, chains, zip ties, caution tape, ribbon, shoe laces). As an artist practicing in Florida, a state dealing with the impact of population growth and climate change on a delicate natural environment, Master responds with installation as a cautionary tale on what can be lost.
For this, her second solo exhibition, Tomlinson Master presents these installations alongside smaller scale constructions. She explains, “the past years of lockdown combined with convalescing from a near death experience has called for introspection and experimentation on a smaller scale. So, for this display, I have included a series of constructions using found objects with paint, plaster, and paper clay. Wandering salvage yards and thrift stores, I sought after materials that evoke nostalgia for what has been or what can be lost.” Describing her art practice as one of ‘call and response,’ Master considers these works to be sculptural fetishes; her reaction to the call of catastrophe is imbued with symbols of protection.
About the Artist
Jan Tomlinson Master is an interdisciplinary artist and educator based in St. Augustine and Welaka, Florida. She received an undergraduate degree in Art from Stetson University and a MFA in Sculpture from the University of Delaware. Her work has been shown regionally at the Jacksonville Museum of Contemporary Art, Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens, Florida School of the Arts, Florida Museum of Women Artists, Ormond Memorial Art Museum and Gardens, DeLand Museum of Art, and the Appleton Museum. Nationally, she has exhibited at the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education in Philadelphia as well as in college settings in Georgia and Arizona. In NE Florida her public art projects are sited at the Cultural Center of Ponte Vedra, Bird Island Park in Ponte Vedra, the Police Athletic League in Jacksonville, and the Map of Olde St Augustine at the Visitors Information Center in St. Augustine. As one of the Compassionate 450 obelisk artists, she was chosen to represent St. Augustine in the sister city of Aviles, Spain for the 450th anniversary of the founding of St. Augustine.
Collaboration and education are an extension of her belief in the artist as healer and catalyst for change. In addition to lecturing in institutions of higher learning, believing that every child is at risk, she has taught art for girls clubs, 4-H, summer camps, after school programs, and incarcerated youth. Master received a HEAL grant to teach children with autism. Her public art involves working with the local community. Most summers she teaches for the Georgia Governors Honors Program.