Gema Álava • Emilie Gossiaux • Annie Leist • Anthony Ptak • Gordon Sasaki • Julia Yepez

June 22 – July 22, 2017The Gallery at Industry City

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dis: three letters that can reverse, revoke, rebuke, rebuff, or perhaps, release social stereotypes.

This exhibition of work by the inaugural cohort of Art Beyond Sight’s Art and Disability Institute reflects the diversity of the art that is created under the banner of dis.

These artists redefine disability as both a subjective and objective experience. Their personal relationship to disability falls along a broad continuum, as does the relationship of disability to their work. Collectively, they form a cross section of the many ways artists working with and around disability contribute towards broadening conversations on the potential of art.

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discreet

discern

discipline

disseminate

dissolve

disperse

distinguish

distilled

distracted

distant

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Gema Álava

Born in Madrid, Spain, Álava now lives and works in New York City. She studied at the Facultad de BBAA de Madrid (BFA), Universidad Complutense (MA, Education); Chelsea College of Art and Design, The London Institute (BFA); Academy of Art University (MFA), and at the San Francisco Art Institute (MFA, New Genres).

Álava’s artwork has been exhibited, presented, and/or funded by the Ministry of Education of Spain; United Nations; Queens Museum of Art; Bronx Museum of the Arts; Cervantes Institute; and CUE Art Foundation, NYC; San Francisco Art Institute, SF; Rana Museum, Norway; Margulies Collection, Miami, FL; Jersey City Museum, NJ; Fundación La Caixa and Fundación Maphre; Museo de la Ciudad de Quito, Ecuador. Her project A Dialogue was selected by Cai-Guo-Qiang and performed at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 2008. Her project Trust Me was selected for MANIFESTA 8 and Berlin Month of Performance Art. She was appointed Cultural Adviser to the World Council of Peoples to the United Nations in 2011. She is represented by Maus Contemporary.

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Gema Álava

“My work — in the form of installation, drawing, photography, art projects — deals with what I call “contradictory truths” and the capacity to “create a maximum by reversing a minimum.” My art projects — in the form of dialogues, verbal descriptions, rumors and random encounters — explore notions of trust and intimacy, and use language as a medium to investigate the interconnections that exist between public, private, educational, and interpretative aspects of art.

Some of my interactive art projects have been inspired by and developed with the participation of individuals with disabilities. I am interested in the way people respond differently to the same situation, and explore this by leaving space to interpretation.”

Gema Álava Trust Me2010

An art project by Gema Álava Location: New York, NY, United StatesParticipants: Ellen Fisher, Mayrav Fisher, Jonathan Goodman, Jessica Higgins, Erika Kawalek, Erika Knerr, Alison Knowles, Ferran Martin, J. Morrison, Gordon Sasaki and J.G. ZimmermanPhotos by Jason Schmidt

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Gema Álava Confía en Mí (Trust Me) (detail)2017

An art project by Gema ÁlavaLocation: Quito, EcuadorParticipants: Bln Bike (Belén Jaramillo), Christian Cerda, Edgar Dávila Soto, Ramiro Díez, Reina Victoria Diez, Lisa Khon, Fernando López Guevara, Natalia Luzuriaga, Susana Nicolalde and Renato Reúl UlloaPhotos by Leslye Guayasamín and Danee Ramón

Gema Álava Hexagons2015

22-carat gold leaf floor installationDimensions variable

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dislocated

displaced

disembodied

dismembered

disillusioned

disenchanted

disaster

distant

disobey

dissolve

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Emilie Gossiaux

Emilie Gossiaux is an artist from New Orleans currently living in New York City. She began her undergraduate studies at the Cooper Union School of Art in 2007, but during her senior year, she lost her sight in a near-fatal traffic accident. After two years of extensive therapy, and regaining her independence, she returned to Cooper Union to complete her senior year. Gossiaux was the first blind student to graduate from The Cooper Union with a BFA in 2014, and was awarded the Elliot Lash Memorial Prize for her excellence in sculpture.

Gossiaux has shown her sculptures and paintings in several art galleries and institutions around the world, including Pippy Houldsworth Gallery in London, Storefront Lab in San Francisco, Cantor Fine Arts Gallery in Los Angeles, 5 Press Gallery in New Orleans, Recess Gallery in New York City, False Flags in Long Island City, the Smithsonian Institute of Art in Washington, D.C., and in 2017 was represented by False Flags Gallery at the NADA New York City art fair. Gossiaux was accepted into Yale University’s Master of Fine Arts sculpture program, and will begin her graduate studies in the Fall semester of 2017.

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Emilie Gossiaux

New York City-based artist Emilie Gossiaux works in various mediums, including sculpture, sound art, and social practice. She takes inspiration from memories, her intimate relationships, as well as her interactions and experiences in the world without vision. Relying solely on her sense of touch, Gossiaux makes sculptures with ceramic, plaster, and papier-mâché, demonstrating a profound sensitivity towards shapes, textures, and materials. Her series of ceramic sculptures use color and form to play with the mechanisms of visual perception, trigger memories of sensations, and create abstract, uncanny associations to the human figure. Gossiaux also incorporates a multi-sensory aspect in her work, with touch, sound, performance, and social practice, that invites the audience to become a part of the work and experience it.

Emilie Gossiaux Brooklyn2017

Terra cotta, plaster and papier-mâché55 x 16 x 16 inches

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Emilie Gossiaux Orange on Blue2016

Watercolor, plaster and glazed earthenware70 x 30 x 38 inches

Emilie Gossiaux Lemon Gloves

2017

Glazed earthenware and acrylic30 x 24 x 3 inches

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disappear

discern

disclose

disengage

disorient

dispel

disquiet

dissolve

distinguish

distort

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Annie Leist Annie Leist is an artist, born and raised in North Carolina, and currently based in New York City. She pursued undergraduate study at Wake Forest University, double-majoring in studio art and mathematics. As a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar she studied semiotics and cultural theory at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. She went on to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree in visual art from Rutgers University. Her paintings, inspired by her limited visual perception of light and life in urban spaces, can be seen in numerous public and private collections.

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Annie Leist

“Crosswalks, sidewalks, intersections, scaffolding — all are manifestations of the physical, social, and psychological architectures of urban spaces. They form a framework around, within, and through which city life and city people flow. I am fascinated by the unwritten rules of public space that maintain, sometimes miraculously, the precarious order of the metropolis and its inhabitants. Cityspace expands and collapses; it can be shaped or distorted by those who pass through it. It hosts simultaneously, paradoxically, countless isolated individuals as well as the single surging organism of the crowd.

Artmaking enables me to move through public places on my own terms, a feat that often eludes me in reality, as my personal navigation is mediated by my visual impairment. I am legally blind and lack the depth perception provided by stereo vision. I do have a particular sensitivity to the unruly, deceptive, and beautiful characteristics of space and light, especially where they confront humanity and its need for orderly systems. I use painting, video, photography, and performance to re-envision these locations, to present them in a new way that highlights their ambiguity and fleeting grace, elements so often overlooked in the daily rush of human routine.”

Annie LeistRevolving Door 22010

Oil on canvas20 x 24 inches

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Annie LeistBeacons: Red Hand 52008

Oil on canvas37 x 48 inches

Annie LeistBeacons: Red Hand 62010

Oil on canvas16 x 16 inches

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dissonance

disorientation

disagreement

distance

disambiguation

disassembly

distillation

distortion

disapprove

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Anthony Ptak

Anthony Ptak is an interaction designer, artist, performer, and composer based in New York City. He received his BA in media studies/cultural criticism from SUNY Buffalo in 1992 and an MPS from NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) in 2010. He has studied with Tony Conrad, Paul Sharits, Peter Campus, Lydia Kavina, and Herbert Brün, and had technical consultations with Robert Moog. Between 2000-2007, he was a guest theremin artist under director Scott Wyatt at the historic Experimental Music Studios (EMS) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has presented his works at SEAMUS Society for ElectroAcoustic Music in the United States, School of the Art Institute, Chicago Cultural Center, St. Louis Art Museum, Institute for Advanced Study Princeton, Roulette Intermedium, the Kitchen, the Stone, Galapagos Art Space, Chelsea Art Museum, and Issue Project Room in New York City and at NIME Sydney, 2010. He performed at the First International Theremin Festival and is a founding member of the New York Theremin Society. In 2007, Ptak’s son was born with Down syndrome. In 2011, Ptak was diagnosed with primary central nervous system (CNS) lymphoma (brain cancer). The pair experiments with ways to create art together; both have become visible and vocal advocates for individuals with disabilities.

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Anthony Ptak

“My goals as an artist are to promote acceptance of differences and to design a society that allows for empathy and degrees of freedom despite the constraints we may find ourselves challenged by, whether genetically encoded or otherwise acquired, in the complexities of our society. I bridge distances between disparate communities. I speak the language of technologists, create change, and advocate access and openness by seeing what others will not see, and saying what others will not say. I am an artist, composer, interaction designer, educator, critical thinker, musical scientist, public speaker, brain cancer survivor, and disabilities advocate.”

Anthony Ptak Brain Cancer in Orange Reprise.172017

Acrylic on canvas14 x 14 inches

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Aedan Ptak Auspice 32015

Ink on exhibition fibre17 x 22 inches

Anthony Ptak Informodulation.082009

Digital inkjet on canvas 48 x 72 inches

Anthony Ptak Xtremecane Jump2017

Digital HD video installation for screen17:22 loop

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aphrodisiac

disperse

disarm

discipline

discover

discussion

distortion

faddish

indispensable

nudist

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Gordon Sasaki

New York City-based Gordon Sasaki’s work blends unconventional techniques with contemporary ideas of identity and culture. Combining an unexpected use of images and materials, his mixed and multi-media works purposefully cross over traditional categorical boundaries to create possibilities and inclusion. Recipient of awards from the Pollock-Krasner, Joan Mitchell, New York Foundation for the Arts, and the Puffin Foundations, his work is exhibited internationally and is held in museums, corporate, and private collections.

A wheelchair user due to an automobile accident, Sasaki brings a unique combination of personal insight and academic training to his work as an artist. He is a dedicated proponent for the inclusion of the arts as a life tool, invaluable to everyone and relevant to all aspects of daily life.

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Gordon Sasaki

“My work explores the intersection between art and identity, using familiar images and the language of representation as an exploration of the human condition. Referencing the body and its display as a social and cultural construction, a simultaneously private and public form of reflection, whose beauty and/or ugliness is fraught with bias and holds up a mirror to our politics and priorities.

I am interested in work that reflects a diversity of voices and how that diversity contributes to the richness of a contemporary multi-layered society. This includes disability. Through my work I reference disability as a part of my identity, significant but not a singular all defining characteristic, more accurately just one facet of a metaphorical identity that contributes towards the making of an individual and cultural identity.

In these works that reference the human body (or its absence) through the life-size recreation of wheelchairs, more specifically my wheelchair, I explore the symbolism of disability through the historicism of visual language and cultural precedence. I literally use the “seen” and “unseen” as techniques to create these loaded cultural portraits.”

Gordon SasakiIcarus (detail)2017

Clear PVC plastic and monofilament 36 x 40 x 120 inches (approx.)

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Gordon SasakiGold Wheelchair2015

Acrylic and gold leaf on paper70 x 42 inches

Gordon SasakiSilver Wheelchair

2016

Acrylic and silver leaf on paper70 x 42 inches

Gordon SasakiBlack & White Wheelchair2017

Acrylic on paper70 x 42 inches 23

disassemble

disposable

discriminate

disconnected

dispensable

disposable

distorted

disturbed

disembodied

dismembered

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Julia Yepez Injured in a car accident, Julia Yepez suffered spinal cord injuries and is now a wheelchair user. She credits her art with giving her renewed self-esteem and confidence. “Creativity through my art has transformed my entire lifestyle,” she notes. “My freedom to fly is a simple paintbrush!”

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Julia Yepez

“When I am surrounded by Nature, I feel centered and a sense of oneness. It seems to crystalize my thinking and mindset. When I lived out West in Utah, I was within a ten-minute ride of mountains, wildlife, streams, and the ever-changing colors of the woods themselves.

A feast for the senses, these elements of Nature help us all to regain greater serenity and foster a communal understanding of, and respect and awe for flora and fauna. This type of peace is not available within the concrete jungles of large cities where people seem to compete on who can make the most noises.

My paintings reflect my respect for Nature. I wish I could bring forth all of Nature’s fragrances, the sounds of the wind caressing the leaves, and the taste of pure, cool mountain streams. Through the acrylic colors I choose for my paintings, I hope to recapture the essence of the woodlands I miss so much.”

Julia YepezLucid Road2009

Acrylic and gesso on canvas22 x 30 inches

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Julia YepezPantano2014

Acrylic and gesso on canvas22 x 30 inches

Julia YepezA Frame with a View2017

Acrylic and gesso on canvas47 x 36 inches

Julia YepezPark City House2010

Acrylic and gesso on canvas47 x 36 inches

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About Dedalus Foundation The Dedalus Foundation was founded in 1981 by the artist Robert Motherwell in order to foster public understanding of modern art and modernism. In fulfilling this mission, the Foundation operates programs in arts education, research and publications, archives and conservation, and exhibitions, as well as in the guardianship and study of Robert Motherwell’s art.

Partners, supporters and key ADI team membersOur partner, the Dedalus Foundation, provided the home for the ADI Institute, as well as its public programming and the dis exhibition.

Support for this pilot year of ADI and its public program was provided by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation, and the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities. And of course, we owe tremendous thanks to Annie Leist, Zoya Kocur, and Kira Lynn Harris for their efforts in helping to give life to the dream that ABS President and Founder Elisabeth Axel envisioned for ADI.

About Art Beyond Sight

Art Beyond Sight (ABS), a 501(c)(3) formerly known as Art Education for the Blind, is the leading voice and clearinghouse for best practices on accessibility and multi-sensory learning through the arts. We inspire and provide resources across the cultural sector for the full integration of people with disabilities. When the organization began in 1987, our mission was to make art and visual culture accessible to those with vision loss. Over time we found our multi-sensory methods also help people with other disabilities. Our mission has expanded to support access to art and cultural offerings for people with many types of physical or cognitive disabilities. Now ABS techniques, curricula, and programs are used by museums, schools, and cultural providers around the world.

Catalogue creative direction and graphic design by Christine Donnellan, Art Beyond Sight, and Leslie Sisman. Editorial by Nayda Rondon. Registrar & Exhibitions Manager, Claire Altizer, the Dedalus Foundation, Inc.