Totems
Brian Barr & Lauren Rice
Friday, February 3, 2012 - Sunday, February 26, 2012
Opening Reception: Friday, February 3 from 6 - 11 pm
Opening Reception: Friday, February 3, 2012 from 6 - 11 pm
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
Brian Barr & Lauren Rice present the collaborative exhibition Totems, which explores contemporary culture from the vantage point of the future, focusing on ideas, objects, and images that have lost their significance. Collage, image transfers, painting and installed sculpture will figure a deteriorating post-apocalyptic landscape, providing space to consider the shifting social constructs of identity.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Lauren Rice (b. Atlanta, GA 1979) is an American artist of Jewish descent based in suburban Richmond, VA. She is a somewhat skeptical astrology nerd with a Pisces rising, Scorpio sun, Taurus moon and a 10th house Sagittarius stellium. Originally from Atlanta, GA, Rice has made her home in many American cities, including Detroit, Brooklyn, Washington DC and Athens, OH. Although she identifies as a painter, Rice often works on and with paper through the combined modalities of collage, painting, drawing and sculpture. She has exhibited her work in solo, collaborative and group exhibitions at venues such as Cuchifritos Gallery and Project Space (NYC), Vox Populi (Philadelphia), Tiger Strikes Asteroid (NYC), The Neon Heater (Findlay, OH), ICA Baltimore (Baltimore), 1708 Gallery (Richmond), The Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art (Virginia Beach), The Alabama Contemporary (Mobile, AL), Transformer (DC) and Spring Break Art Show (NYC), among many others. In 2022, she was a participant in Burnaway Magazine’s Arts Writing Incubator Criticism as Care. She teaches at Longwood University where she is an Associate Professor of Art. Rice lives with her husband and artistic collaborator, Brian Barr, and their two children in a house with a garden on a street surrounded by big, old oak trees. For better or worse, Rice is a wearer of rose-colored glasses and is an avid supporter of underdogs.
Brian Barr is an artist and independent curator based in Richmond, VA where he is an Assistant Professor of Art at Virginia Commonwealth University. He received his MFA from American University and his BFA from The College for Creative Studies. Barr has been awarded fellowships at the MacDowell Colony, the Kala Art Institute as well as a residency at the Luminary Center for the Arts in St. Louis. Barr regularly collaborates with his wife, artist Lauren Rice. They have presented collaborative projects at Vox Populi in Philadelphia (PA), Flashpoint Gallery in Washington (DC), Purdue University, Current Space in Baltimore (MD), the Neon Heater in Findlay (OH), and the Artist Alliance Inc.’s, Cuchifritos Gallery and Project Space in New York (NY), and Alabama Contemporary (AL). Barr has had solo exhibitions at Popps Packing in Detroit, Skylab in Columbus (OH), and the Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington (VA). His work was featured in New American Paintings no. 95. Barr was the founder of PASSENGER, an exhibition space in Detroit where he was Director and Curator from 2012-2014. He has curated exhibitions at PASSENGER, ORG Gallery in Detroit, Purdue University, The Museum of New Art Detroit, Delicious Spectacle Gallery (DC), and the Katzen Art Center Museum (DC).
