MEL CHIN, LAMENTATIONS and DRAWINGS, Exhibit a: Safe, Shape of a Lie, More to Tell Exhibit b: Fun(d) and Games 13 April- 19 May 2007 Frederieke Taylor gallery is pleased to announce its third solo show with Mel Chin. The exhibition will present three recent sculptural works the artist refers to as “Lamentations”. Safe, Shape of a Lie and More to Tell are included, as well as a series of new drawings on assorted surfaces (currency, cardboard, papyrus and Chinese paper) appropriately called Fun(d) and Games. Mel Chin is internationally recognized as one of the most important artists of his generation who, since the 1970s, has created artworks that join cross-cultural aesthetics with complex ideas and address political, social and ecological issues. In all of his work, Chin explores the way art can provoke greater social awareness and responsibility. The artist is known for creating artworks in a broad range of media: art objects, temporary installations, video, film, television, cartoons and permanent public sculpture whose methodology often involves an extensive process of community participation. Shape of a Lie offers a psycho-biomorphic portrait of a lie. Utilizing material with cultural and historic associations (bronze is thought of as an established Old World art metal and catlinite is the sacred treaty-sealing pipestone of the New World) the piece surreally stresses the urgency of self examination in the midst of a new rhetoric that we Americans have been mastering since 2001. More to Tell is carved from a single walnut log with inserted sound components. It implores one to listen for the voice of the living and not focus solely on the mutilating horrors of Sierra Leone which turn one away. Safe, made of wood, nails, paint and canvas, is a lamentation on the continuing tragedy that is the Congo. All three works were initially presented in the survey exhibition "Do Not Ask Me" at the Station Museum of Contemporary Art in Houston in 2006. Mel Chin's ongoing ecological project "Revival Field" has been implemented in Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and The Netherlands. His many public commissions include the Martin Luther King Jr. Library Project in San Jose, the Houston Sesquicentennial Park Monument, and a commission for the City of Corpus Christi, Texas. Chin has been awarded many grants including the National Endowment for the Arts, the Engelhard Award, the Penny McCall Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Joan Mitchell Foundation, Creative Capital, and the Nancy Graves Foundation. Mel Chin's work is in numerous public collections including The Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Walker Art Center, Museum of Fine Art Houston, and The Menil Collection. He was recently given an Honorary Doctorate from the Rhode Island School of Design. Currently, Mel Chin is working on an animated film titled "9-11/9-11”. Gallery hours are: Tuesday-Saturday, 11 to 6 For further information and visuals, please contact the gallery. Home | Exhibitions | Artists | Contacts