Image credit: Claire Watson Installation, Ille Arts Gallery, Amagansett, NY
Virtual Art Salon hosted by Casey Dalene, Guild Hall Curatorial Assistant, Registrar and Lewis B Cullman Associate for Museum Education
Featuring:
Claire Watson, Artist
Artist and Water Mill, NY resident, Claire Watson, will join Curatorial Assistant, Casey Dalene, in conversation on Zoom for Guild Hall’s third Virtual Art Salon Series Thursday, May 28th, 4pm.
Claire’s work in the current 82nd Artist Members Exhibition in the Guild Hall Museum was a focus of Casey’s Virtual Gallery tour where she selected 7 works out of 435, to discuss on camera. Casey was drawn to Claire’s work because there is so much to be said.
At first, when you are confronted with one of Claire’s creations, you are struck by the minimal abstract shapes, like that of Ellsworth Kelly; a study of color and positive and negative shapes. But as you approach and explore more closely you become aware of the surface; flesh-like with scratches, scars, and smells of perfume or tobacco. The abstract shapes now representational of a common fashion pattern used in the creation of a leather garment. The minimal works reveal themselves to the viewer, born from a place of violence and life lived. Claire’s process of reconfiguring, reshaping, stitching, and stretching these pieces of used leather renders them accessible. Let’s examine this with Claire and find out how she manipulates her way to the finished product. What can this tell us about ourselves and how we relate to her work? How does this mirror our current challenges? As usual, art will show us the way.
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Claire Watson
Claire Watson was born in Amarillo, TX. She received a BFA in Painting from the University of Texas at Austin in 1980, and an MFA in Sculpture at Tyler School of Art in Rome and Philadelphia in 1984. Her awards and honors include an Artist Residency at The Watermill Center, Water Mill, NY (scheduled in 2020); a Residency Fellowship at the Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts in 2019, a Studio Residency at MASS MoCA in 2018; a Fellowship in Sculpture from New York Foundation for the Arts in 2007; and a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant in 1990. Her work is in numerous private and public collections, and has been exhibited at venues that include Ille Arts, Amagansett, NY; Site: Brooklyn, Brooklyn, NY; Blue Star Contemporary Art Museum, San Antonio, TX; Southampton Arts Center, Southampton, NY; Islip Art Museum, East Islip, NY; and Art in General, NYC, among others. Since 1996 she has lived and worked in Water Mill, New York, where she raised two sons with her husband, artist Stephen Laub.
www.clairewatson.net
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Casey Dalene
Casey Dalene grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina with a noticeable passion for the Arts from a very young age. Studying Painting, Drawing and Art History throughout High School and College, Casey received a BFA in Studio Art and Art History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2005. Continuing her education, Casey attended the Fashion Institute of Technology State University of New York and received an Associate’s Degree in Textile/Surface Design in 2006. In 2007 Casey relocated to East Hampton and spent the next 5 years as Creative Director of Fabric and Wallcovering at the Elizabeth Dow Studio in Amagansett. With a passion for the arts as a common thread throughout her education and professional career, she has always been inspired by and involved in the local art community on the East End of Long Island. From the emerging Artists she met working in the Elizabeth Dow handmade wallcovering studio to the rich Art History of our community, she began to insert herself in the art world by creating an Online Art Gallery, artUNPRIMED.com, curating emerging and mid-career artists online as well as through 2 different pop-up exhibitions, one in Sag Harbor and one in East Hampton. Casey has also developed strong curatorial and marketing experience by working for a handful of Art Galleries on the East End including RJD Gallery in Bridgehampton, Markel Fine Arts in Bridgehampton, Roman Fine Art in East Hampton, and Sara Nightingale Gallery in Water Mill (now in Sag Harbor).
With young children entering school in East Hampton, and strong ties to the Local Art Community, Casey brings a fresh perspective to the Educational programming, Curatorial Department, and responsibilities of the Registrar. She hopes to enhance the programming at Guild Hall to include the local community and beyond, ensuring everyone has access to and can take advantage of all the resources that we have to offer, as their community Museum, Theater and Educational Center.