Current Residents

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Current Resident: Mar 1, 2024–May 31, 2024

Studio #202

Yoshie Sakai

Yoshie Sakai is a multimedia artist working with video, installation, sculpture and performance. Her videos and over-the-top immersive installations are centered on accessibility and nurturing human connection while critiquing capitalist productions of space and ways of being. As a subtly transgressive undercover cultural agent, she exposes the absurdities of manipulative social structures while humorously struggling and reveling in them as a participant. She draws on popular forms of entertainment and media to engage diverse audiences, especially those historically devalued, ignored, and seen as burdens.

Yoshie Sakai has exhibited work at Vincent Price Art Museum, California; John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Wisconsin; and Antenna, Louisiana, among others.

yoshiesakai.com

Events & Exhibitions

2024 Spring Open Studios

April 12–April 13, 2024

Yoshie Sakai, KOKO's Love: A Soap Opera Tale of One Family, 2016, seven-channel mixed media video installation, dimensions variable

As part of “The Autotopographers” group exhibition at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, we see split between a pet store and the family living room,

Yoshie Sakai, KOKO's Love: About Yuki Daydream Reality, 2019, six-channel mixed media video installation, dimensions variable

Grandma Entertainment Franchise (GEF)” brings together three immersive installations produced over the last three years: Grandma Day Spa, Grandma Nightclub, and Grandma Amusement Park. These three distinct but interconnected installations, composed of my video and sculptural work, satirically reproduce public sites of leisure, re-imagined with grandmothers as their target demographic. “Grandma Entertainment Franchise” stems from my reflections on my own grandmother, or obaa-chan (“grandmother” in Japanese), who came to live with my family when the I was nine years old. My memories of my obaa-chan open a searing, tragicomic inquiry into society’s obsession with youth and innovation, as evident in the outsourcing of elderly care, urban redevelopment and disinvestment, marketing demographics, and our notions of desirability, success, and the good life. This was at the Vincent Price Art Museum (VPAM) in Monterey Park, California.

Yoshie Sakai, Grandma Entertainment Franchise (GEF), 2023, 10-channel mixed media video installation

The “Bathroom Stall Tears” video series, meant to be viewed in the in the bathroom stalls of the “Grandma Entertainment Franchise (GEF)” installation, opens the door to a more intimate space for expression & reflections by capturing my personal childhood memories my grandmother’s selfless acts/small sacrifices & critique the power of gender stereotypes in shaping intergenerational expectations.

Yoshie Sakai, Bathroom Stall Tears: Part II, video still, 2022, single-channel digital video, 4:01 min

The “Grandma Nightclub” and “Grandma Nightclub Music Video” (projected on the wall) celebrates and honors the senior populations & the activities not typically associated with them. I assume the role of five dancing grandmas with the up-tempo and sexual nature of the songs to bring attention to the vitality of the elderly, speaking of ageism embedded in systems of capitalism and entertainment.

Yoshie Sakai, Bathroom Stall Tears: Part II, 2023, three-channel mixed media video installation (Nightclub only), dimensions variable

Residents from United States

Joshua Thaddeus Rainer

Painting of a dream the artist had years ago wherein he was trapped in a seemingly broken elevator that would not stop ascending.

United States

The Kettering Family Foundation

Studio #211

Vincent Chong

A public performance in Manhattan Chinatown's Columbus Park for both my Queer and Trans Asian Pacific Islander community and the elders who spend time in that park. Black dress by Shawna Wu. Wig by Paul Keo. Green cape sewn and stoned by the Artist.

United States

Celebrate the Studio

2024

Cullen Washington Jr.

United States

Helen Frankenthaler Foundation Residency

Studio #205

Turkey

Current Resident: Mar 1, 2024–May 31, 2024

SAHA Association

Studio #203

Artist

Alper Aydin

In his practice, Alper Aydın strives for his works to be understood within their geographical context, aiming for an interpretation that incorporates the spatial presence of living beings, notably humans, within ecological processes. Aydın’s diverse practice, which includes sculpture, installation, performance, architecture, and video, allows the energy of each venue to guide his creative process. Through this approach, he intends to explore and reflect upon humanity’s existence in nature from a multitude of perspectives.

Alper Aydın has exhibited work at Istanbul Biennial, Turkey; Kochi-Muziris Biennale, India; and Changwon Sculpture Biennale, South Korea, among others.

alperaydin.art

Events & Exhibitions

2024 Spring Open Studios

April 12–April 13, 2024

Throughout history, domes—the components of buildings pointing to the sky—have been identified as the source of spirituality and able to deliver the images, narratives, and messages of the skies. In this work, two large-sized satellite dishes whirling around their axes stand level with the audience and, with their controlled rotation, get in a loop akin to the movement of the planet, the sun, and the moon, formation of months and years. One of the dishes of these two technical systems holds the ornaments and the Arabic calligraphy of the dome of Hagia Sophia. The other one carries the dome of parecclesion of Chora Monastery depicting the Virgin and Child and the angels. The forms and the ornaments of these small representations of the vault of heaven have been adapted to the antenna systems used to communicate, observe, and receive signals. The micro vaults of heaven are placed next to people instead of above. They unite with the sky in the open air. This work directs people’s gaze to outer space, the unknown, and the infinitude of imagination and reflects hope about the future.

Alper Aydin, Face to Face, 2023, aluminum, iron, oil acrylic, gold-leaf and concrete, 151 × 130 × 169 in. (383.54 × 330.2 × 429.26 cm)

Acclaimed Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch depicted heaven on the left panel of the triptych, The Garden of Earthly Delights, painted circa 1490–1500. In this composition, every figure is around the small lake in the center of the painting, and in the center of this lake stands so naturally, an imaginary pink fountain made of plants and shells of crabs, oysters, and sea urchins. Alper Aydın was touched to see that almost everything occurs around this fountain. He builds a similar one in the center of an antique quarry filled with seawater on Cape Sülü to create a space for conversing and discussing the world's state of mind. By concretizing Bosch’s fountain design by upcycling the plastics drifted to the shore with storms, a faithful adaptation from two dimensions to three, the artist opens the way for nature, animals, and human beings to perceive the fountain.

Alper Aydin, The Source of Life, 2023, upcycled plastic, polyester resin, iron and obsidian, 275 × 102 × 39 in. (698.5 × 259.08 × 99.06 cm)

The city of Ordu has been subject to excessive and sudden rains and floods in recent years due to the emergence of the potent effects of global warming, wrong environmental policies, and unplanned urbanization. Humans, animals, and plants lost their lives, and habitats disappeared. “Post-Apocalyptic Narrative” derives from an archive of the traces of loss that Alper Aydın has composed in Cape Jason, where he also lives, by collecting the objects and remains washed ashore after disasters. Referring to the deteriorating dynamics of nature, the installation is composed of two sculptures: in the first one, a snake that doesn’t know where to go enwinds the trunk of a tree without roots and branches. On another collapsed trunk hanging from the ceiling are a man and a wolf in such a setting that whoever moves, the balance will be disturbed inevitably. We are left alone with the last remaining traces of a forest in a post-apocalyptic time.

Alper Aydin, Post-Apocalyptic Narrative, 2023, polyester, 80x46x204 (wolf and man), 165x27x27 (snake)

In the first movie of the Matrix trilogy, the protagonist Neo must choose between red and blue pills. The blue pill will return him to the fictional order in which he has always existed, and the red pill will allow him to see what is happening outside that fictional order. Taking its name from this movie scene, Alper Aydın’s Red Pill (2023), produced for the WE BELONG exhibition, is a sailboat turned upside down. He is ready to set out for all the discoveries his imagination can take, floating in the air on a plane limited neither by land nor by the boundaries of the ocean. It is an invitation to look at the world we live in, our lives, from different perspectives and to make us think about what is real.

Alper Aydin, Red Pill, 2023, metal and fibre, 307 × 161 × 35 in. (779.78 × 408.94 × 88.9 cm)

In this piece of art, rocks from nature touched with a statistical thinking.Place that is choosed consciously has an esthtatical view and convenient for statistical research inside it. The each interferes on the place was made with discount and was written with white water-based paint and with a big amount of care for not damaging the rocks.The numbers that was created by humans choosed in the daily life to calculate the human’s value.While the this numbers that was created by human transfered to the amorf things in nature, dialog between nature and human was expected to seen. This situation creates a paradoxical view to the people who go over that beach during their whole life and audience. Again, meaningless things were weighned and named exactly same with the values, it represent the image of people’s inside thinking which is human creates themselves limits to judge the situations and classified them. This is a reaction to public’s meta perception with measuring the natural objects.

Alper Aydin, Real Weight of Stones, 2011, water based paint on stones, dimensions varied

Residents from Turkey

Eda Gecikmez

Turkey

SAHA Association

2023

Sümer Sayin

Stone found on a beach, its photograph and stone made of ceramic. The handmade stone is sculpted by hand with clay looking at the photo as a reference, then fired to a stoneware temperature.

Turkey, Germany

SAHA Association

2022

Baris Gokturk

Monument III is based on a photograph I saw on the wall of a working-class restaurant in Ankara, Turkey. The photograph shows an equestrian statue of Ataturk, the founder of republic, right before it left the foundry.

Turkey, United States

SAHA Association

2021

Canada

Current Resident: Apr 1, 2024–Jun 30, 2024

Alberta Foundation for the Arts

Studio #204

Artist

Alma Visscher

Alma Louise Visscher creates fabric-based installations, jewelry and drawings that consider resources and material culture and the poetic possibilities and problems within these. Through process and materials, she explores the intersection of materiality and the unknowable, the ecology of places, and the things that hold us, care for us, and comfort us. These motivations have led her to explore materials such as working with natural dyes and inks sourced from her immediate environments and repurposed textiles and materials.

Alma Louise Visscher has exhibited work at Art Gallery of Alberta, Alberta; Idea Exchange. Ontario; Kimura Gallery, Alaska, among others.

almalouisevisscher.com

Events & Exhibitions

2024 Spring Open Studios

April 12–April 13, 2024

A drawing on white paper made with black ink. The drawing is made up of small brush strokes and depicts a fabric-like form.

Alma Visscher, Odradek, 2021, handmade ink on paper, 14 × 10 in. (35.56 × 25.4 cm)

A white page with overlapping abstract forms in the centre. The marks are made with ink, fabric, and paper.

Alma Visscher, Hedge Study, 2023, cedar ink, handmade paper and fabric on paper, 12 × 17 in. (30.48 × 43.18 cm)

A painting made up up pleated fabric in a variety of colours.

Alma Visscher, holding it together, 2021, machine pleated and dyed and airbrushed found fabric, 36 × 24 in. (91.44 × 60.96 cm)

Two panels of fabric connected by sheer draped fabric. Left panel is predominantly grey and white with some pink. Right panel is more pink and peach with some yellow.

Alma Visscher, The waiting, 2019, hand painted and airbrushed cotton and linen fabric, grommets and draping, 108 × 35 in. (274.32 × 88.9 cm)

Seven fabric tote bag like forms are installed in a triangle shape on a white wall. The fabric is painted a range of pinks and pastel colours.

Alma Visscher, Portable Paintings, 2018, hand dyed and sewnfabric, dimensions variable

Residents from Canada

Insoon Ha

South Korea, Canada

Canada Council for the Arts

Studio #306

Ella den Elzen

A backlit image of a still-life composed of pineapple, aloe vera, sugar cane, coconut milk, mango, clementines, lemons, lime, and books on a neon green backdrop. The image, which appears to be computer generated, is created through a 3D scanning process.

Canada

Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec

2023

Sukaina Kubba

This is a line drawing of an intricate carpet design done in black plastic filament, with a white background.

Iraq, Canada

Canada Council for the Arts

2022

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