Saranac Art Projects May Exhibition through June 1

MAY 2024  EXHIBITION  

Joshua Hobson, “Potential Synergy,”

 Lisa Nappa & Roger Ralston, “In Technicolor”

EXHIBITION DATES: Friday May 3rd – June 1st, 2024

OPENING RECEPTION: Friday May 3rd, 4:00 – 8:00 PM

GALLERY HOURS: Fridays 12:00 – 8:00 PM, except the day of exhibit opening: Saturdays 12:00 – 8:00 PM

 

JOSH HOBSON – “Potential Synergy”

Joshua Hobson is a lens-based artist based in Spokane, WA.  He studied photography at the University of Florida and received a BFA in Creative Photography in 2007 and an MFA in 2017. Josh regularly exhibits his work including exhibitions at Candela Books, Colorado Center for Photographic Art, Detroit Center for Contemporary Photography, Newspace Center for Photography, Chase Gallery, Saranac Art Projects, Brooklyn Waterfront Arts Coalition Photo Center Northwest, and the Center for Fine Art Photography. Josh is currently a lecturer in photography at Eastern Washington University. Josh’s work is engaged with an analysis of and experimentation with the fundamental attributes of the medium. His practice incorporates tabletop studio photography, on-site photography, and camera-less concrete processes. Through material engagement and process-oriented actions, Josh’s work aims to shed light on the various uses and origins of the photographic image. His work is grounded in material culture, the history of abstraction, and an alternative history of lens-based media. His current projects engage with the dire environmental issues facing the planet including both the social and personal effects of climate change, pollution, and resource extraction. Nocture Humide 3, 2023 pictured at left.

EXHIBITION STATEMENT

New work by Roger Ralston and Lisa Nappa is an adventure in color, referencing the idea of seeing the world in fantastical wonder.  Roger Ralston continues his chromatic odyssey through playful, formal compositions in watercolor painting and intimate handmade books.  Lisa Nappa has artfully combined the colorful world of rug tufting and ceramics to create magical, one-of-a-kind stools and wall pieces.

 

Lisa Nappa, Short Bio

Lisa Nappa is a ceramic sculptor and mixed media artist living in Spokane, Washington. Her work varies in scale, from intimate handheld objects, large wall and window installations and currently mix media stools. For the last decade, her work has been inspired by the beauty and underlying politics of water. She exhibits her work nationally and internationally as well as participates in residencies throughout the world. She recently stepped away from being a Professor of Art at Eastern Washington University where she taught and headed the area of Ceramics in the Art Department. She now spends blissful hours in the studio and traveling looking at art and the world. Though she will never completely shed her New York City upbringing, she loves her current life surrounded by the mountains, skies and scablands of the Inland Northwest.

Statement

These ceramic and wool tufted stools and wall pieces started as a response to the anxiety of living through a pandemic. They became a way to transport myself to a different time and space, the stools are inspired by imaginary travel through fantasizing about magic carpet rides.  By incorporating tufted wool into my work, I can translate a desire for newness and adventure while holding true to ceramic forms that continue to intrigue and ground me. The outcome of combining these two disparate materials creates something playful, colorful, and funky, carrying us away from daily stress to find a moment of joy.

 

Roger Ralston

Short Bio

Roger Ralston is an artist working in the Spokane, Washington area for the past 26 years. He previously worked in Seattle, Southern Louisiana, New York, and Portland, Oregon. His work includes art in public places in Spokane and Seattle and smaller-scale gallery works.

Roger Ralston has been an active member of the Saranac Art Projects as a member since 2008. He was an instructor at Eastern Washington University, and has also taught at Gonzaga and Spokane Falls Community College.

Artist Statement

Roger Ralston’s water media work presents as drawings. Drawing with color and layers lends itself to a playful more immediate manner than working with objects. There is a conversation in the drawings that moves through a place of narrative, formal, and material play. The material play follows similar methods to his sculpture and installations. In his drawings, he tries actions to see results that suggest options to his physical works. The drawings become part of his object-making work. The narrative dances into corners, sneaking into places seldom visited.