Egg Collective is thrilled to announce the exhibition Gray Area, featuring works by nine contemporary artists whose work explores and blurs the line between art and design. Through material interrogation Kiva Motnyk, Ruth Charlotte Kneass, Luam Melake, Rachel Duvall, Jaye Kim, Malcolm Mobutu Smith, Jeff Martin, Hiroko Takeda, and Steven Haulenbeek question what defines and elevates objecthood.
Material lust, paired with a desire to subvert or expand upon a deep understanding of techniques often associated with craft or utilitarianism, drives the artists in Gray Area to create. Showcased are oversized vessels with wilted flowers that appear to have become part of the structure, a wall-mounted marigold sarcophagus that enshrines treasures or toothbrushes, quilted textiles hand-dyed with foraged plants that act like stained glass windows, cast and carved sand that takes the form of a light, and wall sized amulets that incorporate sewn in plastic, worn clothes and expired movie tickets. In their varied approach to materiality, each exhibited artist links themself to a distinguished history of makers who have questioned previous generations’ boundaries regarding the definition of art, thus creating a historical bridge to artists such as Robert Rauschenberg, Anni Albers, Alice Kagawa Parrot, Ruth Asawa and Stan Bitters.
