Awakening

Miller Opie + Rebecca Skinner

AUGUST 31-Sept 25, 2022

SoWa First Friday Art Walk: Friday, September 2 | 5:00–8:00 PM
Artist Reception: Friday, September 9 | 6:00–8:00 PM
Artist Talk: Saturday, September 17 | 2:00–3:00 PM

Beginning August 31st, Fountain Street Gallery will exhibit “Awakening”featuring the work of Miller Opie and Rebecca Skinner. “Awakening” investigates the act of giving the discarded new life. Through their respective explorations—Opie in sculptural forms and Skinner in photographic images—the artists animate what has been left behind. Decayed materials and abandoned places, the stuff of this exhibition, are transformed in the artists’ hands. Opie creates lyric sculptures of found animal bones, feathers and oriental bittersweet.Skinner’s richly detailed photographs expose the beauty and emotion of long-forgotten places.By breathing life into forsaken objects and places, Opie and Skinner together celebrate rebirth and offer the viewer an experience of replenishment and renewal.

PRESS RELEASE

PRICE LIST

Miller Opie

Artist Statement

My work explores and exorcises my life-altering experience that began when I learned that I had several tumors destroying my jawbone. Enduring over three years of surgeries and procedures has inspired me to intimately examine beauty, mortality, and rejuvenation. I have had a life-long passion and obsession for collecting bones, shells, and other natural treasures. I use these materials in my artwork; cutting apart, carving, and combining different complex shapes to create something new yet familiar, graceful, and powerful. 

All my materials I find, or they’re given to me. Friends who hunt for food for their families, gift me with what bones they don’t need. Then, I give what I use back to the forest. The deer nourish my friends’ families, nourish my artistic and personal exploration, then nourish the forest. My desire is to create something beautiful, compelling, and surprising by combining these discarded natural objects.

Rebecca Skinner

Artist statement

I photograph abandoned spaces throughout the United States. I am a modern-day urban explorer seeking unique neglected structures and desolate places. My subject matter ranges from large, cavernous spaces to minute details such as peeling paint and rust. Texture, color and light play an important part in my image making and I am attracted to the beauty of these places as well as the history. 

Time is of the essence as some locations have since been demolished or restored, while others remain frozen in time. Danger is often present, whether it be from rotten floors, hazardous materials, or unexpected inhabitants. I never go into these places alone and I am strongly invested in leaving no trace. Working with tripod and natural light, I do not stage my photographs — there is already a story to be told without making any adjustments.