Remainder Remains
Elizabeth Alexander + Tatiana Flis
August 28–September 29, 2019
First Friday Reception: September 6, 5:00–8:00 p.m.
Tea + Talk: Saturday, September 7, 3:00–4:00 p.m.
Remainder Remains offers a rich combination of abstract and concrete imagery. In highlighting that which has been left behind, the exhibit evokes the memory of what has been taken, forgotten, lost, or stolen. An initial impression reveals other potential realities, as in a counterfactual narrative, and gradually discloses their layers of meaning.
Through the use of found imagery and collage, common threads emerge between the two artists. They each unearth elements of human behavior and emotion that we culturally tend to ignore. In addition, “Remainder Remains” features drawing and sculpture, and includes a sound and image series referencing the Gardner art heist. Throughout the gallery, the artists’ shared themes of disappearance and desire take hold. The result is an exhibition of generational loss and the marks of what remains.
Tatiana Flis is a mixed-media artist who creates drawings and sculptures that recall the sacred and ethereal moments of discovery that often dissipate in the face of pragmatism. In offering the viewer a familiar landscape, she allows access into private worlds, creating connections across boundaries of time and space. Flis earned an MFA in Sculpture at Cranbrook Academy of Art and a BFA in Sculpture and Printmaking from Ringling College of Art and Design. She has been featured in ArtScope Magazine and reviewed in The Boston Globe. Flis has participated in multiple art fairs in Boston and Chicago and has recently been awarded creative residencies at Drop, Forge & Tool in Hudson, NY and the Vermont Studio Center, VT. Her work has been shown extensively in the United States and is collected internationally. Flis is currently the Arts Festival Director and Program Administrator of the Boston College Arts Council, and the Assistant Director at Fountain Street Gallery. She works from her studio in Millbury, MA.
Elizabeth Alexander is an interdisciplinary artist specializing in sculptures and installations made from deconstructed domestic materials and cast paper. Through labored processes separating decorative print from found objects, she unearths elements of human behavior and hidden emotions through manipulations of the stuff of our past. She holds degrees in sculpture from the Cranbrook Academy, MFA, and Massachusetts College of Art, BFA, where she discovered the complex nature of dissecting objects of nostalgia. Alexander has received fellowships from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the St. Botolph Foundation, the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, and was awarded the title “Best Artist of Boston” in 2014 by Improper Bostonian magazine. Alexander‘s work is included in permanent collections at the Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville, AR and the Mint Museum in Charlotte, NC. She is currently an Associate Professor at the UNC School of the Arts.