“associations” is an exhibition utilizing traditional painting with the incorporation of drawn wall installation with sound and video at the Juarez Contemporary, in Mexico, Opening April 22nd at 6pm, on view until June 6th, 2016. The exhibition by artist Isadora Stowe an American visual artist whose artwork focuses on the narrative of environment translated and coded into complex psychological landscapes.
The exhibition reflects Stowe’s strong interest in visual narratives, created out of symbolic code, or personal syntax, that explore memory as it relates to the construction, negotiation and interpretation of the sense of self. Stowe grew up in the southwest border region, living and working in New Mexico, Texas and Mexico. She credits these experiences with a heightened awareness of geographical and political boundaries; and a fascination with the exploration of identity of self in her work.
Her exhibition “associations” is an installation where symbolic codes are repeated in juxtapositions that reinterpret and transcend their meanings. These narrative codes, such as a house with oversized succulents spouting from the roof, are painted directly on the gallery walls, along with the placed clusters of paintings ranging in sizes as small as two inches to three feet in diameter. In addition video projections of these symbolic drawings including reconstructed maps are projected on the wall with accompanying sound. The audio is a collection of sound recordings of various trips to the southwest border landscapes.
Stowe’s intentions of this sensory inclusive exhibition are that the audience will make their own associations within the reimagined maps and codes that will intersect with the imagery and sounds.
Stowe earned her BFA in Painting with a double major in Cultural Anthropology, minor in Native American Studies and a MFA in Painting and Drawing from New Mexico State University. She exhibits her work nationally and is represented in many collections across the country and in Mexico. She maintains a studio in New Mexico and is the full time art faculty at the Northwest Campus of El Paso Community College in Texas. Stowe has been the recipient of several grants, scholarships and awards for her work, including an award for excellence from the New Mexico Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts. More information about her work and processes can be viewed on her website: www.isadorastowe.com