McColl Center for Art + Innovation presents an exhibition of new works by Missy Luczak-Smith + Doug Smith Fellowship Artist-in-Residence Stephen L. Hayes Jr. and Affiliate Artist Ivan Toth Depeña on our second and third floor galleries. Most of the work in this exhibition has been created during their current 13-month residencies.
STEPHEN L HAYES JR.
This work is part of a bigger collection of work that I’m creating during my residency at McColl Center. The work in progress is called How to Make a Dollar and revolves around brainwashing, capitalism, and commodity. I’m interested in taking something from the past and comparing it to the present. However, my work is not always about the meaning; it's also about creating wow and wonder.
The materials that I use are usually discarded and found. I enjoy collecting objects to create interesting and amazing compositions. This goes back to my childhood, when my mother would bring old machines home from work and allow me to make things with them. That’s when I started making art, started creating.
IVAN TOTH DEPEÑA
This work represents a snapshot into the various experimentations in process that I am engaged in during my residency at McColl Center. The work continues an exploration that marries chance and intention in various ways.
For this series, I have been concentrating on creating a more organic and random set of initial conditions using transparency, translucency, and color. I then respond to those outcomes by layering very specific mark-making and interventions. For this layer of specificity, I use traditional hand drawing and painting techniques coupled with high tech machines typically used in industrial computer aided manufacturing. This series of work unveils a new trajectory in my overall body of work.
Image: New Works exhibition featuring artists Stephen L. Hayes and Ivan Toth Depena, 2015. Installation view. Courtesy of Photo Michael O'Neill for McColl Center.