17³Ô¹ÏÍø

Alexa Horochowski: Club Disminución

An installation of sculpture, video, sound and photography

March 14 – April 16
 

The Cantor Art Gallery will present the exhibition “Club Disminución” (Club of Diminishing Returns) by multi-media artist Alexa Horochowski, from Tuesday, March 15 – Saturday, April 16. An opening reception will be held on Tuesday, March 15, 5 – 6:30 p.m. in the gallery.

Horochowski created “Club Disminución” while in residency during 2012-13 at Casa Poli, a non-profit cultural institution in Coliumo, Chile.  Designed by architects Mauricio Pezo and Sofía Ellrichshausen, Casa Poli is a minimalist, cement cube, which functions as a cultural art center and artist studio and sits on a promontory high above the surf-pounded cliffs of the Chilean coast. The center’s residency program was established in an effort to stimulate critical thought and experimental art in the Bío-Bío region of Chile. It hosts international artists who live and work on site.

An immersive and visually complex exhibition, “Club Disminución” draws upon Horochowski’s versatility as an artist, as she mixes a range of media to create a vibrant installation environment.  Horchowski uses videography and large scale projections to depict dramatically shifting kelp beds, in constant and relentless motion; juxtaposed with still images of barnacles and kelp magnified and rendered as black and white digital photographs, along with arrangements of objects she gathered in the landscape around Casa Poli and bronze sculptures cast from natural materials.

Horochowski’s work addresses the interrelatedness of natural environment, globalization, culture, and matter. The interplay of these natural, industrial, and cultural phenomena find a distilled, physical expression in her hybrid/interrelated objects.

As Horochowski explains, “ I aspire  to an aesthetic of argument and provocation, an art that produces objects of potent agency and reflection, through which viewers are encouraged to question the sustainability of a consumption society that exacerbates inequalities and undermines our environmental resource base.”  .

First shown at The Soap Factory in Minneapolis, Minn., in 2014, “Club Disminución” was called a  ‘Critic’s Pick’ in Artforum’s October 2014 issue. Horochowski’s installation of the piece at the Cantor Art Gallery will be the first time she has created it on the East Coast.

Horochowski’s work has been exhibited at The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Franklin Art Works (Minneapolis), The Soap Factory (Minneapolis), Burnet Gallery (Minneapolis), and Franconia Sculpture Park (Shafer, Minn.). She has also exhibited her work nationally and internationally at Braga Menéndez Gallery (Buenos Aires), The Drawing Center (New York City), Praxis International Art (New York City/Miami), DiverseWorks (Houston). Horochowski has been the recipient of artist residencies: Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts in the .U.S.El Basilisco, Argentina, and CASAPOLI, Chile. She has received numerous grants and fellowships for her work including Jerome Fellowship (1999), Bush Foundation Artist Fellowship (2004), McKnight Fellowship (2005/2014), MN State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grant (2012/2014).

Horochowski teaches 3D design, sculpture, interdisciplinary and professional practices at St. Cloud State University, Minn.

“Club Disminución” at the Cantor Art Gallery is co-sponsored by Arts Transcending Borders.

 

Events

Opening Reception

Tuesday, March 15, 5 - 6:30 p.m. in the Cantor Art Gallery

Ruminations on the Post-Anthropocene: A Panel Discussion

Monday, April 11,5 – 6p.m., in Hogan Hogan 519

Alexa Horochowski, St. Cloud State University and 17³Ô¹ÏÍø faculty:  Daina Harvey, assistant professor of sociology; Justin McAlister, assistant professor of biology; Maria Rodrigues, associate professor of political science; and moderator: Cristi Rinklin, associate professor of visual arts.

 

LINKS

 

Cochayuyo from Installation Club Disminución, 2014

Video Installation by Alexa Horochowski

Three Channel, HD video, 9:32 minutes 

Audio by Ben Pagel, Joe Thoen, and Justin Martinez of Artifact Shore

Installation views by Frank E. Graham