Opening reception: Friday, May 21 2010, 6-8pm

Exhibition Dates: May 21 – June 19 , 2010

labotanica is open to the public saturday, 1-5pm

labotanica presents Extended Drawing a new exhibition about experimental approaches to drawing. Through photography, film, performance, site-specific installations, and public art, artists extend the medium of drawing beyond its traditional mode of representation. Exhibiting artists use drawing as a vehicle to explore ritual, participation, documentation, and social interaction.  Artists include Regina Agu, Aisen Caro Chacin, Melanie Jamison, Dinorah de Jesús Rodriguez, Ayanna Jolivet Mccloud, Tyrone Saunders, Carrie Schneider, and Christina Summers.

Extended Drawing will feature film by Dinorah de Jesús Rodriguez that involves a unique process of drawing and painting on the film. Regina Agu will present an installation of Draw 365, a project exploring diaristic drawing in which the artist has created a drawing every day for the past 200 plus days. This project , which has grown to be documented online and include additional international artists, will be exhibited as an installation. Additionally, Agu will present a live performance of drawing for the opening night choreographed by the artist. This wall will be further activated for the duration of the exhibition by creating daily drawings for the 30 days that the exhibition. 

Christina Summers will invite visitors to write on her photographs by filling in their wishes that they hope to accomplish before they die. In another work, Summers and Tyrone Saunders will install a 4 foot by 8 foot vertical chalkboard in an empty behind outside behind labotanica, allowing the residents of 3rd Ward to draw what they would like to see built in that space, addressing issues of gentrification in the neighborhood. Melanie Jamison, Aisen Caro Chacin, and Ayanna Jolivet Mccloud will create a site-specific installation in which they explore non-traditional mark-making through various materials including sound, fibers, and found materials.

Also at The I:

Inspired by drawing as raw witness and unmediated communication, Carrie Schneider will activate the I as a transparent platform for dialogue. Each side of the window is provided with dry erase markers, each side is invited to leave their mark in response and reaction to the other. The evolving exquisite corpse will be developed and documented throughout the duration of the show. 

The I is the window space located within labotanica's Resource Room that presents an artist's work and an interview on their process. The I is the convergence between labotanica and greater community, and the artist and viewer.

background image: performance installation of live drawing by regina agu