Andy DuCett is a Minneapolis- based artist working with a multitude of media, utilizing sculpture, collage, drawing and installation.  His installations predominantly feature site-specific pilings of mostly found objects.  The sculptures are temporary, and are most typically indicative of the cultural location in which they are built. His first solo show, entitled AOT Has Been Here Forever, Except When It Wasn’t,  recently on view at Art of This gallery in Minneapolis chronicles the history of the buildings, residents and streets around the gallery. The installation uses items from thrift stores and cast objects in order to draw attention to our interactions with the world. This assemblage of objects typical in his sculptural work is mimicked in his drawings, which pull together various occurrences and locations, illustrating for instance, events taking place over the course of a month.  His interest in found objects is apparent in his collage work, as well.  Using only found photographs and illustrations, DuCett constructs impossible scenes that subvert comfort, utilizing imagery of youthfulness to depict hazards and barriers.

DuCett received his Masters in Fine Arts from The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2006.  He is also currently presenting work in a group exhibition of artists using collage entitled CUTTERS: An Exhibition of International Collage at Cinder’s Gallery in New York.

Minnesota-based artist Jennifer Davis paints a world of folkloric fantasy reminiscent of childhood reverie. Her storybook depictions of animal-like children, whimsical trees, and candy-colored creatures may at first glance seem sublimely playful, but a look beneath the beautifully delicate exterior unveils a narrative deeply seated in emotion. This tension between the illusory and reality hints at the darkness within Davis’s work, but her use of pastel colors mixed with peculiar imagery strikes a balance between sweet and melancholy.

Davis uses acrylic and graphite on panel or paper to create ethereal people, plants, and animals. She continually layers, strips, and reapplies her media. This process adds to the surreal quality of her work, as ghostly images subtly appear behind a smooth surface. The result is an imaginary world established through the combination of vivid descriptions and fanciful colors.

Jennifer Davis attended the University of Minnesota where she received her Bachelors of Fine Arts Degree in 1998. The Cerasoli Gallery in Los Angeles, CA and the Walker Contemporary in Boston, MA housed her two most recent solo exhibitions this past June.

Courtesy Nicelle Beauchene Gallery

Nicelle Beauchene Gallery in New York City’s Lower East side opened Ruby Sky Stiler’s first solo exhibition, High and Low Relief, on Saturday, May 9th. For the show, the artist has transformed the gallery into an attic space by shortening the headspace and installing distressed (and creaky) wooden floor boards. This altered space houses four of Stiler’s recent sculptures: An Earlier Vessel, A Second Hand Market, Stretch, and No Legend, all constructed of utilitarian materials such as foam, wood, nails, acrylic, and resin.

The converted gallery space reframes Stiler’s objects, which often evoke human attributes while referencing classical and authoritative art history. An Earlier Vessel, 2009, composed of acrylic gouache, archival foam core, and hot glue recalls red and black figure vase painting techniques from ancient Greece, but drips with thermoplastic adhesive. The juxtaposition of modern materials and classical iconography question ideas of authenticity, value, and historical accuracy.

Courtesy Nicelle Beauchene Gallery

Stiler received her B.F.A. from Rhode island School of Design and her M.F.A. from Yale University in 2006. The artist currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. High and Low Relief will remain at Nicelle Beauchene Gallery until June 14th.

Jaguar Shoes will present Tonight I am an Owl, new work and the first solo exhibition by Hannah Waldron, one of London’s hottest emerging artists and illustrators. The exhibition, which will be located at The Old Shoreditch Station, will focus on the artist’s imaginative drawings which feature an abstract vocabulary built from the artist’s own world. The works will include glow in the dark screen prints, fantastical landscapes and images of the animal kingdom.

The work often exists as a hybrid of art and design and includes animation and film. Waldron grew up in Lewisham in South East London, close to where the artist continues to live and work. She attended the Chelsea College of Art and Brighton University, where she began her career as an illustrator. Since her graduation, the artist has completed several major projects including the design of a new magazine Counterpart, a music video for Good Shoes and various book covers.

Opening this weekend at the Richard Goodall Gallery in Manchester, UK will be a selection of posters, prints, paintings, drawings and etchings by Chicago-based artists Jay Ryan and Diana Sudyka. The two screen-print artists have been working in this medium since 1995, and own their own printing company The Bird Machine, in the Chicago area. Sudyka received her MFA from Northwestern University and currently works as a freelance illustrator and printmaker. Ryan’s work incorporates children’s book illustrations with hand drawn lettering. His designs have been used by The Flaming Lips, Sonic Youth and Stereo Lab among many others. His most ambitious project to date is “100 Posters, 134 Squirrels” which documents his artistic career over the past ten years. In regards to his work, Ryan has stated “One of the most important lessons I learned in school, from a teacher, was to lower my expectations of my work and be receptive to silliness, chance, and the development of a drawing in the process. Also, I think animals are funny.”

Opening today at Victoria Miro in London, in her first solo exhibition in the UK, Wangechi Mutu will be making a departure from her earlier collages and installations with their highly critical, dark and confrontational themes and stepping into a renewed optimism and positive energy inherent in this new body of work. The exhibition’s title Yo.n.I is derived from yoni, the Sanskrit word for “divine passage” or sacred space rooted in the worship of female creativity and sexual organ. With layers of visual metaphor, Mutu likes to force her viewers to question assumptions about race, gender, geography, history and beauty. Mutu received her BFA from Cooper Union, New York and her MFA from Yale University School of Art. The artist was born in Nairobi, Kenya and currently lives and works in New York City.

Opening later this month in Los Angeles will be new work by Mark Mothersbaugh, one of the founding members of the band DEVO. “Rugs During Wartime and Peacetime,” are a collection of works that are to be presented by the Scion Installation L.A. Gallery, which investigate how we interact with illustrative imagery in our home and how it can be used for comfort rather than conceptualism. Mothersbaugh has been creating illustrative works since the late 1960’s, and as Devo rose to global success, the artist suddenly found himself with an immense audience that could be reached through the band’s films, videos, costumes, LP covers, stage shows, and printed materials. Over the years, the artist has developed two major series of work, “The Postcard Diaries” and “Beautiful Mutants,” both of which have toured the US extensively. The artist now creates musical scores for movies, TV, and computer games at Mutato Muzika Studios and he still tours with Devo worldwide.