Curator's Essay

Domestic Disturbances features the work of eight artists whose work merges functional and non-functional elements, highlighting the interplay of art and design. Traditionally the use of craft and design was associated with domesticity, functionality and decoration. These classifications have contributed to a hierarchy that historically marginalized and

devalued the art of women, minorities and non-western cultures.  Changes in cultural awareness precipitated by feminism, gender

Elisa D'Arrigo, Twisted

identity and racial diversity have shifted perceptions of aesthetic value and in turn softened divisions in the art world. The artists participating in Domestic Disurbances have come full circle, bringing a multidisciplinary approach to their practice that champions both the fine and applied arts. Building on a devalued history of marginalization, their work celebrates the personal as political. --Joanne Freeman 2017

Installation Views

In the Front Gallery

Panoramic view of the front gallery from the entrance to the 490 Atlantic Gallery

From left: Sue Ravitz,  Debra Smith, Elisa D'Arrigo on pedestal past doorway, Ravitz, Lael Marshall, Joanne Mattera

All works are identified on each artist's page. You can access those pages by clicking on to the artist's name in boldface

Smith, D'Arrigo, Ravitz

View of Smith, foreground, and Ravitz

Reorienting to look toward the entrance: Lael Marshall, Joanne Mattera

In the Middle Gallery

In the Middle Gallery looking toward the front

Here, Elisa D'Arrigo

Panorama of the middle gallery. From left: Patricia Zarate, Lizzie Scott, D'Arrigo on pedestal

Zarate, Scott

In the Back Gallery

Patricia Zarate sculpture in corner, Elisa D'Arrigo on pedestal

D'Arrigo, Zarate

Scott, D'Arrigo

In the Back Courtyard

Jim Osman

Elisa D'Arrigo

Shift into Orange, 2013, glazed ceramic, 7 x 14 x 10 inches

About the Work
These works are part of an ongoing series dating from 2010 in which the vase form is my point of departure. The dissolving and conflation of categories energizes me: sculpture, drawing, painting...and with this work, functionality. I seek the and, not the or.

My pieces begin as hollow, hand-built clay elements that I combine and manipulate in a period of intense improvisation: the clay is twisted, knotted, pinched, poked and crushed. Chance is implicit; clay can assert its properties in frequently unexpected ways. The “postures” that result allude to the body in a gestural or even visceral manner.  Although not representational, my works can evoke both tender and tough “beings”. Their animated corporeality pays homage to, and also unsettles the description (originating with the ancient Greeks) of the structure of the vase form as comprised of lip, neck, shoulder, body and foot.

I’ve always been drawn to art that becomes more fully itself when used; Bernini’s fountains speak more eloquently when animated by water, human interaction reveals architecture’s intent, the appearance of a Zapotec figurative censer was most likely dramatically transformed when copal smoke emerged from its orifices.

The configurations of my works suggest what may be placed inside – function both following and trying to catch up with form.  The viewer's action (real or imagined) of adding flowers is collaborative, furthering my embrace of chance processes while also introducing the possibility of a more intimate involvement between the work and the viewer: one involving touch and even domesticity. 

Quixote,  2011, glazed ceramic, 5.5 x 7 x 7 inches

Around the Bend (2), 2017, glazed ceramic

Twisted (4), 2014, glazed ceramic, 6 x 7 x 8 inches

About the Artist

Elisa D’Arrigo was born and raised in the Bronx. She received a BFA in Ceramics from SUNY New Paltz.  Her work has been included in numerous group and solo exhibitions. Selected solo shows include The High Museum of Art, Atlanta; PanAmerican ArtProjects, Dallas; David Beitzel Gallery and Luise Ross Gallery, both New York City; and nine exhibitions at the Elizabeth Harris Gallery, New York City, which has been representing her work since the mid 1990s.

D’Arrigo’s work has been reviewed in various publications including The New York Times, Art in America, ArtNews, Sculpture, and The Partisan Review, and is represented in the collections of the High Museum of Art;  The Mead Art Museum, Amherst, Massachusetts; The Mint Museum of Craft and Design, Charlotte, North Carolina; The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, New Paltz, New York; and the Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, N.C.

D’Arrigo has been a fellow at Yaddo and the MacDowell Colonies, and received grants from NYFA, The Ariana Foundation, and a work-space grant from the Dieu Donne Papermill. In 2013 she was a fellow at the Civitella Ranieri Foundation in Umbria, Italy.  She lives and works in New York City. 

Lael Marshall

Untitled (LMP2013.46), cotton, latex, staples, wood; 14 x 14.25 inche

About the Work

These works are part of an ongoing series involving fabric.

I am first drawn to an attribute of a woven cloth; whether it be the color, pattern, texture or transparency, and use one or more of these qualities as a starting point for my work. The addition of paint and/or glue, cutting and re-ordering of the material back together again, and addressing the natural tendency of the fabric to pull, torque or twist are all part of my involvement and process with these works. I have no singular method or mode of working; each piece must find its particular solution. 

Crust, 2013; cotton, thread, rabbit skin glue, oil, wood; 2.5 x 17.25 inches

Carmine's, 2012; cotton, thread, wood; 20 x 16 inches

About the Artist
Born in Seattle, Lael Marshall studied at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and received her MFA from The Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, Germany. Recent two-person and solo exhibitions include 57W57 ARTS and Dieu Donné Workspace Program with Emily Noelle Lambert, both in New York City, and This Quiet Commotion with Michael Voss at Mitart gallery in Basel, Switzerland.  Her work has also been shown in group exhibitions at The Riverside Art Museum, Riverside, California;  ParisCONCRET, Paris;  SNO, Sydney; Parallel Art Space, Brooklyn; Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, Summit; Beers Contemporary, London; and Schema Projects, Brooklyn. Marshall held a 2014 residency at Dieu Donné Workspace, and is the 2014 recipient of The Acker Award for Visual Arts, San Francisco.  She lives and works in New York.

Joanne Mattera

Silk Road 205, 2014, encaustic on panel, 18 x 18 inches

About the Work 
My painting is chromatically juicy and compositionally reductive. I refer to it only partly tongue in cheek as “lush minimalism.” Each painting in the ongoing Silk Road series is a small color field achieved by layers of translucent wax paint applied at right angles. The series, which I began in 2005, was inspired by the shimmery quality of iridescent silk, hence the title, but quickly evolved into more expansive explorations of color. Silk Road is the most succulent painting I have done. It is also the most reductive. In plying a richness of material against the austerity of a (very subtle) grid, I set in motion a small-scale dynamic in which more and less jostle for primacy.

Silk Road 200, 2014, encaustic on panel, 18 x 18 inches

About the Artist

Joanne Mattera has had solo shows in New York City at the Stephen Haller Gallery (1995)  and OK Harris Works of Art (1996, 2007) and in recent years has participated in group shows at Margaret Thatcher Projects, the Elizabeth Harris Gallery, and DM Contemporary. She shows and is represented widely. In New York State she is represented by DM Contemporary, Manhattan, and by Kenise Barnes Fine Art, Larchmont, where her 30th career solo, The Silk Road Paintings, took place in 2015. Recent group shows abroad include 10 Ways, curated by Lorenza Sannai, which was shown at galleries in Milan, Bonn, Berlin, and Paris; and Chromatopia, curated by Louise Blyton, in Melbourne. 

Mattera’s paintings and works on paper are in the collections of the New Britain Museum of American Art, Connecticut; Montclair Art Museum, New Jersey; University Collections, State University at Albany; Connecticut College Print Collection; and the U.S. State Department. Mattera writes and curates regularly. In her Joanne Mattera Art Blog she often merges both activities. Mattera divides her time between Manhattan and Massachusetts. She is a member of American Abstract Artists.

Jim Osman

Springfield, 2017; metal stud, pine; 220 x 206 inches
Panoramic installation view of the sculpture in the gallery's back yard. The work recreates in minimalist form the structure of the facade of the artist's childhood home

Detail below

About the Work
I combine, layer, and compress different kinds of space. The vessels that give these spaces form can be clear and tangible, like architecture and furniture, or symbolic like a flag, or just formal – a color.  Combining these forms make for odd, unthought-of arrangements which once started are reconciled formally, all the while staying true to a notion of space that is convoluted, dense, and opaque yet somehow understood.

About the Artist

Jim Osman was born in New York City. He received his BA and MFA from Queens College (CUNY) in Flushing, New York, where he studied with Tom Doyle, Mary Miss, and Lawrence Fane. He has had solo exhibitions at Lesley Heller Workspace in Manhattan, Long Island University’s Kumbal Gallery, and Dartmouth College,  Bowdoin, Maine. His work has been included in group shows at the Brooklyn Museum; Transmitter Gallery, Brooklyn; and the University of Texas at San Antonio. Osman received a NYFA Artist Fellowship in Craft/Sculpture in 2017. He teaches courses in three-dimensional design, sculpture, and public art classes at Parsons School of Design. He lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. 

Sue Ravitz

Jellybellies, 2015, silk and wool thread on canvas, 24 x 24 inches

About the Work

I grew up a small town girl, in Kalamazoo, Michigan. For generations the women in my family did crafts. I always had projects going, but I was never exposed to any formal artwork. When I had my family, in Chicago, I continued to do handwork. I began seriously exploring color relationships after our kids left home. I spent hours every day knitting small blocks of color patterns, spreading them out on the floor, and considering how they related to each other. At the same time my husband and I had been collecting art for many years.  We transitioned from loud neo-expressionist things to more reductive, primarily monochrome paintings–all surface and color–to abstract work that focused on surface, drawing, and color relationships. We moved to New York about nine years ago.I was surrounded by more stimulation. I began making rugs and thinking about pattern work, but my main focus was still color interaction. My needlepoints began as simple pattern explorations, and I’ve been working on loosening up

Curvaceous, 2017, silk and wool thread on canvas, 20.5 x 21.75 inches

About the Artist

In 2013 Ravitz had a one-person show at Mondo Cane in New York City that included three rugs, all the same pattern and colors, each made in a different technique with different material, and three paint-by-numbers of the rugs. In 2016, she was in a group show at Minus Space. Sue also directs and curates the program at 57W57ARTS.

Lizzie Scott

Drifter (Standing), 2016; flashe on muslin, textile, bubble wrap, wood; 45 x 28 x 24 inches

About the Work
My Drifters–hybrid textile-muslin object-paintings–are loosely based on the structure of sleeping bags. I wanted to create a form that functions as a painting but can still move through the world as an object, adapting to sites and situations as needed. The Drifters don’t have a fixed or determined mode of display; each one can hang on the wall or lie on the floor or drape over a stand. The Drifters get creased and a little beat up, and the rough patina of use becomes part of the surface. Their soft materials can take on an uncanny corporeality, or flatten into pure fields of color. They change with time and experience. Whether they are paintings or sculptures, I want the objects I make to be truly autonomous objects.I want them to be open to possibilities beyond my intentions and control. I want them to be generous and democratic in their relationship to the world.

Drifter (Leaning), 2016; flashe on muslie, textile, bubble wrap, wood; 66 x 27 x 5 inches

About the Artist
Lizzie Scott has been working with the intersections of textiles, painting and sculpture for nearly 20 years. She received her MFA from CalArts and attended the Whitney Independent Study program. She has had solo exhibitions at John Tevis Gallery, Paris; Galerie Gris, Hudson; The Jersey City Museum; and LMAK Projects, New York City. Her performances, sculptures and paintings have appeared in group shows including at Zurcher Studio and Rachel Uffner Gallery, both in New York City;  Kate MacGarry Gallery, London; VAPA at Bennington College, Vermont; Ohio University Art Gallery; Sidestreet Projects, Los Angeles; and the Brooklyn Museum and the Bronx Museum of the Arts. Her work is in collections including the Whitney Museum of American Art, Museum of Modern Art, The Baltimore Museum of Art, and The RISD Museum.

Debra Smith

Shifting Meditation #2,  2015, pieced vintage silk, 14.5 x 14.5 inches

About the Work

In my recent series, Shifting Territory, I am focusing on gestural motions and the graphic aspects of my work. The foundation of the series comes from my collection of vintage kimono fabric and striped silk (deadstock originally intended to line suits) which I discovered in the Garment District of New York City 20 years ago.

I approach fabric as poetic language and reinterpret the painterly through my meditative process. I cut, piece, and meticulously fuse two layers of fabric capturing the translucent quality of the kimono and silk. Within my work I believe I am breaking all stereotypes associated with textiles, from ideas of craft to that of “women’s work”. Though I am not a poet or someone who draws, I feel that my use of vintage textiles as a medium brings a history, a weight, a poetry to the work before I even begin to cut, sew and piece the material back together. Through meticulous construction I infuse the work with air, movement and depth. Expressing an emotion or a moment in time, I find the end result similar to drawing, poetry and painting.

Shifting Meditation #7, 2015, pieced vintage silk, 14.5 x 14.5 inches 

About the Artist

Debra Smith was born in Kansas City in 1971 and raised in Hannibal, Missouri. Pursuing her interest in fashion and textiles, Debra Smith studied at the Italian Academy of Fashion & Design, Lorenzo de Medici in Florence, Italy, before receiving her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Kansas City Art Institute with a major in Fiber in 1993 and an Associate Degree in Applied Science from the Fashion Institute of Technology in 2002. In 2012 Smith was honored as one of the Women to Watch 2012: Focus on Fiber & Textiles from The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C.

Smith's work has been shown internationally over the past two decades, including solo and group exhibitions: The Thread You Follow, Daum Museum, Sedalia, Missouri; New American Paintings: Elmhurst Art Museum, Midwest Edition, Elmhurst, Illinois; Rijswijk Textile Biennial, Rijswijk Museum, The Netherlands; Look & Listen, DUSK, Saint Chamas, France; Spring Revival, Markel Fine Art, New York City; Release of Time, Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art, and In-between Spaces/ New Work, Roswell Museum & Art Center, Roswell, New Mexico; Looking to The Left, Julie Saul Gallery, New York City; Sense of Presence, Davidson Gallery, Brisbane, Australia.

Patricia Zarate

Paintings for Corners (blue), 2006, fluid acrylic on wood, 48 x 3.75 x .50 inches

About the Work

My work is a process of creating images conjured from experiences of observation, memory, visuals, words, and music. At present color, pattern, and light have preoccupied me, how placement and relationship affect our perception. Working in a variety of media including painting, drawing, and photography, I use minimal and conceptual approaches, such as pairing, seriality, pattern, repetition, and uniformity to construct my images.

Paintings for Corners (green), 2006, fluid acrylic on wood, 48 x 3.75 x .50 inches

About the artist
Patricia Zarate is a visual artist and curator. She has exhibited her work in the United States and in Croatia, Colombia, France, Germany, Netherlands, Puerto Rico, South Korea, and Thailand. In 2013 she was awarded a fellowship at BAU Institute in Otranto, Italy, and she was the recipient of an Individual Artist Support Grant from the Queens Council on the Arts. Also in 2013 Zarate co-founded Key Projects, an art space devoted to creating dialogue and community with other artists through group exhibitions. She received an MFA from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, and a Bachelor of Business Administration from Baruch College, City University of New York. Born in Cali, Colombia, she currently lives and works in New York City.

Joanne Freeman, Curator

Joanne Freeman in her studio

Photo: Ally Klemer

About the Curator
Joanne Freeman received a BS in Fine Arts from the University of Wisconsin and a MA in Studio Art from New York University. Her work has been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions. Selected solo shows include; Kathryn Markel Fine Art, New York City; 490 Atlantic, Brooklyn; Lohin Geduld Gallery, New York City; Marc Jancou Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland); Au 9 Galerie, Casablanca, Morocco; White Columns, New York City; the Queens Museum, Queens, New York;  and the University of Maine Museum of Art, Bangor. Freeman’s work has been reviewed in various publications including the New York Observer, ARTnews, Portland Press Herald, and online with Hyperallergic, Painters’ Table, and the Joanne Mattera Art Blog. 

Curatorial projects include Domestic Disturbances at 490 Atlantic, Brooklyn; Wit at the Painting Center, New York City; Color-Time-Space, co-curated with Kim Uchiyama, at Lohin Geduld Gallery, Manhattan;Janet Kurnatowski Gallery, Brooklyn; and the Rosenberg Gallery at Hofstra University on Long Island. Freeman lives and works in New York City.