Vadis Turner - A Rather Violent Merger of a Wedding Dress and a Swamp

Vadis Turner

Selected Solo Exhibitions 2011 Green Building Gallery, Louisville, KY Rymer Gallery, Nashville, TN Lyons Wier Gallery, New York, NY 2010 Quirk Gallery, Richmond, VA Green Building Gallery, Louisville, KY Selected Group Exhibitions 2011 BNA: Brooklyn to Nashville, Zieher Smith Gallery, Nashville,TN Extreme Materials 2, Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, NY Artists Ball, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY We The Artists, National Museum and Art Gallery of Trinidad and Tobago Here & Now, Lyons Wier Gallery, New York, NY 2010 Basic Instinct, Black and White Gallery, Brooklyn, NY PILLOW Pageant, A.I.R. Gallery, DUMBO Arts Festival, Brooklyn, NY Critical Stitch, Union College, Schenectady, NY Common Jive, Elizabeth Foundation For the Arts, New York, NY Bunny Redux, Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburg, PA Public Collections 2011 Tennessee State Museum, Nashville, TN 2010 21C Museum, Louisville, KY Kentucky Arts and Crafts Museum, Louisville, KY 2009 Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY 2007 Egon Schiele Art Centrum, Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic Statement Working with traditional craft materials and techniques, Vadis Turner re-imagines rites of passage and the classification of heirlooms in a contemporary cultural context. In her current body of work, elements of ceremonial adornment are partnered with different destructive processes. Satin ribbons and flowers are fixed in a stilled state decay inspired by different types of fire or mold. Like the subject of a rite of passage, they too loose their original form and function and become something new. The works capture the beauty and energy of change and loss.