‘In the Space of Summer’, Whitespace Gallery, Atlanta

in the space of summer

Elizabeth Chiles, Karen Elizabeth Cleveland, and Olivia Valentine
August 5 – September 10, 2016
Opening Reception: Friday, August 5, 7:00 pm
whitespec, 814 Edgewood Ave NE, Atlanta, GA 30307

Elizabeth Chiles (from Austin, TX), Karen E. Cleveland (from Boone, NC) and Olivia Valentine (from Chicago, IL) met at Hambidge during their fellowships in the summer of 2014. The three began a dialogue as they saw overlapping interests in ideas and work. In the Space of Summer includes work that investigates their experiences at Hambidge of the landscape as a place of spiritual renewal and resource, and also as an architecture to both marvel at and look through.

Chiles’ work is made observing mimicry and patterning in nature and collaging images together to create works in celebration of the natural world and the human place within it. Sacred geometry, weaving, Rorschach, architecture and the margins of perception are areas that define the final images. The pieces in this show are composites of situations and experiences Chiles had in the Hambidge landscape, and were particularly inspired by the richness of the temperate rainforest.

Cleveland’s work explores the body’s intimate relationship and silent conversation with nature. Works investigate fleeting moments of belonging to slants of sunlight, the fecund earth aroma of North Georgia and other unseen energy thriving below the surface of the forest. Her drawings represent the moment of connection and surrender, where boundaries between Self and the natural world drop. Her work touches on her Cherokee heritage, and experiences in the Hambidge landscape and Rabun Gap area.

Valentine is showing a new large-scale lace piece, based on the windows of her studio at Hambidge. Created through labor-intensive weaving, the triptych speaks to the specificity of the windows in her space as well as larger ideas of boundaries and movement between physical and psychological spaces.