Karl Schwiesow // May First Friday

We at Real Good are enthusiastic to host Karl Schwiesow this upcoming First Friday. One of the first pieces I encountered of Karl's was a marbleized red, white and blue bowling ball he somehow flawlessly shaped into a square, with the three finger holes still evident. After experiencing his larger scope of work, it is clear he possesses a refreshing ability to deconstruct and re-contextual mundane objects in exciting ways without seeming forced or trite. Karl has a keen aesthetic eye to detail, a blue collar work ethic, and the vitality of a hamster. Here is the skinny:

"Margin for Error"
Karl Schwiesow
Real Good
1205 Defoe St #1
(across from the Clay Studio behind the yellow creepy van)
May 1st, 6-10 PM

ARTIST STATEMENT =
We all bring our own system of signs and cues when viewing or experiencing art. We all have specific emotions and reactions associated with certain objects we see, smell, hear, taste, and touch. The artwork itself is an exploration of semiotics and the language of objects and how imagery communicates with the viewer.  I re-code meaning through abstracted sculptural forms and identifiable components to generate dialogue.

By reinterpreting utilitarian objects through deconstruction, appropriation, and synthesis. I break down the concepts of their value and how we view the world around us. For me, this exploration shows how we delineate ourselves ideologically through the identification with specific objects and their contexts.  I take advantage of the physical qualities of things such as weight, density, flexibility, textures, and use these to create a paradox within the object itself.  Weight and density, speed and time, archival and ephemeral, industry and domesticity are some of my building blocks for this visual language.

BIO =
In 2012 Karl Schwiesow received his BFA from Sierra Nevada College where he studied in Sculpture and Ceramics on the Milken Millennium Scholarship.  His studies and research have taken him over much of the West, from rural Alaska to Los Angeles. He has also participated in an international exchange at Tainan National University of the Arts, and pursued independent research in Vietnam, Costa Rica, and Canada.

Travel and perceptions of the individual have fueled much of Schwiesow’s work. His work has proceeded to evolve through deconstruction and simulation of contemporary objects commonly found, seen, and interlaced within everyday life.  By dissolving the identity of the object through re-contextualization his work recodes imbedded information through paradoxical situations and metaphorical objects. The altered objects generated offer a view of a parallel reality underpinned by contemporary ideologies and industrial strategies. His work accounts the sublime interactions of universal materials and their potential forms.

His solo exhibitions The Red Boat at Sierra Nevada College in 2012 and Humble Vessel in Carson City Nevada in 2013 have included recoded objects through works such as deconstructed sailboats and their components, wood and concrete accretions, soft sculpture, deconstructed furniture, and installation and performances.

Karl Schwiesow resides in Missoula, Montana. Where he is currently a Masters of Fine Art candidate at the University of Montana in Missoula Montana.

AND WE WILL SEE YOU THERE!