Rocinante Press

Michelle Wilson at Paul Green's School of Rock

2008-07-13T13:51:00.002-04:00

For the next few weeks I am teaching a t-shirt screen printing workshop at Paul Green's School of Rock, in Bucks County, PA. Pictured at left are School of Rock instructor Lauren Pollock and a student printing their shirt for the band AI (photo by Michelle Wilson) Visit here to see when the students will be performing and wearing their art.

In August I will be teaching a children's workshop called "Nature Books," at the Woodmere Art Museum. It will focus on using the book form as a means of learning about nature and environmental awareness. To register a child for this class, visit here, or call the Woodmere Museum Education department at 215-247-0948.

2008 Puffin Foundation Grant

2008-06-15T12:05:00.003-04:00

I have been selected to receive a 2008 Grant from the Puffin Foundation Ltd. This funding will be going into my next artist book project, which has the working title of Future Tense. This work will examine parallels between an endangered bird, the Red Knot (Calidris canutus rufa), and the endangered languages at both ends of its migration, Inuktitut and Yámana. Through their intersecting narratives, I hope to reveal ideas about our dominant culture.

June Events and Exhibitions

2008-06-11T12:11:00.005-04:00

ART FOR THE CASH POOR

I will be selling artist books, prints, blank books, and handmade paper in a variety of colors at the Art for the Cash Poor 9 event at the Philadelphia Women's Caucus for Art table on Saturday, June 14, 2008, from 1-6 PM. AFTCP 9 will take place at the Crane Arts Building located at 1400 North American Street in the South Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia (map). Sharing the table with me will be Bonnie Macallister, Jane Craven, and Sonia Sherrod.

EXHIBITION NEWS

The Women Helping Women, Stitch by Stitch collaborative project is now on display in Merchantville, NJ, at the Art and Faith Space of Grace Episcopal Church.

In other news, I have just been informed that I have been selected for a solo show in the Kunst Vault Space at Pyramid Atlantic Art Center. More details to come.

And finally, the Migratory Books Project/Proyecto Libros Migratorios has received its first visual response. To view the images, post your own thoughts and responses, or read other responses from around the world, please visit The Migratory Books.

Images from SUBLIME CLIMATE

2008-05-20T12:33:00.004-04:00

The Thompson Gallery at the Cambridge School of Weston has uploaded images of their exhibition in three parts, Sublime Climate. To see images of the exhibitions, please visit here.To see images of my book, Emerging Views, which was part of the Projecting Global Change segment, please visit here. To read curator Todd Bartel's comments, please visit here.

Afghan News Center Feature

2008-05-18T16:36:00.002-04:00

The Artdaily.com feature on Women Helping Women, Stitch By Stitch, has been picked up by the Afghan News Center. To read the article, please visit here.

Artdaily.com Feature!

2008-05-10T13:43:00.005-04:00

The collaborative quilt project between Rubia and the Philadelphia-WCA,
Women Helping Women: Stitch by Stitch, of which I am a participant, was featured on Artdaily.com. To read the article, please visit here.

MAY 2008 Exhibitions

2008-04-28T18:08:00.006-04:00

May 2-31, 2008: I have work that is part of the show Environmental Distress, a show of work by members of the Philadelphia Women's Caucus for Art. Part of the exhibition features the project, Women Helping Women, Stitch by Stitch, a collaboration between the Philadelphia-WCA, the Rubia Foundation, and the women of Darrai Noor, Afghanistan.

In addition to the collaborative project and works by members of the Philadelphia-WCA, there will also be Rubia products for sale and examples of Uzbek Suzani on display.

The opening reception is from 5-8 PM on May 2, 2008 at the Louis Redding Gallery, in the City County Building, located at 800 North French Street in Wilmington, DE. There will be a live performances by the Sigma Alpha Iota Women’s Music Fraternity of Temple University Chapter.

GHOST TREES Interview

2008-04-16T12:45:00.002-04:00

I was interviewed by Marie Elcin about my piece, THE GHOST TREES, in the Window on Broad. To read the interview, please visit the Philadelphia Women's Caucus for Art

THE GHOST TREES

2008-04-09T11:57:00.003-04:00

For the month of April 2008, the Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery’s Window on Broad is proud to host Michelle Wilson’s site-specific installation THE GHOST TREES. The Window is located at 322 South Broad Street, on Philadelphia’s own Avenue of the Arts, and is viewable from the street twenty-four hours a day. During the day, subtle embossing can be seen on the large sheets of handmade paper, while after dark, the installation is a haunting, magical work of illuminated art.

Installed in downtown Center City, the heart of Philadelphia business district, THE GHOST TREES will remind the numerous downtown institutions of the amount of wasted paper in Philadelphia. By creating a haunting of paper itself, THE GHOST TREES reminds viewers of the unsustainable amount of deforestation caused by our nation’s demand for paper – 30 million forested acres are harvested a year, an area almost the size of the state of Pennsylvania. In Wilson’s own neighborhood of South Kensington, residents’ recycling has not been picked up for the past six months, despite her calls to City Hall.

In 2007, Michelle Wilson’s work was featured in AFTERMATH, a solo exhibition as part of the Powel House Museum’s Landmarks Contemporary Projects series, and was recently selected to be part of exhibition SUBLIME CLIMATE, at the newly founded Garthwaite Institute for Science and Art in Weston, Massachusetts. She has also been featured in exhibitions at the Phillips Museum, the National Constitution Center, the Nasu International Biennial of Contemporary Art in Japan, and the Second International Biennial for the Artists’ Book, in Alexandria, Egypt. Wilson’s imprint, Rocinante Press, is based in Philadelphia. For more information about Michelle Wilson, please visit her Artist Page on Inliquid.com.

April 2008 Exhibition

2008-04-03T17:40:00.004-04:00

The Migratory Books Project (Proyecto Libros Migratorios) is also featured this month as part of the exhibition Networked in the New Media Room at Gallery Aferro. Gallery Aferro is located at 73 Market Street in downtown Newark, NJ, 07102. There will be an opening reception on April 19 from 7-10 PM.

SUBLIME CLIMATE Review

2008-02-28T14:47:00.004-05:00

The exhibition I am participating in, SUBLIME CLIMATE, at the Thompson Family Gallery at the Garthwaithe Institute for Science and Art, was reviewed today in the Boston Globe. To read the review, click here.

Migratory Books

2008-02-06T16:10:00.000-05:00

The bilingual Migratory Book project has begun. Please visit Migratory Books (Libros Migratorios) to see how their journeys progress.

January 2008 Exhibitions

2008-01-02T12:06:00.002-05:00

This January, my work will be part of two exhibitions. The first to open will be, SUBLIME CLIMATE: ALARM, PROJECTING GLOBAL CHANGE, at the Thompson Gallery at the Cambridge School of Weston's Garthwaite Center for Science and Art. Part of their yearlong series of exhibitions addressing climate change, the Thompson Gallery is located at 45 Georgian Road, Weston, MA, 02493, and the opening reception will be on January 18, from 4-7 PM. Gallery hours are M-F 9 AM - 5 PM.

The second to open will be TENSION, at the Galleries at Moore College of Art and Design The opening reception for the exhibition is January 25, from 6-8 PM. Located at 20th and the Parkway in Philadelphia, 19106, gallery hours are M-F 9 AM - 5 PM.

AFTERMATH Review

2007-11-08T13:00:00.000-05:00

AFTERMATH has been reviewed by the Philly Book Artist - you can read it here.

AFTERMATH at Landmarks Contemporary Projects

2007-10-17T15:17:00.000-04:00

AFTERMATH
Michelle Wilson at the Powel House Museum
November 2-25, 2007

Landmarks Contemporary Projects
215.627.0364
lcp@philalandmarks.org

What if the liberty we believe we know is only a shadow of true freedom?

Landmarks Contemporary Projects is pleased to present Aftermath, an important new project by artist Michelle Wilson. Aftermath will be on view at the Powel House Museum in Philadelphia from November 2-25, 2007.

Behind the scenes of privileged power and middle-class comfort is a complex web of influence and deferred responsibility. Aftermath is a multi-media installation that will challenge viewers to consider the unseen consequences of the choices we make as a society, as well as the choices made for us by those in authority.

Inspired by the ideas of Plato's Cave, as well as alchemical theories of fire as a purifier, Wilson tries to find a way to see clearly in a world confounded by mass misinformation and misdirection. Aftermath exposes the ashes we have collectively brushed under the rug. Do you burn what you fear, or what you hate? Or are they the same thing?

Artist Michelle Wilson recently lived in the Powel House Museum for two years as Site Manager/Caretaker. Aftermath is heavily informed by her time there, which raised troubling questions about the relationship between social responsibility and the often unspoken existence and influence of an American aristocracy. She learned that upper-class society is frequently as disconnected from everyday life as it appears in movies and television. Unfortunately, the collateral damages from the actions of this aristocracy trickle down to the masses much more reliably than any tax breaks could.

While living at the Powel House, surrounded by an environment of historical restoration and fantasy, Wilson observed the world with new eyes. The Iraq war, the degradation of the environment, imprisonment without trial, genocide in the Sudan--she couldn't help but wonder how the American people could be s complacent. Through prints, installation, projections and sound, Wilson will attempt to break through this mask of comfort. The Powel House--as a center of the political and social milieu surrounding the birth of our Constitution--is an ideal, if sad site for this experiment.

In the Country of Last Refuge

2007-09-30T16:33:00.000-04:00

My installation, Las Cartas, will be on display in the following exhibition:

In The Country of Last Refuge
October 20-November 17, 2007
Opening Reception Saturday October 27, 6-9:30 PM
A Mashup curated by Emma Wilcox and Evonne M. Davis
Gallery Aferro, 73 Market Street Newark, N.J. 07102

The third annual In the Country of Last Things exhibition.
Themes in exploration this year are geography, communication and violence.
With illustrated color catalog.

ADEDOYIN Bami
ALBEE Becca
ANDRESEN Scott
AWG
BARONE Ryan
BRITTO Michael Paul
BROWN Lori
CONNER Alexander
DAHLMAN Patricia
FEIGENBAUM Peter
GANPAT Asha
HANMER Dana
HANMER Travis
ITKOFF Michael
JERINIC Katarina
KELLEHER Maureen
MATERS John
MCCANN Sarah
MCKENZIE Stephen
MOLLOY Traci
MONACO Lucas
MUNDY Owen + DIETRICK Joelle
OATES Leah
ORLOFF Deborah
PAMBOUKES Joan
PARE Mike
PERIOT Jean-Gabriel
PRITZKER Elisa
ROSS Sarah
SCHIFFER Anne
THOMPSON Calla
WAKS Joseph
WALLACE Barbara
WILSON Michelle