the archives

Betsy Odom: Registry (main space) and Montgomery Perry Smith: Milking (project room)

threewallsSOLO

May 6th - June 18th, 2011
Opening reception: Friday, May 6th, 6-9pm

Artist talk: Thursday, May 26th, 7pm

BETSY ODOM
Registry

Catalog essay by Jason Foumberg

MONTGOMERY PERRY SMITH
Milking
(In the Project Room)

May 6th- June 18th, 2011

CHICAGO: Betsy Odom mines a vast array of materials and techniques culled from traditional crafts and trades to explore the display of identity. Working from leather tooling to woodturning, ceramics to air-brushing, mold making to metalworking, Odom explores how these techniques and their materials become cultural signifiers, and in particular, have informed her development. Whether Southern culture, women’s athletics, car enthusiasts or hobbyists, the aesthetics of these groups, which often serve to reinforce embedded messages about gender, class, race, and sexuality, become material for Odom to manipulate in the subversion of their dominant associations, ultimately creating objects that entertain a fantasy of moving freely among social groups.

Embracing the “hubris” of making, Odom meticulously works her objects, never shying away from their materiality or the evidence of investment in their making. She uses this labored craft as a display of pride in craftsmanship, one that for her parallels the pride claimed by minority communities: dignity in opposition to a history of shame.

For Registry, Odom has amassed a number of her sculptures, displayed on a set of tables that simultaneously reference worktables, a museum archive and retail display. Her sculptures are at once romantic, humorous and symbolic, calling on a list of characters that Odom cites: the ghosts of women’s gym coaches, crushes on camp-counselors, slightly too old tomboys and brassy-old maids— illuminating and conflating the unique aesthetics that accompany these invisible cultures.

Concurrent with Odom, Montgomery Perry Smith presents Milking, two new sculptures that focus on an otherworldly relic and the tools used to milk it. Smith’s work combines
portions of domestic furniture and fixtures, decorative textiles, fake flowers, and miscellany from candy to incense in the creation of primarily wall mounted sculpture. His evocative forms are often orifice, portal, flower and reliquary at once, resulting in ‘creatures’ that hover between sci-fi beast, rare organic growths and sexual innuendo. His objects are simultaneously available for ‘contemplation’ and entrance – inviting the viewer into their intimate space through Smith’s seductive handling of familiar materials made strange.

 
Betsy Odom was born in 1980 in Amory, Mississippi (pop. 6000). She left Amory to study ?rst at the United World College in Montezuma, New Mexico, then at the San Francisco Art Institute where she earned her BFA in 2002. Odom completed her MFA in sculpture from Yale University in 2007. She has exhibited in several solo shows in Texas and in the Chicago area, as well as in group exhibitions nationally. Sis Boom Bah, an exhibition of her work organized around the idea sport, is currently on view at the Hyde Park Art Center.

Art Slant Review

Chicago Tribune Review

 

Montgomery Perry Smith is a Chicago based sculpture artist. He received his BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2008.  Since graduating, he has exhibited at numerous Chicago galleries, including Co-Prosperity Sphere, Harold Arts, LVL3 and Pawnworks. Smith’s most recent solo show was "Pit Worship" at Johalla Projects in 2010. Smith was named November 2009's "Artist to Watch" by Chicago Artists' Coalition and is one of the nine "Breakout Artists" of 2010 featured in Newcity.