Duets
On view June 1 - July 19, 2024
Sat 6/1, 4-6 pm: Opening reception
Sat 6/15, 12-6 pm: Arlington Porchfest
Sat 6/22, 4-6 pm: It Takes Two - a conversation with the artists
Sat 7/13, 4-6 pm: Show and Tell - a demonstration with foraged materials sculptor Claire Millett Lima
13FOREST Gallery is pleased to present Duets, a collaborative exhibition between two pairs of artists: Ilana Krepchin and Ted Ollier, and Ellen Shattuck Pierce and CW Roelle.
Pierce, a printmaker, and Roelle, a sculptor, initially collaborated in 2019 for an exhibition titled While it lasts at 13FOREST. The show conveyed the bittersweet reality of being a working artist with young children and balancing the all-consuming nature of artistic practice with the demands of parenting. As part of their collaborative installation, Pierce designed an environment of toile wallpaper in which Roelle arrayed a series of wire sculptures. The effect was highly decorative yet deeply personal. Having enjoyed this collaboration, Pierce and Roelle proposed a follow-up show, which we expanded into Duets by inviting printmaker Ted Ollier and sculptor Ilana Krepchin to add their perspectives through a body of new work.
For Duets, Pierce and Roelle have returned to a personal subject matter - this time their roles as public servants. Working as a teacher (Pierce) and mail carrier (Roelle), the artists have accumulated a trove of stories about the everyday tribulations of an artist with a day job. Pierce weaves these narratives into an ornate wallpaper design that riffs on the mailbox decor and lawn art of her hometown in rural Vermont. Within this defined space Roelle’s intricate wire vignettes hang to complete what is an intimate and specific portrait of two crucial jobs that are often overlooked.
As a counterpoint to the highly narrative work of Pierce and Roelle, Ollier and Krepchin’s collaboration focuses on geometric forms and the interplay of shape, line and color. Here Ollier experiments with a new printmaking process that involves printing plates made of Lego bricks. Through the process, Ollier produces large areas of complex patterning and layers of color from permutations of simple forms. Krepchin, who is similarly interested in geometry and repetition, creates delicate cubic sculptures with colorful titanium that enclose and interact with Ollier’s circular designs.
The assignment of Duets inspired the artists to work in new ways and to expand on shared ideas. The result is a cooperative environment of artwork that is visually distinctive, personal and playful.
Preview Duets
About the Artists
Ilana Krepchin received her Bachelor of Arts from Hampshire College in Photography and Anthropology, and completed extensive training in jewelry making from a number of venues including the deCordova Museum. Post-college Krepchin worked as the Associate Director of a small non-profit arts collaborative. During that period, she also took jewelry making classes which spurred her decision to then immerse herself in the world of jewelry production and craft shows. She worked for many years as a studio manager and production assistant for an established jeweler before striking out on her own. Krepchin lives and works in Somerville, Massachusetts.
Ted Ollier was born in the Midwest, lived in the South, and now resides in the Northeast. He has been a photographer, graphic designer, bass player, typographer, web pioneer, informational leaf blower and armchair philosopher. He holds degrees from the University of Texas, Texas State University and the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. At present, he is a printmaker and conceptual artist, teaching letterpress and printmaking through Reflex Letterpress, a studio he owns in Charlestown, Massachusetts. Ollier’s concerns are with data and its interaction with the consensus reality, and how that reality is affected and changed by that data. He lives with a patent attorney, a silly goose, a chow mix and a red tabby.
Ellen Shattuck Pierce is an artist and educator living in Boston, Massachusetts. She loves printmaking and its historical role in disseminating knowledge, its use as a decorative art, and its use as a medium for protest. Pierce graduated from University of Massachusetts Boston with a Bachelors in Art and Women’s Studies. She earned a Master of Fine Arts at York University and a Master’s in Education from Harvard. In 2022 she was awarded a Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Fellowship. Pierce’s books and prints have been acquired by Kennesaw State University, Emory University, Baylor University, Michigan State University, Arkansas State University and the University of California Davis. Her work is in the permanent collection of the Art Complex Museum in Duxbury, Massachusetts and Casa de las Americas in Havana, Cuba.
CW Roelle has been drawing with wire since the mid ‘90s. He first took up the pliers when the pencil line felt too removed. While attending The Maryland Institute College of Art he made his first wire pieces based on figure models from life drawing classes. He now makes a variety of images from small object portraits to interweaving narratives commenting on the delightful and mundane world around us. Roelle’s work is in the collections of The Newport Art Museum, Fidelity Investments and Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island. He lives in western Rhode Island and works as a postal carrier.