Candy Depew | Sara Gates | Jackie Hoving

June 10th - July 15th

[review]

Embellish features the work of Sara Gates, Brooklyn, NY and Candy Depew and Jackie Hoving, both in Philadelphia, PA. Incorporating the decorative into a fine art aesthetic is a trend that has become more common since the Decorative Arts Movement of the 1970s, but has recently gained more momentum. These three artists obscure the distinctions between decorative and fine art by creating work which would traditionally be assigned to one movement, but adopts the ideas and techniques of the other. Just as printmaking and photography were excluded from fine art because they were considered commercial mediums, the decorative and craft movements are once again redefining fine art.

Sara Gates uses pattern as the unifying element in her work. She creates environments in which her mark is repeated on every object in the room including clothes, furniture, painting and video. Her work directly questions the boundary between fine art, decoration and design. By creating an installation using a variety of media, she invites the viewer to decide for themselves if a curtain, a dress or a pillow is fine art or if it is merely fine art based on the context in which it is placed.

Candy Depew's work investigates the environments and places created by and for collections and represents her personal interest in the decorative arts, the history of design and the organization of interior space. This particular installation is a combination of work produced in a number of different residencies and the subject matter is strongly influenced by "Cock Rock." The sculptural elements combine skateboards made from cast vitreous china at her residency at Kohler Co. and skulls made from bone china and gold lustre produced at the European Ceramic Workcentre in the Netherlands. In addition, she created silkscreens at Candy Coated Studios, Philadelphia that emulate the feeling of spring and summer. The installation becomes an environment for the viewer to enter and experience and creates a feeling of nostalgia for summers of the past.

Jackie Hoving's paintings depict incidents of violence filtered and muted by decoration and pattern. She is interested in the way that the formal structure of painting allows both description and filtration of violence. Each piece starts with the framework of a pattern, most commonly camouflage or flowers, in which she incorporates images containing cultural references. This body of work addresses the way we are exposed to images of a war from which we are far removed. There are layers between perception and reality either created by the media or by us as a coping mechanism. Hoving uses decorative elements to recreate these layers and influence our perception of her images.