Ellen Lesperance, Helen Mirra, Traversing

Pasadena, CA – The Armory Center for the Arts is proud to present Ellen Lesperance, Helen Mirra, Traversing, an exhibition that features new paintings and a recent interactive project by Lesperance, and an international, intergenerational weaving project organized by Mirra. The exhibition has been organized for the Armory by guest curator Cassandra Coblentz, with generous support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the Pasadena Art Alliance. The exhibition is on view in the Armory’s Caldwell Gallery from June 5 through September 11, 2016. A reception, free and open to the public, will take place on Saturday, June 4, 2016 from 6-8pm.

Through their works, Ellen Lesperance and Helen Mirra both consider the complex relationships we as individuals have to the physical and political landscapes we navigate. Each approaches her practice with a similarly poetic tone and critical consciousness. They share an interest in the material of textiles and the structural grid as well as a tendency to create work within carefully derived conceptual systems and parameters. Furthermore, for both artists, walking plays a central role in their art.  

Despite their affinities, however, Mirra and Lesperance approach these concepts and activities in strikingly different ways. In this exhibition, the metaphor of traversing also refers to the idea of moving across the space between ideas and perspectives. The presentation of their projects together generates a dialogue between their ideologically distinct positions and subjectivities. Seen together, the projects offer an opportunity to compare and contrast approaches to singular, specific, and intimate physical experience versus public, shared experience.

Ellen Lesperance, Helen Mirra, Traversing highlights another conceptual underpinning of the overall project: the notions of dialogue and exchange as they relate to artistic production and exhibition curating. An accompanying publication documents these dynamics and poses questions about how we can move beyond binary models of conversation, collaboration and the nature of making and experiencing art.