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gail vollrath
About
Artist Bio
Gail Vollrath is an exhibiting studio painter and mixed media artist who lives and works in Washington, D.C. Originally from Chicago, she received her MFA from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and a full fellowship to Vermont Studio Center in 2000.
About the work
Gail Vollrath’s work represents the day, current affairs, conversations and events. Sourcing clip art or actual objects (sometimes found) for the representational images that may be present in otherwise abstracted meanderings; Vollrath doesn’t typically plan directly her paintings or drawings. She may have a situation in mind and become very anxious to see the result, not limiting herself to specific materials and medium. Employing everything from aluminum to traditional oil on canvas, she adds tar, china marker, mini-marbles, glitter, and paint pens to achieve complex surfaces and conceptually intriguing finished works.
The Polaroid Drawings
I started drawing on Polaroids in 1999 while in grad school. Even though my work is mostly drawing and painting on canvas and paper surfaces, I have used photos in many ways in my work - from reference to deconstructed collage elements. The act of drawing on Polaroids serves as a lab. Sometimes the drawings on photos will transfer to my other works on other surfaces in ways that are obvious or implied. The photos I take are typically of my work in various stages of process or images of ephemera lying around my world. The mark making is intuitive and natural, with drawing being key in all my work - a conduit from situation to surface.
Gail Vollrath
Note about the film: In 2008 Polaroid stopped manufacturing analog instant film. In 2010 I decided to do an installation for a show and was able to purchase original, traditional film on eBay. In the same year, the Impossible Project started to produce new and unique instant film for use in existing Polaroid cameras after purchasing the film production equipment from the last Polaroid plant to close in the Netherlands. The film used in this installation is mostly PX 680 Color Shade, PX 600 Silver Shade, and ‘vintage’ Polaroid 600. … Read More
- Location
- Washington, DC, United States
- Website
- http://www.gvollrath.com/
MFA University of North Carolina - Greensboro
BFA - East Tennessee State University
Friends
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Art
Events & Exhibitions
Exhibitions
Solo Exhibitions
Relative, Plan B, Washington, DC 2010
My Horizon , J.A. Sharp, Lancaster, PA 2010
Gail Vollrath: Recent Paintings, Plan B, Washington, DC 2007
The Day: Paintings and Mixed Media, Gallery Five and 40, Winston-Salem, NC 2006
Gail Vollrath: Recent Works, District West, Leesburg, VA 2003
Masters Thesis Exhibition, The Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, NC 2000
Past Presents, The Exchange, Greensboro, NC 1999
Inventing Bones, Slocumb Galleries, ETSU, Johnson City, TN 1997
Select Group Exhibitions
Art Madness: Invitational Distinguished Faculty and Alumni UNCG, Greenhill Arts Center, Greensboro, NC 2013
Untitled No. 3, Randall Scott Projects, Washington, DC 2012
WPA Works on Paper, (e)merge Art Fair, Washington, DC 2012
Contemporary Women Artists XVI - Longevity, Womens Caucus for the Arts, St. Louis, MO 2012
WPA Flatfile, (e)merge Art Fair, Washington, DC 2011
Unfamiliar Territories, Adam Lister Gallery, Fairfax, VA 2011
Banter: A Dialogue, L2, Washington, DC 2010
Reunion : Invitational Exhibition of 100 Alumni, Slocumb Galleries, Johnson City, TN 2010
Coming Home: ETSU Alumni Exhibition , Reece Museum, Johnson City, TN 2008
No Representation: Abstraction in the Capital, Warehouse Gallery, Washington, DC 2007
Index, WPA/Corcoran, ArtDC 2007
Primed: Washington Project for the Arts/Corcoran-Centerpiece, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC 2007
PASStense, PASS Gallery, Washington, DC 2006
The Unlikely Target, Redux Contemporary Arts Center, Charleston, SC 2006
Art for a Landmine Free World, PaceWildenstein - Chelsea, New York, NY 2004
Ahh! Color, Twist, Washington, DC 2003
Group Show 2002, PASS, Washington, DC 2002
Summer Group Exhibition, Fraser Gallery, Bethesda, MD 2002
Group Exhibition, Gallery 325, Washington, DC 2002
Georgetown Annual International, Fraser Gallery, Washington, DC 2001
Snapshot, Contemporary Museum, Baltimore, MD 2000
National Small Works Exhibition, Schoharie County Arts Council, Cobleskill, NY 2000
Through Women's Eyes, By Women's Hands, George Watts Hill Alumni Center, The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 2000
Painting Problematics: Problems With Paint, McIver Gallery, University of North Carolina-Greensboro, Greensboro, NC 1999
Art Hop: Big City Feel, Greensboro, NC 1999
Brush=Hand=Loom, Bristol Art Gallery, Bristol, VA 1998
Inventing Bones, Slocumb Galleries, ETSU, Johnson City, TN
New Work, Washington College Academy, Limestone, TN 1997
First Tennessee Show, Carroll Reece Museum, Johnson City, TN 1997
Re-Fitted, A-1 Artspace, Knoxville, TN 1997
Pacified Cats with Figure, Signature Gallery, Johnson City, TN 1996
LAB Members Show, A-1 Artspace, Knoxville, TN 1996
Publications
Cantwell, Jackie: "Unfamiliar Territories", Pink Noise, Pink line Project, January 24, 2011
Art in Hand, The Washington Project, http://www.artinhandcards.com/washington-project.html 2011
Magner, Jim: "Artist Profile, Art and the City", The Hill Rag, October 2010
Tierney, Robin: "Of Art and Abstraction", The Examiner, Weekend, April 28 & 29, 2007
Magner, Jim: "Art and the City", The Hill Rag, March 2007
Patterson, Tom: "Dear Diary, He's Elegant", Winston Salem Journal, July 16, 2006
… Read More
