• Everything, Gallery Black Lagoon, Austin, TX - May 3-26, 2013
• People's Gallery, City Hall, Austin, TX - February 2013 - January 2014
Colony; currently
at Austin City Hall: acrylic on hand cut canvas, cast shadows, reflected
color, nails; 28in X 34in; 2011
• grayDUCK
gallery and my work featured in New American Paintings article by Brian
Fee
• works available for online purchase through GenerousArt.org
Installation:
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Painting:
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3D:
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Watercolor:
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Resume:
Education
2000 B.A. Studio Art, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin,
TX
Selected Exhibitions - * Solo Exhibit
2013 Everything, Gallery Black Lagoon, Austin, TX
2013 People's Gallery, Austin City Hall, Austin, TX
2012 People's Gallery, Austin City Hall, Austin, TX
2012 Big and Bright: New work from Texas, Curator: Jessica McCambly,
Southwestern College Art Gallery, Chula Vista, CA
2011 Pattern Plan, grayDUCK Gallery, Austin, TX
2011 People's Gallery, Austin City Hall, Austin, TX
2010 People's Gallery, Austin City Hall, Austin, TX
2010 Emergent Stream, Salvage Vanguard, Austin, TX *
2010 Waves of Petals, Tokyo Electron, Austin, TX *
2010 Frequencies in Nature, Gallery Black Lagoon, Austin, TX
2010 Four square, grayDuck Gallery, Austin, TX
2009 E.A.S.T., with KDHDC, Picture Box Studio, Austin, TX
2008 People's Gallery, Austin City Hall, Austin, TX
2005 Synapse, Casa Amarilla, Barrio Antiguo, Monterrey, Mexico
2004 Rio Brazos Art Exhibition, Tarleton Langdon Center, Granbury,
TX
2004 Gulf Coast Art Exhibition, Texas Artist Museum, Port Arthur,
TX
Public Art
2009
Regenerate, First Night Austin 2009 - with Megan Reilly, Austin, TX
Performance Work
2011
The Collective
Costumes by L. Renee Nunez
Choreography by Annette Christopher
Cafe Dance, Austin, TX
2008
Mountains, Ships, and Lives
Installation by L. Renee Nunez
Performance by Kathy Dunn Hamrick Dance Co.
Music by The Microphones
Austin Ventures Studio Theatre, Austin, TX
2007
Well Suited
Costumes by L. Renee Nunez
and Marc Nunez
Performance by Kathy Dunn Hamrick Dance Co.
Lighting by Megan Reilly
Design Center of Austin, Austin, TX
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Statement:
Primary Statement -
The desire to activate a particular set of circumstances in painting
fuels the creation of the body of my work. Most compelling to me in
this process is the use of negative space to visually manifest a network
of contiguous parts. I have found that the process of gleaning negative
space requires a great deal of ritual pattern and because of its omnipresence
it has become a subject itself. The desire to transform this network
has led me to use different media and to move between two and three
dimensional works.
The idea of a network of contiguous parts interests me because it mimics
the unity of matter and raises questions about the space that exists
between two material objects.
Early Bodies:
Early Bodies blends the structures of plant and animal bodies and explodes
elements present in both. From a formal perspective "Early Bodies"
extends the painting plane forward through 3-dimensional folding of
the canvas and extends it backwards with the use of cast shadow and
reflected color. The painted, sewn, and hand cut canvases allow light
to pass through creating the cast shadows and allowing the painted back
of the canvas to be seen reflected from the wall. It is likely that
painting the square and grid for years in the Synaptic Route series
created a desire to remove frame completely so the painting can breathe
and move as an object without actually being a sculpture.
Inertial Haze:
Crafted of reclaimed cardboard, natural elements such as twigs,
and handmade paper made from junk mail and paper scraps - products of
the plant world that they mimic - Inertial Haze attempts to arrest a
moment or event in nature even as it depicts that growth or population
disappearing.
Synaptic
Route: Endangered Species
-
synapse: the point at which a nervous impulse passes from one
neuron to another
synaptic route: physical path in the “circuitry” of
the brain made by the repeated passage of nervous impulses
My Synaptic Route collection is a series of works using the grid and
pattern to simultaneously document brain patterning and images of rare
plants. Plant parts including the flower and fruit have a natural symmetry
and intricacy - characteristics which lend themselves to the repetition
of pattern making.
The idea for documenting brain patterning came from the term “muscle
memory” which I learned as a professional modern dancer. Dancers
and athletes in particular use this term to to describe the conjunction
of mental memory and the conditioning of muscles to perform a particular
movement or action. This idea for me spread into an exploration of patterns
of thought, specifically those related to repetitive physical actions.
In my Synaptic Route collection this means giving attention to the physical
synaptic route activated in the brain while creating. I wanted to “watch”
and determine the formation of a synaptic route as it happened and document
it in my work. In order for the pattern to be precise enough for a habit
to form I needed a base structure: the grid.
The grid allows for substantially exact repetitions of a drawing which
appear almost mechanical. The process of repeated drawing enables a
precise route to “burn” into the brain. Each painting is a
program designed to create a synaptic route for each image selected.
This series features endangered plant species, species of special concern
and rare plants.
Replicating endangered plants artificially not only produces documentation of the synaptic route, but the pattern itself dematerializes the surface of the painting creating a state of mind not unlike meditation. In this stillness and quiet endangered plants can be contemplated.
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Galleries:
Gallery
Black Lagoon - representation
grayDUCK gallery - representation
GenerousArt.org
- representation
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Bio:
Renee's work focuses primarily on pattern, negative space, habitat,
and endangered or imaginary plants. Recently her work has included large
scale installations and collaborations for the Kathy Dunn Hamrick Dance
Co. and First Night Austin. She has exhibited in Texas, Tennessee, Colorado,
and Mexico and been published in Glamour Magazine (Italy) and
El Norte - Vida (Monterrey, Mexico).
Renee's background as a professional modern dancer (formerly of Kathy
Dunn Hamrick Dance Co.) greatly influences her as a visual artist and
contributes a love of motion to her work.
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Press:
2011 newamericanpaintings.wordpress.com by Brian Fee (October
13, 2011)
2011 feeslist.com by Brian Fee (October 5, 2011)
2011 modaustin.net by Todd Camplin (October 2011)
2011 The Austin Chronicle, the arts, by Robert Faires (June 24,
2011)
2011 TRIBEZA Magazine (June 17,2011)
2011 http://thataustingirl.blogspot.com - artwork (September 23,
2011)
2010 Austin360.com (July 3, 2010)
2008 Austin360.com, Seeing Things (June 13, 2008)
2005 El Norte – Vida, Monterrey, Mexico (June 23, 2005)
1994 Glamour Magazine, Italy, (August 1994)
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News/Events:
• 04/16/2013 - Halfway to three quarters of the way into "Habitat"..
• 04/23/2012 - Currently generating ideas for new works incorporating
new elements into "Early Bodies".
Also brainstorming details for a new "Inertial
Haze" installation.
• 04/13/2012 - Created seventeen new pieces for the "Early
Bodies" series from Jan-April 2012
• 2010 saw the burgeoning new series "Early
Bodies" check my Statement section
for more about that
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Blog:
Notes
on my Process - blog
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Contact:
paintings@reneenunez.com or 512 689-2716
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© L. Renee Nunez