FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
1/21/2021
Contact:
Camille Tibaldeo
P: 212.246.6543
E: camille@fountaingallerynyc.com
Ruvi Perumal
P: 908.568.0742
E: rperumal@fountainhouse.org
Fountain House Gallery Presents Fiber Works by Angela Rogers and Alyson Vega at Outsider Art Fair
NEW YORK CITY – Fountain House Gallery – the premier venue in New York City representing artists with mental illness – today announced its participation in the Outsider Art Fair, the leading fair dedicated to showcasing self-taught art, art brut, and outsider art from around the world. The Fair will be held online and “in person” at various New York City venues from January 28, 2021 through February 7, 2021. Fountain House Gallery’s presentation, featuring works of fiber art by Angela Rogers and Alyson Vega, will be on view exclusively online, and will go live on January 29. Information on online Viewing Room, purchase of all-access passes, and VIP access to early viewing on January 28 is available at: https://www.outsiderartfair.com/new-york.
“Fountain House Gallery has had a presence at the Outsider Art Fair for well over a decade, and it is gratifying to continue that tradition during this extraordinary time,” said Amanda Suárez, Interim Gallery Director. “For this year’s exhibit, accessible online, we bring back our most prolific fiber artists and perennial Fair favorites, Angela Rogers and Alyson Vega. Both Angela and Alyson endured brain surgeries many years ago, after which each artist's creativity shifted toward making fine artworks utilizing fiber and textiles. In weaving, sewing, and wrapping pieces made from collected and found fabrics, these artists spotlight the materials, and the process itself, with striking results.”
Angela Rogers is a self-taught artist, singer, poet and performer. She incorporates a range of mystical symbolism in her work, which includes assemblages – dubbed “poppets” – intricately wrapped in multi-hued yarn. References to addiction and institutionalization often appear in her pieces, as does the influence of a near-death experience after surgery for brain trauma in 2012. The style of her figurative paintings is strongly influenced by her “Southern Gothic” childhood and her lifelong interest in the occult. (She has been a professional tarot reader for more than 25 years.) Angela’s work is included in the Flux Factory exhibition The Gift in the Wound, on view January 29 through February 7, 2021, and she has exhibited at venues including Van Der Plas Gallery, Laundry Lung Collective, Art on A Gallery, The Gallery at HAI, and Gallery Belage in Westhampton. Her pieces were seen in the films What Maisie Knew and Steven Soderbergh’s Side Effects. Angela published a feminist comic book entitled No One Likes a Woman.
Alyson Vega, born in New York City, taught herself to sew and quilt at a young age. She received a BA in Japanese Folklore and Mythology from Harvard University. After the effects of surgery for a benign brain tumor ended her 22-year teaching career, Alyson experienced a burst of creativity that brought her artistic ability to the fore. As a self-taught artist she creates instinctively, incorporating in her work themes of decay and loss, transience, childhood, and dreams. Alyson employs various techniques in her pieces and utilizes all types of fiber and found objects to express the beauty and order she perceives in a chaotic world. A number of her fiber works were acquired by collectors at a 2014 exhibition at the Eileen Fisher store at Columbus Circle. Alyson’s 2016 solo exhibition at the prestigious venue White Columns was a great success with critics and collectors. Her work was selected for inclusion in “Here and Now,” the third and final phase of the Outsider Art Fair’s 2020 digital exhibition Art Brut Global.
This program is funded, in part, by generous support from the Renate, Hans and Maria Hofmann Trust, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, the David Rockefeller Fund, and the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund.
About Fountain House Gallery
Fountain House Gallery and Studio provides an environment where artists living with mental illness can express their creative visions and exhibit their work. Founded by Fountain House in 2000, the storefront Gallery in Manhattan sells original artworks and collaborates with a wide network of artists, curators and cultural institutions. The Studio, located in Long Island City, is a collaborative workspace that furthers the professional practice of our artists. Embracing artists who are emerging or established, trained or self-taught, Fountain House Gallery cultivates artistic growth, makes a vital contribution to the New York arts community, and challenges the stigma surrounding mental illness.
http://www.fountainhousegallery.org/
702 Ninth Avenue at 48th Street
NYC 10019
212.262.2756
Hours: Tues.-Sat. 11-7; Sun. 1-5
More than a gallery. A movement.