Alex Nathanson and Kris Scheifele

Alex Nathanson’s stop-motion animation videos investigate the ways in which people navigate cultural artifacts such as architecture, media, or sounds, and their social or political environment. Additionally, he explores the nature of the photographic image and the relationship between still images and moving ones.

The videos are created out of hundreds of single still photographs that Alex Nathanson edits together. One minute of stop-motion animation is composed of as many as 600 still images. A short stop-motion animation, including set design typically takes three to five months to complete. The materials Nathanson uses to create the sets and characters come directly from the environment and are constructed out of found materials, basic arts and crafts, and discarded media such as old newspapers or archival video footage. The audio is also drawn from the environment and includes street noises, radio and television clips.

Kris Scheifele will be exhibiting recent pieces from her “Contortions” series. These works inhabit a middle ground somewhere between painting and sculpture. Each Contortion is made entirely of layers of acrylic paint which are applied methodically to a wooden panel support until it reaches a thickness of up to a half-inch. Scheifele pulls the paint up from the support and cuts it with a box cutter and attaches this directly to the wall with nails. Gravity pulls on the paint attenuating connections and continuing to change each piece. Not only is a temporal record created by the buildup of layers, but also by the paint sagging, stretching and bending over time. Through its own elasticity and impermanence, Scheifele feels the “Contortions” series can point to the cycles in life as well as cycles in art. Additionally she views these works as “comic and sexy performers” relating to twisting bodies in dances or circus performances