February 16 - March 14, 2010

Archer Gallery presents Alight, an exhibition of works on paper by artists Aili Schmeltz (Los Angeles) and Laura Vandenburgh (Eugene, Oregon). Somewhere between the physical and the ephemeral, both artists explore concepts of place through drawing and painting on paper.

Aili Schmeltz's drawings are part of La Fuente de la Vida, an international collaborative art project centering around the Fountain of Life in Monterrey, Mexico. These drawings tell the story of the fountain's fall from grace in the eyes of the city, and the fictional journey of the fountain’s characters as they search for a new place for their monument and home. This narrative parallels Mexico's declining reputation within the international community during the outbreak of the Swine Flu epidemic, the ongoing drug cartel, and United States / Mexico border conflicts. This project seeks to foster a creative and collaborative reexamination of culture through place.

Laura Vandenburgh's paper works are fictional lands that develop and unfold throughout her working process. Hinting at landmasses, pools, and mountain ranges, Vandenburgh created her works as if they were actual places developing, without a predetermined plan and with each aspect leading into the next unexpected creation. Her process and concept look at place as a transient moment in time and as a situation rather than a location.

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