Some of its Parts
Nadia Hironaka & Matthew Suib, Kelsey Halliday Johnson, Mark Stockton
Presented as part of Just In Time: 30 Years of Collective Practice
Friday, April 26 – Sunday, June 23, 2019
Closing Reception: Artist Talk + Catalogue Release: Sunday, June 23, 2019 | 3-6pm
Some of its Parts is an immersive-installation by former Vox Populi members Nadia Hironaka & Matthew Suib, Kelsey Halliday Johnson and Mark Stockton that combines appropriated imagery, collage-oriented video and original text work. Creating an index of collectivism through the lenses of activism, arts, politics, and athletics, the project explores ideals, paradigms and conventions of group identity while drawing upon elements of each artist’s personal practice.
Working together for the first time, the four artists bring their individual approaches to mediating the discourse between personal voice and collaborative dialog. Employing the tools and conventions of moving-image culture to offer counter-mythical visions of our contemporary world, Hironaka & Suib (collaborators since 2008) are interested in re-constructing existing narratives and envisioning new images that challenge popular understandings of history and culture. In her work, Halliday-Johnson explores themes of human perception, including our evolving understanding of the verisimilitude and function of the photographic medium, and our mediated relationship to the landscape. And, Stockton’s drawings and installations reexamine previously consumed images of famous and infamous archetypes. Dependent on memory and found images, Stockton’s work reflects a collective consciousness that is shaped by our media-saturated culture.
About the Artists
Nadia Hironaka & Matthew Suib are Philadelphia-based artists who have been collaborators since 2008. They are recipients of several honored awards including a 2015 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, Pew Fellowships in the Arts and Fellowships from CFEVA and Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. Their work has been widely exhibited both domestically and abroad at venues including, Fondazione MAXXI (Rome), New Media Gallery (Vancouver), The ICA (Philadelphia), UCLA Hammer Museum, PS1/MoMA, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.. They have been artists-in-residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts, the Banff Centre, and the Millay Colony for Arts. Matthew Suib is co-founder of Greenhouse Media and Nadia Hironaka serves as a professor and department chair of film and video at the MICA. Hironaka & Suib are represented by Locks Gallery. The couple, along with their daughter and one cat reside in South Philly.
More Info: hironakasuib.com
Kelsey Halliday Johnson currently lives and works in Portland, ME where she is the Executive Director of the multi-disciplinary visual and performing art organization SPACE. Her work has been shown at venues including Vox Populi, the Berman Museum of Art, the Delaware Art Museum, the Philadelphia Photo Arts Center, the Academy of Natural Sciences, the Delaware Contemporary, EXPO Chicago, and Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery at The University of the Arts. Kelsey has lectured extensively on her own work and contemporary art history at venues including UPenn, ICA Philadelphia, the Academy of Fine Arts in Ravenna, Moore College, Interlochen Center for the Arts, the International CUMULUS Conference, the University of the Arts, Tyler School of Art, Hunter College, and NYU.
More Info: kelseyhalliday.com
Mark Stockton is an artist who lives and works in Philadelphia. His drawings have been shown both nationally and internationally, with exhibitions in Philadelphia, Los Angeles, New York, London, and Beijing. Originally from the West Coast, he received his BFA from Oregon State University in 1996 and his MFA in Painting and Drawing from Syracuse University in 2000. He currently teaches design and drawing at Drexel University. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife Cindy, his two kids Otto and Iona, and his dog Elsie.
More Info: mtstockton.com