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Desert Refugee 2008

Charmaine Spencer, born in Ann Arbor Michigan, came to Cleveland in 1999 to attend the Cleveland Institute of Art (CIA), where I presented my BFA exhibition in 2005. While there I was recipient of the William McVey Award for excellence in sculpture, and was one of two students selected to finish posthumously the last sculpture of David E. Davis, the founder of the Sculpture Center. I was the 2008 Window to Sculpture Emerging Artist Solo Exhibit recipient at The Sculpture Center. My work has been shown in a one-person exhibition at the Groop Gallery (2004) and group exhibitions at The Cleveland State University Gallery (2004), Sankofa (2005), SPACES (2006), the B.K. Smith Gallery, Lake Erie College (2006) and All Go Signs, Cleveland Public Theatre (2007) I also designed and fabricated the stage installation and costumes for the SEFMOD Performance ensemble at the Cleveland Public Theatre’s Performance Art Festival (2003) and participated in the 2008 Refugees of Darfur, Sudan / Tents of Hope, Exhibition at the Maltz Jewish Museum Beachwood, Oh. As a Cleveland artist and community advocate, I have participated in community-developed projects, arts and culture outreach programs and environmental education outreach. My artistic career has evolved balancing aesthetic sensibilities with civil, social and environmental issues. At present I am managing my studio STUDIOWEST3B, and preparing for the Green Scouts 2009 summer programing where I am co-coordinator and co-instructor for the environmental arts projects. In the summer of 2008 I worked with the Green Scouts to create an eco-friendly sculpture fence nearly 80’long. This is a combination trellis that will be used to grow veining plants for the Green Scouts marked garden.


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My work is an amalgamation of accumulative installation and abstract sculpture. It has evolved through observations of how the individual adapts to social and economic change. My work visually represents the struggles and resiliency of the individual’s reinvention of self and place. The individual represent contemporary needs while an abstraction of community reflects African artisan traditions and the effective reuse of there resources. I favor readily accessible, easily processed, utilitarian materials to reference issues of class, staple needs and conditioning. The materials are cut, torn or broken apart, then woven, bound or wedged together. Bold accumulation of disassembled and reformed driftwood, old wall lath, hair, electrical conduit, paper pulp, wood, dirt and steel create large installations that can be adapted to different environments. New installation works are intended to engage the pubic in a dialogue with bio and cultural diversity with post-consumer waste and biodegradable materials. Using nature’s cast offs and consumer discards along with traditional building methods and contemporary processes I will examine issues concerning environment, urban blight and sustainability. This conceptualization speaks to condemn society’s exploitation of natural resources and habitats and to foster accountability for humanity’s footprint on our dwelling place.

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Latest page update: made by charmainespencer , Apr 23 2009, 3:28 PM EDT (about this update About This Update charmainespencer 4-23-2009/2 - charmainespencer


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