Memory Upgrade, Center on Contemporary Art Annual 2010

6413 Seaview Avenue NW ● Seattle, WA 98107 ● 206 728 1980

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

CONTACT:
Ray C. Freeman III, President
(206)349-3147 ray@cocaseattle.org
David Francis, Artist Liason
(206) 851-9641 david@cocaseattle.org
Center on Contemporary Art
(206) 728-1980 info@cocaseattle.org
http://www.cocaseattle.org

CoCA Pioneer Square Presents the 2010 Annual Juried Exhibition,
Memory Upgrade

From December 2, 2010 - January 1, 2011, CoCA Pioneer Square will present Memory Upgrade, a juried exhibition featuring work from 16 emerging as well as established artists in a wide variety of visual media, including 2d, 3d, and video.

Memory Upgrade explores the ways in which artists have responded to the global financial crisis by changing various aspects of their work. Considered collectively, these artists hint at the heightened importance of memory, history, and the role of the artist to affect social change.

Over 180 artists from across the county, Europe, and Australia submitted works for consideration. CoCA has presented the Annual since 1989, each time inviting an independent juror to select the work. For this year's 21st anniversary of the show, CoCA is proud to have Juan Alonso as juror.

Over a career that spans 25 years, Alonso has received numerous grants, awards, and recognition from a wide variety of arts organization in the Seattle area, including the Behnke Foundation, PONCHO (2007 Artist of the Year), 4Culture, Mayors Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, Artist Trust, Pratt Fine Arts Center, and Centrum. Born in Cuba in 1956, Alonso came to the Unites States at an early age, leaving behind his family to learn a new language in a foreign place.

There will be an opening reception on Thursday, December 2, from 6 – 9pm at CoCA’s Pioneer Square location located inside the former Elliott bay Book Company at 310 1st Ave South in Pioneer Square. Juan Alonso will announce prizewinners at the reception and field questions via satellite from Miami / Basel Art Fair.

Participating artists include: Minh Carrico, Laura Castellanos, David French, Douglas Gast,
Sarah Gilbert, Harold Hollingsworth, Phillip Hua, Alma Leiva, Nia Michaels, Nate Orton,
Scott Schuldt, Patti Shaw, Garric Simonsen, Tereza Swanda, Kate Sweeney and Jillian Vento.

CoCA Statement

In Bodies Form, To/From Mothering Alphabet, I leave an imprint, a trace of my movement with another, specifically my child and mother. I explore interconnectedness. I fill the form with what feels more like us rather than the superficial image. We end being a joint body made of the same or similar everyday material, residual dust, hair, cobwebs, lint, bread crumbs, flour, and threads. All of the material is collected through the “mothering” process of tidying up, (keeping home) and exposed within the joint shape instead of discarded. Twenty-six symbols reveal an other’s alphabet. I use everyday matter combined with the people who matter the most in my life to find a language that represents what I embody.

Bio

Tereza Swanda, born Mazurova, in 1978, Jesenik, Czech Republic, has shown her artwork at University of Oregon in Eugene, Berliner Kunstprojekt in Berlin, 450 Broadway Gallery in New York City, online in Storyscale Journal, Anthology One, and elsewhere. She has installed site-specific work at Chemeketa Community College Art Gallery in Through the Eyes of Strangers, artists visit South Africa. She received her M.F.A. in Visual Arts from Vermont College of Fine Arts where she was awarded scholarship. Swanda also holds 2 BFAs in Painting and Sculpture from Massachusetts College of Art and Design as well as an NCME Certificate from Bellevue Montessori. Currently, Tereza lives and teaches in Redmond, WA.