Full Circle

As much an idea as a body part, a contraption, a proclamation of our common processes, Full Circle’s installation acts as a stage to play out mechanical references of artistic and spiritual production. The works act as entities or characters that give way to this interpretation. The reckoning of utopian potential expands on theories of desire, pleasure, and production that is inherently exclusive to each artist. Intending to dismantle the repulsion that is infused in much of popular cultures references and understandings of how this particular element (the anus, an unbroken circle) is a signifier of trauma, the exhibition gives an opening to examine fixed classifications and criteria for what we take to be evidence of objective knowledge. The installation is a quasi-psychedelic experience of a proletarian body part that loosens up our critical inquiries, removing ourselves from the suspicious, butt-clenching interpretations of art and process through traditional knowledge of assimilation and production. If we see our revulsions as a mirror, we reflect cycles of our experiences, constantly in whirl, constructing new perceptions with each explorative passing. Full Circle is both a phase and fable of these ideas.

The social function of art is it’s negative aesthetic, without it there is no social function for it.
- Mike Kelley

In ancient Rome, there was a poem / About ‘a dog who found two bones’ who then, unable to choose between the two, ‘went in circles till he dropped dead.’
- Devo

Maria Britton lives and works in Carrboro, North Carolina. Her artwork has been included in exhibitions with the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC; LABspace, Hillsdale, NY; Snag, Seattle, WA; LoBo, New York, NY; Smith Gallery at Appalachian State, Boone, NC; Camayuhs, Atlanta, GA; Lump, Raleigh, NC; Tempus Projects; Tampa, FL; SOIL Gallery, Seattle, WA; BAM, Brooklyn, NY; The Stephen & George Laundry Line, Queens, NY; The Scrap Exchange, Durham, NC; and Harbor Gallery, New York, NY among others. She has participated in artist residencies through Hambidge Center, Byrdcliffe Arts Colony, Petrified Forest National Park, and Vermont Studio Center. Her work has been featured in New American Paintings (#82). Maria earned her BFA from Winthrop University in Rock Hill, SC and her MFA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
mariabritton.com

Ezra Johnson is a painter based in Tampa, Florida. Born in 1975 in Wenatchee, Washington. He received an MFA from Hunter College in New York in 2006 and a BFA from California College of the Arts in San Francisco in 2000. Johnson’s painting practice often expands into animation and sculpture. Johnson has exhibited at many prestigious museums such as the Nerman Museum of Art in Kansas, the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, the Site Santa Fe Biennial, the ICA in Philadelphia, as well as gallery exhibitions, nationally and internationally. Johnson is represented by Freight + Volume Gallery in New York and Mindy Solomon Gallery in Miami. Johnson is an Associate Professor of Painting and Drawing at the University of South Florida.
ezrajohnson.com

Natalia Kraviec (they/them, b.1990) is a queer multidisciplinary artist based in Beatrice, Nebraska. Their work is rooted in assemblage and collage and often takes the form of tapestries, paintings, and sculptures by amassing found objects and images, personal ephemera, textiles, and paint. They integrate craft techniques like tie-dye, quilting, and macrame to investigate shifting aesthetic values through the free interplay of form. Natalia has exhibited their work at Coco Hunday, Tampa, FL; The Contemporary Art Museum, Tampa, FL; GIFC Worldwide, 0-0 L.A., Los Angeles, CA, among others. They recently received their MFA from the University of South Florida (2022), and will be an artist in residence at the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts in November of 2022.
nataliakraviec.com

Rb Erin Moran (they/them/her, b. 1976) explores the paradoxical in a process-driven and somatic practice.  Rebecca is a non-binary American Icelandic artist based between Reykjavík, Berlin, and Los Angeles. They graduated from the Art Institute of Chicago in 2000 and have exhibited widely in Iceland, Europe, Japan, and North America. 

Their practice embraces all nuances of in- between states and notions of fluidity: often using transformative structures, materials, or concepts that adapt or evolve over time. They work within the realm of installation,  film, sound, performance and sculpture to reference liminal spaces, non-tangible experience, and rituals of pop culture experience.
rebeccaerinmoran.com

Trinidad Oribio is a multidisciplinary artist and 3rd year MFA candidate at the University of South Florida in Tampa Florida. In her work, Trinidad is guided by her obsessions and fascinated with the power of her own desire. Using painting, photography and installation, Trinidad deconstructs this desire and examines her performance of femininity. She looks for an entry point, a center to disassemble.

Zack Rafuls is an artist currently residing in Queens NY. Born in Miami FL in 1992, some of his earliest accomplishments include being awarded "Most Improved" at the Jane Forman Tennis Academy Summer Camp (after weeks earlier biting another camper) and winning the 5th grade Spelling Bee at Jack D. Gordon Elementary School (only to lose in the first round of the regional competition). Since then he has received his BFA from Watkins College of Art in Nashville TN (2015), during which time he also studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago as a participant in the AICAD Mobility Program (2014). An interest in collaboration and community led him to found and co-curate mild climate, an artist-run space in Nashville TN, from 2015 to 2018. Recent solo exhibitions include Electric Shed, Nashville TN (2021) and Marvin Gardens, Queens NY (2022). Over the last few years, he has been one half of two-person exhibits at Usable Space, Milwaukee WI (2022); Family Exhibitions, Montreal QBC (2020); Marvin Gardens, Queens NY (2019); and Bijon Ferdowsi Gallery, Nashville TN (2017); as well as participating in various group shows in Atlanta, Brooklyn, Chattanooga, Milwaukee, Nashville, and New York City. Residency experience includes Stove Works, Chattanooga TN (2022) and Byrdcliffe Artist Colony, Woodstock NY (2022). When he is not drawing at home, he works out of a studio he shares with his two studio mates: artist and partner Tristan Higginbotham and their beagle Kylee.
zackrafuls.com

Vabianna Santos’ interdisciplinary work is populated by sudden transformations, interwoven gender, mischievously updated metaphysical themes and encounters pushed out to the unthinkable. Santos has exhibited and performed internationally including at MOCA North Miami, Vox Populi Philadelphia, Headlands Center for the Arts and Hammer Museum Los Angeles. (He)r work has been discussed in PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art, Theater Journal and WhiteHot Magazine of Contemporary Art. S(he) attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2013. Throughout, S(he) is interested in demonstrating how we live in our bodies is a vital source of knowledge.
vsantosv.com

Paul Wise (b. 1968, Knoxville, TN) has been creating interactive multimedia projects for the past 30 years. Originally a foreign language software designer, he is fascinated with interactive digital platforms, their tools and the manipulation of the techniques associated with them. 

Paul is an instructor of Film and Video Editing, Audio Recording and Mixing.  He recently designed and constructed a Dolby Atmos immersive audio studio. Currently, his research involves the use of animation motion capture suits. He sees the potential for these animation suits to be used as full body gestural controllers for the operation of various electronic instruments and visuals. In addition to his virtual investigations, Paul also works in other, various mediums including hot glass and clay.

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April Childers (b. 1979), received their BFA from The University of Tennessee and her MFA from The University of South Florida. They are an artist, curator, and educator. Exhibitions include Regina Rex, NY, NY., New Capital, Chicago, IL., Field Projects, NY, NY., Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), NY, NY., Vito Schnabel and Bruce High Quality Foundation, NY, NY., Small Editions, Brooklyn, NY., White Projects, Paris, FR., Kimberly Klark, Ridgewood, NY., Zola/Liebermann Gallery, Chicago, IL., Grace Exhibition Space, Brooklyn, NY., The Front, New Orleans, LA .,., CR10, Linlithgo, NY., Emerson Dorsch, Miami, FL., Imersten, Vienna, AT., Kurant, Tromsø, Norway, Knockdown Center, Flushing, NY.,, Field Projects, NY., Orgy Park, Brooklyn, NY., The Carnegie Visual and Performing Arts Center, KY. LabSpace, Hillsdale, NY. East Hampton Shed, East Hampton, NY., and more. Previous curatorial engagements include BAM, Brooklyn, NY,. Penelope, Ridgewood, NY., Camayuhs, Atlanta, GA., Lump, Raleigh, NC., Atlanta Contemporary, Atlanta, GA., LOG, Chapel Hill, NC., Stoveworks, Chattanooga, TN. They currently live and work in Strawberry Plains, TN.
aprilchilders.com