For Kids
For immediate release: Tuesday, December 21, 2021
Spokane Arts kicks off the new year with an exciting new exhibit at the Chase Gallery, opening Friday, January 7. Layer by Layer features the work of Madison Jones, Emily Somoskey, and Aleeta Renee Jones, and will be open through February 25, 2022. Working in a variety of media, all three artists consider their work layer by layer, with a focus on the materiality and the process behind each piece. Exploring themes of experience and the shifting nature of observation, their complex work offers much for the viewer to explore but remains inviting and approachable.
Emily Somoskey is a 2-D mixed media artist and painter from Northeast Ohio and currently a Visiting Assistant Professor in Painting at Whitman College, in Walla Walla. Somoskey uses representational and abstract methods in her mixed-media paintings to examine the way we experience space. Making use of easily recognizable subject matter placed in abracted settings, Somosky describes her work as “alluding to both the banality and mystery of the day-to-day. These works take a look at how we navigate the familiar, respond to the unknown, as well as how these feelings speak more broadly about the complexity of what it means to be human.” Layers of paint and photographic imagery combine to open up a more complex view of the shifting nature of human experience.
Aleeta Renée Jones, a mixed media artist based in Spokane, Washington, pulls from her background in sculpture as she builds, layers, textures, and re-builds her two-dimensional pieces. Utilizing encaustic, cold wax, large scale acrylic paintings, and mixed media on paper, she describes the inspiration for her work as coming from “the natural world, significant events, and the mystery of the unconscious.” Jones says her process is guided by intuition and openness to the unknown: “I never start with a preconceived plan but rather allow the compositions to emerge on their own as I step back, look, and respond to each step along the way. I work by building up many layers then scraping, sanding, or gouging through.” Layer by Layer features several large paintings on paper from Jones’ new ongoing series of work, which she began in 2020, “I feel my subconscious was, and is, searching for something old and solid, mysterious yet deeply familiar, in the swirling uncertainty. This series explores a search for commonality throughout human history, the ancient ties that bind us. I hope to evoke dualities: chaos and order, light and dark, ancient and contemporary.”
Madison Jones recently received a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts from Eastern Washington University, where she focused on digital media and photography. Her work, using mainly film and lens-based media, dives into the mechanics of process and dissecting images as a way to explore the relationship of how an image works and the layers within the image. “Each layer or piece of an object completely changes how we view it,” Madison writes in her artist statement. “I see things completely differently if I remove or introduce something new in the image. The need to be able to see something from every possible perspective and context drives my process of taking things apart and rebuilding them differently.”
The Chase Gallery is open to the public whenever City Hall is open, Monday – Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. (although gallery access is limited on Tuesday mornings).