Corrie Slawson

Corrie Slawson
Cleveland, Ohio, USA

STATEMENT

Corrie Slawson’s work explores landscapes, dystopian, bizarre and mundane, with unfolding narratives related to social and environmental matters. The places depicted analyze patterns in land use, population loss, climate change and environmental equity. Made through layers of printmaking, drawing, photography and painting, she combines imagery garnered from her travels, experiences and commutes (abroad and domestic). No matter the location, visual language is extant in the surroundings—colour, architecture, texture and reflective materials are worked into the mixed media works on paper. Visual references to Cleveland reference concern with land use in the context of the region’s lifecycle; its once-gilded age of unchecked wealth and growth is now imperiled with myopic decisionmaking stuck in a cycle of sprawl and divestment.

That is the local view, but in light of recent scientific reports about the imminent concern of Climate Change, she is now on a longer term exploration of endangered plants, animals and systems that are the result of human-caused Climate Change. Development hierarchies, population loss, and the reaping of resources has deep Colonial roots that has served the top percentage of individuals benefitting directly from European hegemony of cultural and wealth accumulation. These collages combine endangered plants and animals on fields of hand-printed, marbled and/or painted paper. The collaged elements are taken from magazines like Vogue or Martha Stewart Living, publications that depict luxury and an appreciation of manicured nature. Gorgeous but not proper eco-systems where life can thrive and certainly available only to an exclusive few.

BIO

Cleveland, Ohio artist Corrie Slawson earned her BFA at Parsons School of Design in New York City. After six years working in the museum world in Exhibition Development, she received her MFA at Kent State University. Always majoring in Painting with a minor in Printmaking, her work is primarily 2D however, frequent collaborations with other artists and organizations have taken projects into performance and sculptural installation.

Her work explores landscapes, both dystopian and bizarre, with unfolding narratives related to social and environmental matters. Her work has been exhibited in the US and internationally, including at the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, The Toledo Museum of Art, Akron Art Museum, Centro Culturel de Tijuana, Galerie Module Drei (Dresden, Germany), SPACES and Fondazione Estetica & Progresso (Sardinia). Residencies at the Grafikwerkstatt in Dresden, TJinChina Project Space in Tijuana and Chateaux Orquevaux in Champagne-Ardenne, France have heightend her place-based practice.

Slawson is currently part-time faculty in the Painting and Drawing Department at Kent State University School of Art and she taught Printmaking at the Cleveland Institute of Art since 2013. Her work is represented by Shaheen Modern and Contemporary Gallery in downtown Cleveland. Corrie was awarded an Ohio Arts Council Individual Artist Excellence Grant in 2011 and again in 2019.

ARTIST CONTACT

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corrieslawson.com

IMAGES