Virginia L. Montgomery | |
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 Virginia L. Montgomery |
Virginia L. Montgomery, also known as VLM, (born 1986) is an American multimedia artist working in video art, sound art, sculpture, performance, and illustration. She has exhibited extensively throughout the U.S. and Europe at museums, galleries, and film festivals. Her artwork is known for its surrealist qualities, material experimentation, and thematic blending of science, mysticism, metaphysics, and 21st century feminist autobiography. [1]
Montgomery is a neurodivergent individual who was raised in Houston, Texas. [2] She attended the University of Texas at Austin, [3] receiving her undergraduate BFA degree in 2008. She studied sculpture at Yale University and received her graduate MFA degree from Yale in 2016. [4]
Montgomery is an ecofeminist artist whose work utilizes symbolic imagery like circles, holes, and spheres to facilitate unexpected and multi-layered insights about the natural world, gender, technology, the human subconscious, and visual language . [5] [6]
Montgomery describes herself as an artist who “thinks in symbols.” [7] Her artwork is impacted by her parallel creative career of graphic facilitation. [8] For over a decade, Virginia L. Montgomery has worked as a graphic facilitator, mapping concepts in diverse settings ranging from health care conferences to the launch of an app at South by Southwest in Austin. [9]
In her art practice, VLM similarly choreographs symbols and sounds. Recurrent motifs in her short, dreamlike videos include visual images such as dripping honey, butterflies, moths, ponytails, and ASMR-like soundtracks of her recordings of Texas thunderstorms, wind chimes, and dripping water. In contrast to the shorthand legibility of the illustrations VLM creates as a graphic facilitator, her videos invoke multifaceted associations. She describes being drawn to butterflies, for example, because of their historical association with rebirth, but also because of their connection to the “butterfly effect”—the theory that small gestures in the natural world can generate big changes. Whether magnifying the eyespots of a butterfly, the eye of a storm, or the eye of the camera lens, her lexicon of circles, holes, and spheres offer portals into other ways of being and seeing, potential sites of transformation and healing. [7]
Montgomery states in an interview with She/Folk magazine, "[Through my art] I can survey relationships between bodies, hierarchies between objects, genders, sound or forms, and thus allow forth a message to emerge from these intersecting realms of cognitive awareness and sensorial participation. [10] In the exhibition catalog for Crash Test, Curator Nicolas Bourriaud writes, "...Montgomery's works display images atomized by technology: their aim is no longer to represent the world, but to find the points through which it manifests itself and operates, the source from which it draws its morphological power, in other words its capacity to generate forms and to produce effects." [11] She has exhibited at art institutions including the Tate Modern [12] New Museum, [13] Socrates Sculpture Park, [14] Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, [15] Times Square Arts, [16] SculptureCenter, [17] Museum Folkwang, [18] Kunsthal Charlottenborg, [19] La Panacée art centre (a.k.a. MO.CO. PANACÉE), [20] Sweet Pass Sculpture Park, [21] Blanton Museum of Art, [22] Houston Botanic Garden, [23] and Lawndale Art Center. [24] Montgomery has exhibited at galleries including Hesse Flatow Gallery, False Flag Gallery, Meyohas Gallery, and Kling & Bang. In 2017, Montgomery was commissioned by Yale University's Wright Lab to create Portal – a public sculpture memorializing Yale's decommissioned particle accelerator. Portal is on permanent display at Wright Lab Arts in New Haven, Connecticut. [25]
Moon Moth Bed (2023)
Moon Moth Bed is a surreal and symbolic experimental short film about destruction, rebirth, and metamorphosis. Inspired by Dr. Donna Haraway's ecofeminist writings, this live-action film collages together imagery of real Luna moths amidst an ethereal dreamworld. The film is cocooned within an atmospheric soundscape of rumbling thunderstorms, textured sounds, and twinkling temple bells. In Moon Moth Bed's culminating visual sequence, a deus-ex-machina device enters the film to conjure chaos. In response, the video dreamworld comes alive with sensual flows of honey to restore peace. The video concludes with circle-shaped imagery to symbolize rebirth and conjure hope. Moon Moth Bed was directed, edited, produced, sound-scored, and performed-by multimedia artist Virginia L. Montgomery alongside her Luna moth collaborators. Moon Moth Bed was commissioned by Women & Their Work Gallery (2024) for the artist's solo exhibition "Eye Moon Cocoon." Moon Moth Bed screened at The New Orleans Film Festival (2024) and The Front Fest (2024.)
Bella Luna is an experimental art-film depicting a luna moth as it flies between sticks and bells to create a soundscape. In the film repeating circle-themed imagery appears like holes, spheres, eyes and the eye-spots on moth wings. Bella Luna was exhibited at Kling & Bang in Reykjavik, Iceland.
O, Luna is a live-action video and sound artwork depicting the relationship between a luna moth and the artist, Virginia L. Montgomery. The film investigates ecofeminist themes of materiality, metamorphosis, and "atomic consciousness." O Luna references themes from mythology, feminist psychoanalysis, and material physics, such as the "Cosmic Egg" myth, the Grecian "Myth of Psyche," "the Gaze," and the "Coriolis Effect." O Luna features luna moths raised by the artist. The video was created, filmed, edited, and scored by Virginia L. Montgomery. O Luna was exhibited at the Tate Modern, The Contemporary Austin, and Aurora Picture Show.
Butterfly Birth Bed is an experimental video artwork inspired by 'The Butterfly Effect'—the philosophical theorem that any small change in our environment, even the gentle flapping of a butterfly's wings may manifest change. The film documents the emergence of live butterflies over miniature bed containing an image of a hurricane. The video was self-produced and sound-scored by Virginia L. Montgomery (VLM) after her experience enduring Hurricane Harvey. Butterfly Birth Bed was featured inside the Film and Video Gallery of the Blanton Museum, Austin, Texas for the exhibition Day Jobs curated by Veronica Roberts. [9] [8]
The Sky Loop exhibition is a video art installation using a psychoanalytic perspective to explore the artist's firsthand experience of Hurricane Harvey in 2017. [26] The installation interweaves video imagery of hurricanes and butterflies as inspired by the Butterfly Effect theory. The exhibition was commissioned by the Lawndale Art Center of Houston, Texas. [27] Montgomery was interviewed by NPR correspondent Catherine Lu about the Sky Loop video exhibition on KUHT Houston Public Media, 88.7FM radio. [28]
Pony Cocoon is a video artwork depicting a luna moth hatching from a blonde ponytail hair prop. The film conceptually interweaves themes of psychology and entomology. The Pony Cocoon video is recorded in high definition macro camera footage. The film's soundscape is original and constructed from field recordings by the artist. Pony Cocoon was exhibited at False Flag Gallery in 2019. [29]
Honey Moon is a public video artwork that was created for Times Square Arts in New York City. The video depicts the artist's hand holding a small model moon as honey streams over it. The artwork screened in Times Square across many large advertising screens nightly at 11:59PM during the month of February in 2019. Honey Moon was a part of the public arts programming for Midnight Moment. [30] In an interview with Times Square Arts, \Montgomery said of the Honey Moon project, "We live in an age that often feels more unreal than real, in which things seem to move faster than we can perceive them. As an artist, I wanted to do something different; I wanted to create a sculptural film that felt material, soothing, and real." [30] Midnight Moment is the world's largest, longest-running digital art exhibition, synchronized on electronic billboards throughout Times Square with an estimated annual viewership of 2.5 million. [30]
Cut Copy Sphinx is a video artwork inspired by the MeToo Movement against sexual abuse and sexual harassment. The Cut Copy Sphinx video is a companion piece to the artist's public New York City sculpture, SWORD IN THE SPHINX, that was commissioned by Socrates Sculpture Park for the 2018 Socrates Annual exhibition. [14] The video has been exhibited at the New Museum, [13] New Orleans Film Festival (2019), and the Ann Arbor Film Festival (2019).
The Pony Hotel artwork documents the artist's ponytail prop inside various hotel rooms during her career traveling for Graphic Facilitator work. The video shows the artist as she animates her ponytail like a puppet inside the hotel rooms. The Pony Hotel artwork was part of a video art exhibition series shown at New York City's New Museum in 2019. Curatorial Assistant Kate Weiner wrote that the artworks, including Pony Hotel, "interrogate the relationship between physical and psychic structures." [13] The PONY HOTEL video was presented as a video installation and solo exhibition at Museum Folkwang in Essen, Germany in 2019.
The Water Witching video artwork contains archival footages from nature, divination practices, and feminist protest from the 2017 Women's March in Washington D.C. Water Witching thematically explores agency amidst ecological, spiritual, or political adversity. [31] The film's soundscape is composed of field recordings of water, wind, machines, animals, and human protest. Water Witching was commissioned by New York's Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College for the exhibition, "An unbound knot in the wind" curated by Alison Karasyk. [15]
The Marble Ponytail sculptures are hand-carved in Vermont marble. The sculptures were created in 2018 at the historic West Rutland, Vermont marble quarry on an arts fellowship through the Carving Studio & Sculpture Center in West Rutland, Vermont.
The Sword in the Sphinx sculpture features a resin-cast copy of a historical French garden sphinx in the likeness of the 18th century court mistress, Madame de Pompadour, impaled by a steel sword. Writer Wendy Vogel for Art in America magazine noted that the sculpture overturns the masculine bravado of the tales of King Arthur and Oedipus. [32] The sculpture was commissioned by Socrates Sculpture Park of New York City for the 2018 Socrates Annual exhibition. [14]
The Particle Accelerator Memorial Project, commissioned by Wright Laboratory at Yale University, is an art project by Montgomery at the Yale University physics department. The artwork is about the decommission of Wright Lab's linear particle accelerator. Montgomery created a large free-standing public sculpture outside the Yale Physics Department's building entitled, Portal (2017). The sculpture is a 9-ton, 14 ft (8.2 t, 4.3 m) blue monument engineered from the original entrance portal of the linear particle accelerator. Portal is Montgomery's first outdoor monument. It is on permanent display at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.
The Split Sword sculpture is a handmade steel sword. Its shape is inspired by the medieval divination tool known as the Y-rod that was traditionally employed as an alternative means for discovering natural resources such as water, oil, or gold. This process is known as dowsing. The Split Sword artwork has previously been exhibited at Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, NY [15] and Ramapo College, NJ.
The Head Stone sculpture is made blue memory foam and a 100 lb (45 kg) stone. The Head Stone sculpture has been exhibited at the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College [15] and at the Lawndale Art Center. [1]
Lucy Skaer is a contemporary English artist who works with sculpture, film, painting, and drawing. Her work has been exhibited internationally. Skaer is a member of the Henry VIII’s Wives artist collective, and has exhibited a number of works with the group.
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) is an art museum in Richmond, Virginia, United States, which opened in 1936. The museum is owned and operated by the Commonwealth of Virginia. Private donations, endowments, and funds are used for the support of specific programs and all acquisition of artwork, as well as additional general support.
The Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts is a museum located in Montgomery, Alabama, USA, featuring several art collections. The permanent collection includes examples of 19th- and 20th-century American paintings and sculpture, Southern regional art, Old Master prints and decorative arts. It is also home to Artworks, a participatory art gallery and studio for children.
Agnes Denes is a Hungarian-born American conceptual artist based in New York. She is known for works in a wide range of media—from poetry and philosophical writings to extremely detailed drawings, sculptures, and iconic land art works, such as Wheatfield — A Confrontation (1982), a two-acre field of wheat in downtown Manhattan, commissioned by the Public Art Fund, and Tree Mountain—A Living Time Capsule (1992–96) in Ylöjärvi, Finland. Her work Rice/Tree/Burial with Time Capsule (1968–79) is recognized as one of the earliest examples of ecological art. She lives and works in New York City.
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Alyson Shotz is an American sculptor based in Brooklyn, New York. She is known for experiential, large-scale abstract sculptures and installations inspired by nature and scientific concepts, which manipulate light, shadow, space and gravity in order to investigate and complicate perception. Writers suggest her work challenges tenets of monumental, minimalist sculpture—traditionally welded, solid, heavy and static—through its accumulation of common materials in constructions that are often flexible, translucent, reflective, seemingly weightless, and responsive to changing conditions and basic forces. Sculpture critic Lilly Wei wrote, "In Shotz’s realizations, the definition of sculpture becomes increasingly expansive—each project, often in series, testing another proposition, another possibility, another permutation, while ignoring conventional boundaries."
The Houston Alternative Art chronology was originally compiled by Caroline Huber and The Art Guys for the exhibition catalogue No Zoning: Artists Engage Houston, which was published by the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH) to accompany the group show of the same name. The exhibition was on view at CAMH from May 9-October 4, 2009. No Zoning: Artists Engage Houston was co-curated by Toby Kamps and Meredith Goldsmith and featured projects by twenty-one Houston artists using the city as inspiration, material, and site. This chronology documents Houston's alternative art scene.
Martha Friedman is a sculptor and college professor residing in New York City. Her work has been exhibited throughout the world in both solo and group exhibitions. Her primary exhibitor is Wallspace in New York. She has taught classes at The Cooper Union, Pratt Institute, Princeton University, Rutgers University, Wesleyan University and Yale University.
Jason Villegas is currently a San Francisco based contemporary artist. He has exhibited across the United States and internationally. Villegas' work utilizes a wide spectrum of mediums including sculpture, installation, painting, drawing, textile, video and performance. He has created his own artistic realm and visual language in which to explore concepts such as globalism, evolution, sexuality, cosmology, and consumerism. Motifs in Villegas' artworks include fashion logos, animal hybrids, weaponry, sales banners, clothing piles, anuses, cosmic debris, taxidermy, bear men, amorphous beasts, religious iconography, and party scenarios.
Christopher K. Ho is an artist and curator who lives and works in New York City. He graduated from Cornell University in 1997 with a B.F.A. and Columbia University in 2003 with an M.Phil.
Jiha Moon is a contemporary artist who focuses on painting, printmaking, and sculptural ceramic objects. Born in Daegu, South Korea, Moon is currently based in Tallahassee, Florida, after years of living and working in Atlanta, Georgia. She joined Florida State University's Art department faculty in the fall of 2023.
Kadist is an interdisciplinary contemporary arts organization with an international contemporary art collection. Kadist hosts artist residencies and produces exhibitions, publications, and public events. Founded by Vincent Worms and Sandra Terdjman, the first location was opened in Paris in 2006. A San Francisco, California location was opened in the Mission District in 2011.
Joachim Pissarro is an art historian, theoretician, curator, educator, and director of the Hunter College Galleries and Bershad Professor of Art History at Hunter College of the City University of New York. His latest book, authored with art critic David Carrier, is called Wild Art. Pissarro was curator at the Museum of Modern Art's Department of Painting and Sculpture from 2003 to 2007.
Joyce J. Scott is an African-American artist, sculptor, quilter, performance artist, installation artist, print-maker, lecturer and educator. Named a MacArthur Fellow in 2016, and a Smithsonian Visionary Artist in 2019, Scott is best known for her figurative sculptures and jewelry using free form, off-loom beadweaving techniques, similar to a peyote stitch. Each piece is often constructed using thousands of glass seed beads or pony beads, and sometimes other found objects or materials such as glass, quilting and leather. In 2018, she was hailed for working in new medium — a mixture of soil, clay, straw, and cement — for a sculpture meant to disintegrate and return to the earth. Scott is influenced by a variety of diverse cultures, including Native American and African traditions, Mexican, Czech, and Russian beadwork, illustration and comic books, and pop culture.
Adriana Farmiga is an American visual artist, curator, and professor based in New York City. She serves as a programming advisor for the non-profit La Mama Gallery in the East Village, and is the current Associate Dean at Cooper Union School of Art. In June of 2024 Farmiga was promoted Dean at Cooper Union.
Paul Villinski is an American sculptor best known for his large-scale installations of individual butterflies made from aluminum cans found on the streets on New York City. “A pilot of sailplanes, paragliders and single-engine airplanes, metaphors of flight and soaring often appear in his work. With a lifelong concern for environmental issues, his work frequently re-purposes discarded materials.” He is represented in New York by Morgan Lehman Gallery.
Meg Webster is an American artist from San Francisco working primarily in sculpture and installation art. While her works span multiple media, she is most well known for her artworks that feature natural elements. She is closely affiliated with Post-Minimalism and the Land Art movement and has been exhibiting her work since 1980.
Wukun Wanambi was an Australian Yolngu painter, filmmaker and curator of the Marrakulu clan of northeastern Arnhem Land, Northern Territory.
James Harithas was an American museum curator, director, and founder.
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