Gracianne Kirsch’s work in Home After All draws from their childhood spent in a rural home built by their father on a mountain top in Redwood Valley, California. The body of work meditates on an accumulation of memories of home, family, growing and changing in the rural Northern California landscape.
On view July 21 – Sept 12
Opening Reception July 25th 6:30 -8:30
About the Exhibit
Drawings featuring interior domestic scenes balance simultaneous isolation and crowding. Objects accumulate and clutter the living space. Poems chronicle the little and large dramas of a sibling-filled upbringing. But at the same time, there is a quietness, a stillness, and a loneliness of rural separation and neglect. Compositions are either cluttered with junk or floating with emptiness. This balance of weight and air encompasses the complexity of recollection and childhood emotion.
Gracianne’s video “Pond Scum” recalls their father’s attempts at building a pond on his land. Pond Scum sets childlike whimsy alongside the reality of Northern California’s changing ecology and droughts. The effects of the Mendocino Complex Fire on the property, the family, and the community loom over much of the work from this era, occasionally surfacing in Kirsch’s poetry and visuals (such as in the titular drawing, Home After All).
Finally, recent work shows changing visions of “home.” Growing up, moving away, and coming out build into a tender story of queer home-making and visits back to family homes.
COMMUNITY WORKSHOP
Participants will combine poetry and drawing to create their own handmade books. We’ll explore simple bookbinding techniques, using stitching and folding to assemble personalized booklets to be filled with memories. Books will include drawings and free-verse poetry. The drawings will have a focus on linework, emphasizing confidence of line and contour drawing. There will be creative writing exercises focused on sensory descriptions of familiar spaces. The focus is on creative expression and blending words with visual art in a fun, low-pressure environment.
We are offering this workshop two times, once for teens and once for families
About the Artist
Gracianne Kirsch is an Oakland-based queer and trans artist working in the mediums of painting, drawing, poetry, and video. Kirsch received their BA in Art Practice and Social Welfare at University of California Berkeley in 2022, and their MFA in Art Studio from University of California Davis in 2024.
Kirsch’s work has been shown at the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, Basement Gallery at UC Davis, Pence Gallery, and Worth Ryder Gallery. Kirsch will be featured in an upcoming show at 120710 Art Space. Kirsch received the UC Davis inaugural Letters & Science Award for Excellence, the Fay Nelson Award from the department of Art and Art History at UC Davis, the Theresa Hak Kyung Cha Award from BAMPFA for visual art. Kirsch was given the Jury Award for “Play Pretend Feelings,” screened in the Davis Film Festival. Kirsch’s work has been published twice in Makeshift Magazine, an SF publication.
ACCESSIBILITY & INCLUSION
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If you have any accommodation needs or concerns, reach out directly at contact@juniorcenter.org
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