Evolve Urban Arts “Like Nowhere I’ve Been: by Mark Parascandola & John M. Adams Sat, March 5, 5pm

Evolve Urban Arts Project

presents

Like Nowhere I've Been: Landscapes de un Sueño

John M. Adams and Mark Parascandola

March 5 - April 23, 2011

Opening Reception:  Saturday, March 5, 5-8pm

The Evolve Urban Arts Project (1375 Maryland Ave NE) is pleased to announce  Like Nowhere I've Been: Landscapes de un Sueno featuring photographer Mark Parascandola and visual artist John M. Adams.  The exhibition examines how these two DC-based artists create and document artifical, man-made landscapes concerived form elements of modern day visual and cultural reality. 

Parascandola bases his landscapes in specific architectural detritus found in the arid Almeria province of Spain.  The deserts of Spain played host to dozens of Spaghetti-Western film sets in the 1960s and 1970s.  The genre, usually produced by Italians with Spanish technical support, mixed actors from a multitude of ethnicities (including the rising Clint Eastwood) in portrayals fo life along the Texas-Mexico border.  Abandoned for decades, these "wild-West" sets remain in the desert, some restored as tourist sites and others left to decay.  In the photo series presented here, Parascandola adroitly captures a Texas border town, as conceived by Italians, located in the Spanish hinterland.  Like the Spanglish in the exhibition's title, the landscape is neither truly Spanish or American, but an amalgamation of cultural waypoints.

In contrast to Parascandola, Adams' landscapes conjure more ethereal, personal locales divorced from any discrete point on a map or specific moment in time.  In these drawings Adams builds layers of graphite in a "process of repetitive mark making" that creates something delicately akin to atmospheric disturbances.

According to Adams, "color, scheme and composition remain ambiguously familiar, as if from an incomplete memory that is nonetheless vivid."  In these works, the cultural elements referenced are those that lay within our own minds; each viewer will experience something different depending on their own personal experiences, social and cultural backgrounds.  Ironically, the resulting "landscape" is created by the viewer - and only begun by the artist.

Mr. Parascandola is a member of the Mid-City Artists based in Washington, DC.  His full portfolio is available at www.parascandola.com. Mr. Adams holds an MFA degree from James Madison University as well as a BFA from VCU Arts. He works as a local arts educator and maintains a studio in Arlington, VA.  His full portfolio is available at www.thefullempty.com.

Like Nowhere I've Been: Landscapes de un Sueño runs through April 23, 2011. The Project space is located in the Pierce School Lofts at 1375 Maryland Avenue, NE, in the H Street Arts and Entertainment District.  Hours for the Project are:

Mondays through Thursdays:  1-5pm

Fridays: 10in

Saturdays:  11am -2pm

And by appointment