Evolutionary Drift: Works by Sue Johnson and Pam Longobardi
On view through August 8, 2009

The 98th Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Art features two artists, Sue Johnson of Maryland and Pam Longobardi of Georgia, whose work overlaps thematically.

Evolutionary Drift explores issues of human overindulgence, excess, and consumption and subsequent transformative effects on the natural environment.  Themes of extinction and mutation are present in both artists’ work, but the ways they deliver their messages are distinct and complementary.

Pam Longobardi travels to distant and not-so-distant shores collectinig  what is essentially run-off from our consumer society.  Longobardi chooses objects from mountains of brightly-colored plastic doodads, mostly unrecognizable from their original form, broken down and modified by time and currents.  These she assembles into mosaic-type installations that remind the viewer of how an entomologist would preserve specimens.  Longobardi also incorporates devalued currency with the plastic debris, alluding to issues of value and worth in a dramatically changing world.  her installation, A Disappearance of Wings, is a somber homage juxtaposing small portraits of extinct birds with antique coffin handles.