When you were young, what did you love to draw? Was it a princess and castles or monsters and aliens? Subtext Gallery in San Diego worked with guest curator Christina Conway in coming up with a neat idea for their next show. Called Homeroom, the exhibition features new works from contemporary artists who've re-imagined their old childhood drawings. That means that each artist went back into their old dusty attic, pulled out an old piece from their childhood and reinterpreted it in their current style.
We asked Dylan Jones, partner at Subtext Gallery, to tell us more.
“Christina Conway (our guest curator for this exhibition) came to us about a year ago and pitched us the idea. We immediately loved the premise, because we knew it would be an opportunity to get a rare glimpse into the childhood of some of our favorite artists.
“Everyone has memories of making drawings or paintings for their parents and getting that feeling of pride when they hung it on the refrigerator. Homeroom is an exhibition in which the artists were able to revisit their childhood (if only for a brief moment), and reinterpret one of those early works. Imagine going back to your roots and finding that spark that inspired you to be an artist in the first place.”
While similar concepts have been done before, this is the first time we've seen it where the actual artist shares a personal piece from his or her childhood. Here, then, are eight artist reinterpretations. There will be a total of 20 of them at the show.
All Aboard! by Allison Sommer
Wanderer by Audrey Kawasaki
The Rose Princess by Harmony Gong
Is the Water Turned Off? by Joey Leung Ka-Yin
You Lift Me Up by Katherine Brannock
Origami Girl by Sean Mahan
4,015 by Soey Milk
In Retrospect by Tran Nguyen
Homeroom will open November 11 and run through December 11, 2011 at Subtext Gallery.
