What's Happening

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Fall 2011

Launch of the I Ped, a tool for walking!

I Ped from Vaughn Bell on Vimeo.

OUTLANDISH: CONTEMPORARY DEPICTIONS OF NATURE
AT THE BEDFORD GALLERY, WALNUT CREEK, CA

JULY 7 – SEPTEMBER 4, 2011
Reception: July 7th, 6:00-8:00 p.m.

The Bedford Gallery wraps up a memorable 2010-11 season with Outlandish, an intriguing exhibition that looks at landscape from a variety of vantage points in all media. From the micro to the macro, artists in Outlandish explore themes ranging from a tiny speck of a garden to a global view. The show is part national juried exhibition and part invitational, combing two distinct curatorial visions. Alison Gass, Assistant Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, selected 63 artists from around the country for the Outlandish juried segment. The Outlandish Invitational includes and additional 29 artists and was curated by Bedford Gallery Curator Carrie Lederer.

Read my recent blog post on the Public Art Network's site

http://blog.artsusa.org/2011/04/12/embedded-in-transportation/

Spring 2011
I recently completed the installation Zea Mays High ways for my solo show Transported Landscapes at the Walter E. Terhune Gallery at Owens College in Toledo, OH. Visitors to the gallery were invited to walk across the map of the US Highway system made from seed corn. As a second phase of the project, a plot of the same seed corn is being planted on the college campus to transform the landscape and become a living completion of the sculpture.

The book This Land is Your/My Land is now published on Blurb.com. The book documents my project Land for Adoption with the Cultivation Utility Vehicle.

This Land is Your/My Land by Vaughn Bell | Make Your Own Book

June 18- August 27, 2010
"Thinking Caps" at Jack Straw New Media Gallery, Seattle, WA
Opening reception: June 18, 7pm
Artist Talk: July 16, 7pm


February 2010- more work on the Dust Mask series, currently exhibited at SOIL.

Dust Mask 1.1, photo of performance, 2010

October 2009- I installed Village Green at Lycoming Collge in Pennsylvania.

Put together some photos from the exhibition Natural Selection, a two-person show with Josh Keyes at Swarm Gallery in Oakland. See the pics here.

The event had some great press including this coverage on KQED:http://kqed02.streamguys.us/anon.kqed/topics/arts/gallery-crawl/0908-gallerycrawl.m4v

September 2009- Just returned from Germany where I completed two commissioned works for Landscape 2.0 at the Edith Russ Site for New Media Art

In keeping with the tradition of the romantic wanderer in the landscape, I created "Landscape for Walking," a walking stick to help you access landscape everywhere. Visitors to the gallery can take it for a walk. Photo gallery here.

Here is a new Biosphere in the personal biosphere series. This one is a three-person biosphere, a very upclose, intimate experience with moss, plants and two other people. Here it is, waiting to be occupied. More photos and video coming soon.

September 2009- "Melt" two-person show with Sara Osebold at Gallery 4Culture in Seattle

stills from Melt, a video projection with glass, sound, seating cushion, looping video TRT 5:22

June 2009- August 2009-"Post-Colonial," a site specific collaboration for Carkeek Park in Seattle. Meredith Hall and I created this project in which we worked with volunteers to harvest invasive non-native vines from the park, which we then wove into shelter structures. The shelters serve as a site from which native plants are up for adoption in a special event. Participants adopt the plants and then re-colonize the park with them. Meredith's drawing:
.

Check out the April, 2009 edition of Artnews, in which my work is featured in an article called "Turning Over a New Leaf" by Rachel Wolff

2009- I am still busy in my role as the staff artist at the Seattle Department of Transportation. Current projects include: artist-designed bike racks, sidewalk stamps, pedestrian bridge design team work, and art planning for several upcoming capital projects with 1% for art....full report to come later.

April 2009- I traveled to Missouri State University in Springfield, MO for a visiting artist trip and to speak at the opening of their exhibition "Troubles in Paradise"

February 2009- Visiting Artist at the For Site Foundation with a class from California College of the Arts. I created this little place-inspired work.

Dust Mask 1.0: protective dust mask replaces urban smells with oak leaf layer from the land at For-Site

Badlands at Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art
I completed the new commission "Village Green" for this exhibition which opened May 24, 2008 and continues through spring 2009. "Cultivate" at the Berkshire Botanic Gardens featured an outdoor installation as well. See some related press on the press page.

Recently completed....
SOIL@SOIL, October 2008
SOIL@AQUA Art Miami, December 2008

"Its Getting Hot in Here" traveled to the Akus Gallery at Eastern Connecticut University, with a performance at the opening, October 23.

July 2008- "Cut and Paste" at the Kirkland Art Center

The CUV appeared in several locations in 2008.

February 2008- Visiting Artist and exhibition at Pratt Fine Arts Center, Seattle

February 2008- Exhibition and performance at Montserrat College of Art, MA

March 2008- Environmental Performance Actions at Exit Art, NY

March 2008- "Sublime Climate" Biosphere Adoption, Thompson Gallery at the Cambridge School of Weston, Weston, MA