Sharon Feder: BUY
August 2014 @ Macky

The exhibition features a new body of paintings by Colorado-based artist Sharon Feder. The new paintings stem from Feder’s long-standing interest in urban archaeology. This series of work is based on photographs Feder has compiled over the last five years of “big-box stores,” such as Target and IKEA, and of vacant and empty store signs. The work explores how the ubiquity of such stores in both urban and rural environments across the country negatively impacts society and nature. For Feder, the empty signs signify the spoiling effects of American mass-consumerism, which leaves an overabundance of things to buy and makes it difficult for small, independently owned stores to survive. The surplus of readily purchasable goods and materials has instilled a greed for convenience that in turn generates a “throw-away society”—whether it is in the product purchased or the unimaginative architectural planning of retail stores built quickly and carelessly to serve the needs of mass-consumerism.

Feder’s approach to painting exists between abstraction and representation. She is interested in both the visual and metaphorical geometry and emptiness of the large retail stores and their signs. Her handling of paint and use of color draw our attention from the subject of the work to the formal elements of the painting. One can look at the works and see color, shapes, and paint, rather than or in addition to the representation of a retail store. Obvious visual references to specific stores, parking lots or buildings remind us that Feder paints scenes mired in quotidian detail.

Sharon Feder (b. 1957, Denver, Colorado) is a third-generation Denverite who has studied painting intently since early childhood. Feder’s work has been exhibited in New York, Los Angeles and extensively in the Denver area. Her paintings and murals are included in a number of national and international corporate, private and public collections.

BMoCA at Macky is a series of exhibitions curated by BMoCA and presented in the Andrew J. Macky Gallery in the foyer of the Macky Auditorium Concert Hall at the University of Colorado Boulder. The Macky Gallery is located at the intersection of 17th Street and University Avenue on the CU Boulder campus. Admission to the gallery is free and open to the public Monday–Friday, 10am–5pm and to ticketed patrons during Macky Auditorium performances and events. For more information, visit macky.colorado.edu or bmoca.org.

Opening Reception & Expert Talk with Sharon Feder and Lanny Frances DeVuono
Thursday, August 28
5:30pm reception
6:45pm talk at Macky Auditorium Concert Hall, University of Colorado Boulder
Free and open to the public

Expert Talks is BMoCA’s series that presents exhibiting artists in conversation with an “expert” on their work. Guests are invited to participate in informal discussions about the artist’s works, career, and techniques. Each artist selects his or her expert, and past experts have included family members, friends, teachers, and colleagues.

Sharon Feder’s expert is Lanny Frances DeVuono. DeVuono is an Associate Professor of Painting and Drawing at the University of Colorado Denver and chair of the Department of Visual Arts. Additionally she has taught at Eastern Washington University and taught part time at New York University, William Paterson in New Jersey, Rangsit University in Thailand and Trivandrum College of Fine Art in India.

She has received numerous awards for her work, including a Fulbright Fellowship, a Washington State Artist Trust Fellowship, a GAP Grant, and artist residency awards at Yaddo, Centrum, Jentel and RedLine. Her work is in numerous collections, including NW Museum of Art & Culture, Washington State Medical Center, Swedish Hospital, Jundt Art Museum, the Kent Justice Center, Great Western Bank, as well as private collections. DeVuono is represented by Goodwin Fine Arts in Denver, CO.

BMoCA at Macky is an exhibition series curated by BMoCA and presented at Macky Auditorium Concert Hall, University of Colorado Boulder.