'IMMATERIAL' Art Exhibit/Solo Project October 6, 2011

Opening Reception: Thursday October 6, 6-10pm; Closing Reception: Friday November 18: 6-10pm

IcTus Gallery presents IMMATERIAL, new works by artist Mary Fernando Conrad, an installation consisting of:
1) Tableau of refuse; 2) Drawings of the unobserved; 3) Identities in vacuum-sealed bags; 4) Exit signs to a better tomorrow

Mary Fernando Conrad's work investigates social infrastructure through the use of vernacular materials such as neon signage, plastic and packaging. http://www.maryconrad.org/

What would have been incomprehensible marvels to past generations, we now absorb, process and ignore as we move ever faster through the culmination of this digital age. With each season the waves lap higher and the tides scatter these temporary edifices erected so purposefully a minute ago. It is the ultimate irony of living in a world where mass production dominates that what has become most disposable is our attention.

Mary Conrad reconnoiters the spaces between making and seeing, in the context of this tension between the signifiers of our systems and we who populate them. By focusing our attention on the meaning carried within even the everyday objects -- mundane, glorious, shifting points of civilization -- Conrad restores the gift of consciousness. A salve and a shield, tools to materialize the dreams ahead.

Mary Fernando Conrad's recent shows include the solo show, Lapidary Terrarium at Michael Rosenthal Gallery and the group show In The Fullness of Time: 20th Anniversary Show at the Luggage Store Gallery. She also recently installed a sculpture as part of the Tenderloin National Forest/Luggage Store Annex where she had completed a residency in 2006. She received her Bachelors of Arts, from Cornell University and a Masters of Architecture from Columbia University after attending the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University.

Official Website: http://ictusgallery.com