Inspired by the lush tangle of plant life that envelops Glyndor House during the warmer months, Joanne Howard has created a stop-motion animation projection that features a network of rapidly growing vines. Based partly on decorative motifs used in botanical wallpaper, the animation of the drawing begins slowly, tracing a series of intricate patterns. As the momentum builds, the drawing explodes out of its initial precision into a frenzy of dense, freeform gesture. This play between the formality of repetition and pattern and the chaotic imagery of nature reveals humanity’s consuming and ultimately futile desire to create order in the persistent entropy of the natural world.

This is Howard’s first use of video projection. Her background working with more traditional media, such as pencil and watercolor, comes through in the delicate lines of the drawing itself. Projecting the image onto the wall allows the animation to activate its surroundings, drawing attention to the work’s location in the Sunroom and amplifying its exploration of the complex relationship between interior and exterior spaces.

Joanne Howard’s work will be shown in Selections from the Kentler Flat File at the Kentler International Drawing Space, in Brooklyn, NY in June. She exhibited recently in Projects ’07 at the Islip Art Museum Carriage House in East Islip, NY. Earlier exhibitions include Veneers and The Experimenters at Lombard-Fried Fine Arts in New York, NY, and Works on Paper at White Columns in New York, NY. She earned her BFA at Syracuse University in Syracuse, NY, and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture in Skowhegan, ME. For more information, see www.joannehoward.com.

Outside In, 2008 Stop-motion animation 1:15 minutes, loops continuously Courtesy of the artist

Outside In, 2008

Outside In, 2008

The Sunroom Project Space is an opportunity for New York-area emerging artists to develop a special project or create a new body of work to exhibit in a solo show. Organized by Assistant Curator Leigh Ross, exhibiting artists this season include: Jung Eun Park, March 8–April 20; Joanne Howard, April 25–June 1; Kim Baranowski, September 9–October 13; Adam Brent, September 9–October 13; and Tamalyn Miller, October 18–November 30.

Public Programs
May 3, 4, 1-4pm, Family Art Project: Roll out the Patterns/ Elabore su diseno. View Joanne Howard’s video projection and observe the way Wave Hill’s vines grow, then cover a length of wallpaper with drawn and stenciled viney growth to create your own patterned scroll.

May 18, 2 pm, Meet the Artist: Joanne Howard. Joanne Howard discusses her work in the Sunroom Project Space.

The Sunroom Project Space series is supported by the Milton & Sally Avery Arts Foundation. Support for the Visual Arts Program is provided by the Lily Auchincloss Foundation, The Greenwall Foundation, Target, the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts–a state agency. Sustaining support for Wave Hill is provided by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

The Arts at Wave Hill are sponsored by