Exhibitions

JANET DECKER YANEZ: BUILT TO SPILL

Open Gallery (Lipscomb University) / 507 Hagan St. July 5 - 27th

Janet Decker Yanez

Open Gallery is pleased to present Built to Spill, a solo exhibition and installation by Janet Decker Yanez. The show features sculptures and assemblages from an ongoing direction of work inspired by the properties and potential of waste. Yanez states:

“My work explores the aesthetics of accumulation, the material legacy of consumption, and the compulsion to reuse rather than discard. In this installation, I culled from over one hundred plus tissue box sculptures I’ve emptied then filled for the last 5 years with those every day, utilitarian products that quietly pass through our lives and bodies, to investigate cycles of necessity, waste, and attention. The sculptures hang from the ceiling and rise from the floor, forming precarious columns of sediment—stalactites and stalagmites forged not by nature but by habit, hygiene, and the steady drip of consumer culture. Suspended by filament, these forms confront viewers with the slow but inevitable buildup of everyday refuse, asking what it means to be tethered to products we never intended to notice."

As a seasoned Nashville artist and community member, Yanez has maintained a visual and social practice that flows in and out of her lived experience and interests. In 2012, she founded Ground Floor Gallery + Studios a non-commercial gallery and studio collective that fostered curatorial projects and opportunities for contemporary dialogue and art making. Locally she has exhibited at Galerie Tangerine, Browsing Room Gallery, and Zeitgeist Gallery, but has exhibited nationally and internationally as well. Yanez continues to foster collaboration and creativity among artists from her studio in the historic Hibbs building in the Downtown Presbyterian Church. As part of their Artist-in-Residence program, she helps run their Browsing Room Gallery.

*The exhibition will be on view at Open Gallery, with an opening reception on Friday, July 5th from 6 to 8 PM. The artist will be present.

*This show was curated by Georganna Greene. You can schedule a viewing via Instagram @opengallerynashville or contacting Janet @janet_decker_yanez or Georganna @georgannakel.