Long Distance Relationship

MAY 05 – JUNE 03, 2006

Presented at Sala Diaz (San Antonio, TX)

Sala Diaz in partnership with Transformer proudly presents Washington, D.C. based emerging artists, Breck Brunson, Nilay Lawson, and Solomon Sanchez in Long Distance Relationship, an exhibition of sculpture, sound, painting and mixed-media installation exploring multiple levels of relationship to self, society, and community.

MEDIA

• Postcard

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

Long Distance Relationship is the culmination of The Sala Diaz/Transformer Exchange Project, a two-year collaborative exploration focused on building relationships between two artist-centered organizations, Sala Diaz of San Antonio, TX and Transformer of Washington, DC.

Creating opportunities for artistic exchange while fostering a mutually enriching dialogue between two organizations that, however similar, have each emerged from distinct cultural regions, and have each developed their own organizational structures appropriate to their community of artists and audiences, The Sala Diaz/Transformer Exchange Project developed and presented a series of exhibition projects and public forums taking place in Washington D.C. and San Antonio, Texas.

The Sala Diaz/Transformer Exchange Project was launched in 2004 with the exhibition sub-TEXT presenting San Antonio based visual artists Jesse Amado, Andrea Caillouet, & Chuck Ramirez at Transformer for an exhibition of text based multimedia work. The exhibition was very well received by both audience and press and was the first Washington, DC exhibition for each of the artists.

Organized by guest curator Henry Estrada and Sala Diaz Director/Curator Hills Snyder, sub-TEXT, as described by Estrada,

"explores the hidden, implied and underlying content in words and texts when taken out of their original context and re-presented in another. Using text as a central image, or as a vehicle to invoke images, the artists in sub-TEXT expand our understanding of how words are deciphered and meaning is constructed through visual literacy."

Following the initial success of The Sala Diaz/Transformer Exchange Project, Sala Diaz is now very pleased to share the work of three dynamic young artists from Washington, DC with the exhibition Long Distance Relationship, guest curated by Transformer’s co-directors Jayme McLellan and Victoria Reis.

Featuring distinct creative styles and unique bodies of work, the artists in Long Distance Relationship collectively and individually examine societal ideals and the sometimes underdog status of artists through humorous and compelling mixed media interventions, sculptural objects, painting and other media. Long Distance Relationship expands on the critically successful exhibition The Relationship Show presented at Transformer in February 2006.

According to guest curators McLellan and Reis,

"with their thoughtful and yet playful approach to investigating and commenting on the many issues, thoughts, and feelings that exist in all relationships, Breck Brunson, Nilay Lawson, and Solomon Sanchez are ideal artists for Transformer to work with and present as part of sharing best practices, commonalities as well as differences in the ongoing building of organizational relationships through The Sala Diaz/Transformer Exchange Project."

Brunson, Lawson and Sanchez all graduated from the Corcoran College of Art and Design in Washington, DC in 2002. They frequently collaborate on ideas including exhibitions at the Your Last Neighbor art space located next to Transformer.