The Schwitzer Gallery in Factory Arts North will put a spotlight on 30 artists who make a practice around furniture design and woodworking on First Friday, Dec. 6. The exhibition, In Good Company, will be a celebration of regional designers, makers and fabricators.
Factory Arts North is part of the Factory Arts District, the recently rebranded facility formerly known as the Circle City Industrial Complex.
As is the case on every First Friday, many of the over 100 studios in Factory Arts North will be open.
According to a press release from the Factory Arts District, the lineup includes:
Aurora PhotoCenter, which supports visual artists working in photography through exhibitions, residencies, workshops, visiting artist talks, and access to creative tools. As the only nonprofit of its type in Indiana devoted exclusively to photography, Aurora is an essential hub for the medium in the arts community. Over the last decade, Colombian-born photographer Alexandra McNichols-Torroledo has focused her work on the indigenous communities of North and South America who protect sacred plants, water, and the rainforest. The exhibition ESX/COCA, in the Efroymson Gallery, presents images that McNichols-Torroledo made at the Wasak Kwewesx School in the Nasa indigenous reservation of Toribio, Cauca, Colombia, printed with the beautiful platinum-palladium process. Also, the Aurora’s Main Gallery will showcase The Sun Sets Midafternoon, until Dec. 15.
Five Seasons Studio, where Martha Nahrwold, the Factory Arts District’s longest-serving resident artist, invites visitors to wander down a country road that curves around trees in the distance, alongside golden fields in the late Indiana summer. Using a new variation of a century-old technique, Nahrwold creates landscapes and tree studies by floating inks on water. “My Marbled Impressionism paintings reflect calm and peaceful places where I’d like to be,” Nahrwold said. “When I can’t be serious anymore, I paint animals, which take on a whimsical life of their own.” Full Circle Nine Gallery
The Full Circle Nine Gallery will feature Vivien Khamis in The Beings of Eratu. “It’s a fun romp through this world I’ve been making,” Khamis said. “I normally do more dark surrealist art, but deep down, I just want to draw dragons, and knights. It’s always been my comfort subject, and probably will be for all my life.” “A show for nerds,” The Beings of Eratu is an exercise in portraiture and illustration work centered around fantasy and surrealistic stylings, depicted with everything from digital drawings to oil painting. This is a step into a very rich world. “I’ve always been someone to make characters and stories for them. Art gave me the outlet to make those characters come to life and not just be stories in my head. Each piece I have up has 100 hours worth of history to them, and many stories of how they interact with their world,” Khamis said.
Scott Johnson / Studio F60 is a contemporary art and design studio with a mix of painting, collage, and digital art. He blends representational and figurative artwork as well as selected forms of abstraction. There’s also a pool table.
Larry Lad / LadArt is the home of a painter who covers the spectrum of abstract and representational work. He likes to add dimension to his paintings using additional canvas, cigar boxes, collage, and other materials to layer his work. His show Replication traces his journey as an artist as he searches for his own style by borrowing from the works of artists he admires. Lad also creates large sculptures and installations.
Nancy Lee of Nancy Lee Designs Studio is a metalsmith, enamelist and artisan jeweler. Her jewelry is made by hand in silver and karat gold, one at a time or in small batches, and is often embellished with faceted gems or unusual cabochons. Most are one of a kind. Lee’s abstract enamel landscapes are kiln fired at high temperatures using pigmented powdered glass on a copper substrate and are mounted on wood. She produces small-scale copper sculpture using traditional metalsmithing techniques. Lee’s new work revolves around a simple four-petal flower shape. She uses this shape in a variety of ways, including minutely detailed sterling silver flower stud earrings set with white gemstones. Other styles may include a cluster of various sizes and shapes of the four-petal flower in bunched arrangements on a necklace or in a simple embellished ring stack. Nancy Lee is one of the three original artist pioneers who brought First Friday art openings to the Circle City Industrial Complex.
Located just east of Downtown Indianapolis, the Factory Arts District (formerly the Circle City Industrial Complex) encompasses 16 acres and houses two buildings – Factory Arts South (1011 Mass Ave), a 95,000 square foot facility, and Factory Arts North (1125 Brookside Ave.), a 420,000 square foot facility, as well as two free parking lots. The property was previously home to the Schwitzer Corp., a pioneer in automotive technology.
