Flint, Michigan, where Jack Henry is from, is an automotive town, where abandoned factories and houses fill the suburban landscape. The buildings reveal a rich visual history in their decrepit state, far more interesting than if they had been covered with a fresh coat of paint. Henry’s work is an attempt to capture the essence of that imperfect beauty. Abstract forms combine with traditional still life motifs to confront the viewer with a seemingly cracked, messy and imperfect image where upon closer inspection one can find richness and beauty in its subtle details.

Joseph Hoffman’s most recent works pair the subtle qualities of sound along side its more brazen traits. He explores how sound shapes our interactions with the world around us. As Anne Fernald tells us, “Sound is touch at a distance.” We are constantly bombarded with sounds of all types whether we want to hear them or not: the sound of a neighbor walking in the apartment above you, the hum of your computer, a song played while shopping at the mall, etc. Hoffman is interested in exploring the qualities of sound and its affect on our psyche.

Timothy Horjus’s work evokes a contemporary reality by utilizing the language of modernism to discuss our reliance on digitally produced and transmitted information. The titles of his work are inspired by the anonymous subject lines of spam emails. The ubiquity of these subject lines has started to create a new language, one that is global in its reach and recognizable by its abbreviations, misspelled words, and inferences. Often broaching subjects once believed to be obscene, spam has now fallen into the arena of the commonplace. Horjus assigns as titles to his works the spam subject lines allowing the paintings to function conceptually, now removed from the archaic ideals of modernism and placed into the constantly flowing and infinite connections of the Internet and its web of information and communication.

Sarah Laing’s work centers on her interests in the universality of our biological make-up and landscape; combined with the collective sense of the sublime. The imagery in her work is derived from landscape photographs which have been removed from their original context, rotated, and multiplied. They then evolve to take on ambiguous abstract forms that can be seen in a micro/macro context: animal or landscape, recognizable yet alien.

There is a common conceptual thread in Stewart Watson’s work – a fascination with the point at which two things meet. While that point of contact continues to speak of weakness and controlled failure, this new body of work is drawn from her interest in her genealogical history as developed through natural genetic patterning and created codes and languages.

Artist Bios

Jack Henry

Jack Henry, b. 1984, attended Florida Atlantic University where he was an exhibition designer for the Elaine Baker Gallery and president of FAU’s Sculpture Arts Society, and where he received his BFA in sculpture in 2007. While at FAU, Henry focused his artistic energy on a large series of guerilla public sculptures titled: Parking Lot Sculptures. Henry has been included in several group exhibitions in Florida and Michigan.

Joseph Hoffman

Joseph Hoffman, b. 1984 in Burtonsville, Maryland, received his BFA from the University of Dayton, Ohio in 2006. While at the University of Dayton Hoffman was the vice president of the Fine Arts Co-operative and co-curated the show Fabre, Couler Kleur: Variance, Difference, Repetition. Hoffman was a finalist in the 29th Annual Whitewater Valley Art Competition and has shown his work in various juried and group exhibitions throughout the nation.

Timothy J. Horjus

Timothy J. Horjus was born in Louisville KY in 1978. He received a B.A. in Art Education in 2000 and then taught for a while before moving to the east coast in 2004. Horjus also received a Post-Baccalaureate from MICA in 2005. He continues to live, work and exhibit in Baltimore MD. He believes in the necessity of professionalism and the power of unicorns.

Sarah Laing

Sarah Laing b. 1984, Edinburgh, Scotland, and graduated with BFA(hons) from Duncan of Jordanstone School of Art and Design, Dundee in 2006. Laing has exhibited throughout Scotland and more recently in the US. In 2008 she received an ARHU Graduate Travel Award to present work in Misery Factory as part of Command Print’s 2008 Southern Graphics Conference. Laing served on the committee at the artist-led art space Generator Projects in Dundee before moving across the pond to pursue her MFA at the University of Maryland.

Stewart Watson

Stewart Watson, b. 1968, received her BFA degree from The Pennsylvania State University in 1991. Watson's work has been featured in several solo exhibitions and over 60 group and juried shows. Reviews of her work have been featured in area publications and she has been featured on Maryland Public Television's Artworks This Week. Watson has received Individual Artist Grants from Maryland State Arts Council in 2001 and 2007, and in 2004 was a Trawick Prize finalist. Along with creating her own work, she has curated exhibitions, and is a founder and the Exhibitions Director of Area 405, a 6000 square foot alternative exhibition space in Baltimore, MD since 2003. Watson lives in Baltimore with her partner in crime- husband Jim Vose, their hot-off-the-presses 5month old baby, Pulman Percival, a Great Dane named Porter, and one and a half cats.