V E R O N I C A D E J E S U S

S E P T E M B E R 8 – O C T O B E R 1 52 0 0 5

C U R AT E D B Y S Q U E A K C A R N WAT H

C U E A R T F O U N D AT I O N

This is the forw a rd, still waiting for text.Artist's statement, ie: whatthe artist intends to say. This is the text, this is the writing. Ipso facto. By all means, go ahead, this is thetext, this is the writing. Ipso facto. By all means, go ahead, this is the text, this is the writing. Ipso facto. Byall means, go ahead, this is the text, this is the writing. Ipso facto. What constitutes the artist's statement, ie:what the artist intends to say. By all means, go ahead, this is the text, this is the writing. Ipso facto. By allmeans, go ahead, this is the text, this is the writing.This is the text, this is the writing. Ipso facto. By allmeans, go ahead, this is the text, this is the writing. Ipso facto. By all means, go ahead, this is the text, this isthe writing. Ipso facto. By all means, go ahead, this is the text, this is the writing. Ipso facto. What consti-tutes the artist's statement, ie: what the artist intends to say. By all means, go ahead, this is the text, this isthe writing. Ipso facto. By all means, go ahead, this is the text, this is the writing.

the handed-down artist

Our notions about the world are formed in part by what Wi t t g e n-stein called the handed-down world. A place and space understood as a given.

Ve ronica De Jesus presents to us what we recognize. She makes aworld familiar to us as our world. The world. This shared knowledge comes from the received or handed-down world. Ve ronica De Jesus is the handed-down art i s t .

She questions our knowledge of the world by re-making what isrecognized with the use of discarded or thrown out bits of market consumer culture: card b o a rd boxes,fabric, and gro c e ry bags. All are brought together in familiar yet curious questioning modalities to cre a t ewhat we know and donít know or recognize. The card b o a rd boxes and gro c e ry bags create a parallelre a l i t y. New and old. Familiar and strange. Her work surrounds us with her thought process. We are insideand outside simultaneously. We occupy two bodies at once: hers and ours.

The unquestioned, in other words, the handed-down world makesquestioning possible. Questions about being and cert a i n t y. Is this what I know? How do I know? Is it because the knowledge comes from the received or handed-down world? The handed-down art i s tunderstands our shared knowledge. Unlike the bricoleur, who reveals life by selecting materials with ani n h e rent voice and who speaks with things and through the medium of materials, the handed-down art i s tis a philosopher trying to understand life and given knowledge. The handed-down artist does this by t r a n s f o rming: using what exists married to complex concepts of existence and knowing. For the bricoleur,t h e re is an advanced transmission: the materials and things have a specific i t y, which hold onto their ownm e m o ry and history.

Ve ronica De Jesus’ work is about a sense of self, a sense ofcommunity: the navigation between the two. The work illuminates our world, the handed-down world: an experience we share with others. In the handed down world we are all others.

Squeak Carn w a t h

C U R AT O R ’ SS T A T E M E N T

For most of my life, I've felt more stable while traveling, and lesss e c u re while living in a home. Throughout my childhood, my dad, older brother and I were constantly onthe move. Long-term housing was a fairy tale to me- something on television - an abstract idea rolling inmy imagination. Sometimes I would get curious and want to stay put in one place, yet I would never feelc o m f o rtable when we would stop to live in cities for months, or even one or two years at a time.

My dad always made our traveling a fun adventure, which helpedameliorate the stressfulness of the moves. For example, he always filled the trunk with fun stuff to playwith. We would stop to eat sandwiches and play sports until we were exhausted, or had to hit the road again. Traveling adventures, like our picnics in the park, are still very much alive in me and are stillplaying back in my memory.

My transitory childhood spilled in to my adult life and my studiopractice. I have made most of my art in precarious spaces, such as hallways, porches, benches, trains,buses, cars and while at work. I have primarily used impermanent materials, which I often find whileperambulating through cities for hours and miles at a time.

With perseverance, I have managed to live in one state (Californ i a )for over 10 years. Even though I still make art on the go, I now appreciate the stability of having ap e rmanent studio. My studio is like an altar of photos, drawings, writings, personal gifts from friends, andrandom ephemera I have collected through the years. The arrangement of these memory-laden itemsc reates a space where I feel "at home" and grounded. Like the contents of my dad's trunk, they inspire meto imagine and play, but instead of traveling across the country, I am now traveling inside myself andwithin the stories of the past. I feel like a tree: I am rooted in one place, yet constant movement, like thatof the xylem and phloem inside a tree, exists inside me.

Ve ronic DeJesus

A R T I S T ’ SS TAT E M E N T

U N T I T L E D, 2004

Mixed media, 11' x 13' x 3'

U N T I T L E D, 2004

Mixed media, 11' x 13' x 3'

U N T I T L E D, 2004

Mixed media, 11' x 13' x 3'

U N T I T L E D, 2004

Mixed media, 11' x 13' x 3'

U N T I T L E D , 2004

Mixed media, 11' x 13' x 3'

U N T I T L E D, 2004

Mixed media, 11' x 13' x 3'

U N T I T L E D, 2004

Mixed media, 11' x 13' x 3'

U N T I T L E D, 2004

Mixed media, 11' x 13' x 3'

U N T I T L E D, 2004

Mixed media, 11' x 13' x 3'

U N T I T L E D, 2004

Mixed media, 11' x 13' x 3'

U N T I T L E D, 2004

Mixed media, 11' x 13' x 3'

U N T I T L E D, 2004

Mixed media, 11' x 13' x 3'

U N T I T L E D, 2004

Mixed media, 11' x 13' x 3'

veronica de jesus was born in Cleveland, Ohio and raised inmany American cities. After attending community colleges in the Sacramento area, she was accepted tothe San Francisco Art Institute, where she graduated with honors in 1998.† For three years following hergraduation, De Jesus showed at the Jenn Joy Gallery in downtown San Francisco. While holding downt h ree jobs, she learned how to read and write braille. From 1999 to 2001, she taught arts and crafts to theblind community at the Lighthouse for the Blind in San Francisco. In 2001, De Jesus was accepted to theMaster of Fine Arts program at UC Berkeley. The Department of Art Practice awarded her the EisnerAw a rd twice, once for each year of the program. Upon graduating, De Jesus was granted a year- l o n gresidency at the Headlands Center for the Arts in Marin, California. She shows extensively in the SanFrancisco Bay Area and is scheduled to show in November 2005†at the Linc Gallery in downtown SanFrancisco. De Jesus is†a member of the Sound Shack, a small group of artists dedicated to providing aspace for dialogue through sound technology, journalism and visual art. The Sound Shack has perf o rm e dlocally in the San Francisco Bay Area, and is†currently working on a project for fall 2005. De Jesusc u rrently lives and has an art studio in Oakland, Californ i a .

Squeak Carnwat h has been an artist since she was six years old,and an educator since she received her Master of Fine Arts degree from the California College of Arts andCrafts in 1977. Widely known for her luminescent paintings, her oeuvre also includes works on paper ands c u l p t u res in clay or glass. She exhibits regularly in San Francisco at John Berg g ruen Gallery, in Seattle atJames Harris Gallery and in Kansas City at Byron Cohen Gallery.

C a rnwathís accomplishments have been recognized with numero u sgrants and awards, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Artís 1980 SECA award, twoNational Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, a 1994 fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation and aFlintridge Foundation award in 2002. Her paintings are held in museums and private collections intern a-t i o n a l l y. Her work has been the subject of articles in major periodicals, including A RT n e w s, A rt f o ru m, andThe New York Ti m e s. A monograph with nearly one hundred color re p roductions of her paintings, S q u e a k

C a rnwath: Lists, Observations, & Counting, was published in 1996 by Chronicle Books.

B I O S

CUE Art Foundation, a non-pro fit organization, provides educa-tional programs for young artists and aspiring art professionals in New York and from around the country.These programs draw on the unique community of artists, critics, and educators brought together by theF o u n d a t i o n ’s season of exhibitions, public lectures, and its in-gallery studio program. Gallery intern s h i p sand stipends aff o rd the next generation of art professionals intimate, working knowledge of the art - m a k i n gand exhibition processes. CUE’s 2000 sq. ft. gallery and offices, located in New Yo r k ’s Chelsea gallerydistrict, serves as the base for the various educational programs conducted by CUE.

The Foundation’s exhibition season gives unknown or under-recognized artists professional exposure comparable to that off e red by neighboring commercial galleries,without the usual financial restraints. CUE does not promote a particular school of artistic practice orregional bias; we only re q u i re that exhibiting artists must either not have had a solo exhibition in ac o m m e rcial venue, or have received minimal recent public exposure.

C U E ’s Advisory Council, an honorary group of artists and leadingfig u res from the arts education, applied arts, art history, and literary communities, has the responsibility of selecting exhibition curators. The curators, in turn, nominate artists to exhibit at CUE, and continue to play a role throughout the exhibition process, helping the artists catalogue their work for exhibition. Both the Advisory Council and the exhibition curators actively participate in the public lectures and educational pro g r a m s .

C U E A R TF O U N D AT I O NM I S S I O N

B OARD OF D I REC TO R S

G re g o ry AmenoffThomas G. DevineThomas K. Y. HsuBrian D. Stare r

A DV I S O RY CO U N C I L

G re g o ry AmenoffVicky A. ClarkWilliam CorbettMeg CranstonJames DrakeB ruce Ferg u s o nS a n f o rd HirschDana Hoey

EXECUTIVE D IR ECTO R

J e remy Adams

G A L L E RY CO O R D I N ATO R

Sandhini Poddar

G A L L E RY ASS I STA N T

Beatrice Wo l e rt - We e s e

All artwork © Karl Jensen

Catalog design: Elizabeth Ellis