Featuring: Gregg Deal, TetraPAKMAN aka Victor Castro, and Webster Phillips III
On view: December 11, 2015 – January 23, 2016
Opening Reception: Friday, December 11th, 6 – 8pm

Dwell is a group exhibition that celebrates the first year of the HOME Residency program, founded in 2015 by artist and former Creative Alliance resident Michael Owen. The exhibition features painter Gregg Deal, sculptor TetraPAKMAN aka Victor Castro, and photographer Webster Phillips III, and is both a sampling of the work the artists completed during their time at HOME, as well as new collaborative works, and other personal pieces specially made for Dwell.

HOME is a communal art space in the heart of the Highlandtown Arts District. Through short-term residencies, international artists connect with and strengthen the area’s diverse populations through the sharing of their craft in workshops, lectures and collaborative art making experiences. Artists Gregg Deal and TetraPAKMAN both travelled to Baltimore for 3 – 4 weeks each, working through the program to create a number of public works and smaller, personal pieces. Baltimore-based photographer, Webster Phillips III joined both artists to document the events of their stay, including the process by which they engaged the community, and to collaborate with each artist on unique soundscapes and films that will all be included in the exhibition.

Gregg Deal is a husband, a father, an artist and a member of the Paiute Tribe of Pyramid Lake. As a provocative contemporary artist/activist and 15 year resident of the DC metro area, much of Gregg’s work deals with indigenous identity and pop-culture, touching on issues of race relations, historical consideration and stereotype. This is especially true with Gregg’s latest performance piece, The Last American Indian On Earth, a work that exploits the stereotypes that exist in American culture while challenging the viewer’s considerations of the indigenous as both contemporary and relic. With this work, as well as his paintings and mural work, Gregg advances issues within Indian country such as decolonization, the mascot issue (local and across the US) and appropriation. Within the context of such heavy subject matter, Gregg speaks intelligently to these issues, brings a sharp wit, and is keenly aware of his place as an indigenous man and a contemporary artist.

TetraPAKMAN, aka Victor Castro is a Mexican artist working in social sculpture. His work focuses on questions and issues of sustainability, the environment, educational strategies, and social networks. One of the central aims of TetraPAKMAN's work is to challenge the perception that packaging and other materials are just trash or recyclables. He has explored local resources for his practice and possibilities for collaborative social sculpture projects. Called the USgathering Project, TetraPAKMAN's unique process combines participatory workshops, energetic public activities, materials gathering initiatives, school visits, monumental pieces, abstract art, education, and environmental activism. His community-generated projects are made from thousands of repurposed, often discarded everyday objects that are gathered by people from all walks of life. This process gives participants an opportunity to re-imagine the possibilities and potential of these materials in art, construction and science. TetraPAKMAN’s work has been shown in Mexico, Spain, Peru and the United States.

Webster Phillips, III, is maintaining the tradition of his father and grandfather producing an artistic, and graphic body of work about the Baltimore of his generation. His work was recently featured in the Reginald Lewis Museum’s exhibit, “For Whom It Stands Too.” He is focused on embracing the digital age and making The I.Henry Collection available for viewing online. The ihenryphoto.com site was featured as Baltimores best website in 2005.