Bridge 12: Melissa Cameron, Kevin Snipes, Betty Vera

Bridge 12 is three solo exhibitions: the saw-pierced recycled objects of Australian metalsmith Melissa Cameron, Jacquard tapestries by New York textile artist Betty Vera, and ceramic vessels patterned with quirky, figurative drawings by Kevin Snipes. Cameron’s jewelry construction draws on symmetric patternmaking operations: translation, rotation, reflection and the transformations of Euclidean geometry. In the manufacture of her wearable works, Cameron saw-pierces recycled objects by hand, and employs laser-cutting technology while working with titanium and stainless steel. Kevin Snipes combines his background in ceramics with a compulsion to draw on everything he makes. Despite the lighthearted, cartoon-like word bubbles filled with scribbles and slang, and the childlike figurative representations, Snipes’ work focuses on racial marginalization and the problems underlying the recognition of difference. Betty Vera searches beneath the noise and visual clutter of everyday life to reveal the underlying solitude, deep silence and fleeting nature of existence. With her use of a digital Jacquard loom, pixels become threads as the artist creates woven images that blur distinctions between computer technology, weaving, painting and photography.