About the exhibition:

DAY JOBS + QUEER UTOPIAS is a group of sculptural and mixed media artworks that are born at the intersection of labor and art. The six artists on display–Daisy Diamond, josh graupera, Mary Henjes, Clyde Jurysta, Nicki Ripple and Ash Fritzsche–marry their vocational skill sets with their queer daydreams to create a tapestry of radical world-building. Curated by DVAA Linda Lee Alter Fellow Ash Fritzsche, the objective of DAY JOBS + QUEER UTOPIAS is to dissolve social constructs around class, art and gender and to celebrate the queering of labor and the romance of craft.

Working in varied media, each artist brings their unique blend of skills and visions to the exhibition: welder and objects conservator Daisy Diamond uses textiles and welding to create contemporary relics of ritual and memory, while educator josh graupera uses drawing, painting, sound and sculpture to put the art of world-building into the hands of their audience. Mary Henjes combines their passion for automechanics and metal to create sculptures that defy definition, and Clyde Jurysta borrows from their background in electrical construction to create sculptures and light art that elicit queerness and illusion. Carpenter and sea captain Nicki Ripple’s art is informed by their years spent on traditional sailing vessels, while Ash Fritzsche’s work relies on a devotion to the structural underpinnings of our unseen world.

Each of these artists’ works exist firmly within their respective work environments. Together the artworks shift traditional narratives around gender, craft, skill and art and encourage the audience to delve into the nuances of liberation and labor. Artist josh graupera considers their practice of world building “a daily ritual of reflection and dreaming.” In DAY JOBS + QUEER UTOPIA, Fritzsche aims to showcase the potential of the nourished daydream.

DAY JOBS + QUEER UTOPIAS will be on view in Gallery 1 at Da Vinci Art Alliance October 3 until October 20 with an opening reception on October 5th from 4-7pm. Visitors will have the opportunity to engage with the artworks and participate in discussions and workshops throughout the month.

ABOUT THE CUrator

Ash Fritzsche (b. 1989, Melbourne, Australia) is an artist living and working in Philadelphia. Her practice explores contemporary grief, ritual, and symbol. Her process is rooted in observational drawing as she translates the intimate, ephemeral and quotidien into a personal lexicon that she then uses to build visual narratives, talisman and artifacts. 

ABOUT THE FeATURED ARTISTS

Daisy Diamond’s sculptures and paintings explore the relationships between objects, decay, and the subtleties of material memory. Informed by their training in the physical care of material culture within the field of art conservation, Daisy creates visual objects that resists simple categorization and emphasize our relationships to objects as sites of ritual and historical reckoning. They develop compositions through drawing, collage, and the study of industrial technology, found objects, and museum collections. 

josh graupera (they/them) is an artist living in Philadelphia, PA. Their practice explores the relationship between visual art and participatory action, using drawing, printmaking, and facilitation practices. They enjoy working with people to explore worldbuilding techniques to create new systems and structures in imaginary worlds as well as our own. 

josh has participated in residencies and programs at The Fabric Workshop and Museum Post-Graduate Apprentice Training Program, The African American Meuseum of Philadelphia Residency for Art + Social Change, Electronic Textile Camp, Second State Press, Mural Arts of Philadelphia’s People’s Budget Office and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. 

Mary Henjes is a sculptor, metalworker, educator, labor organizer, amateur motorcycle mechanic, and butch located out of Pittsburgh, PA. They received their BA in studio arts from Bard College in 2017. Their current practice starts with an approach to art-making via material investigation of metal, and lands somewhere between painting, sculpture, and the unknowable Other. 

(Clyde Jurysta) I am an artist currently living in Philly. I use a variety of techniques including wood working, welding, painting and electricity. Some of my inspirations and themes are geometry, science, optical illusions, and gateways to other worlds. I like making things, and I hope they bring good feelings to you. 

Nicki Ripple is a carpenter and boat captain who resides in Philadelphia, PA and Midcoast Maine. Nicki works in woodturning and carving, a practice inspired by years spent on traditional sailing vessels. 

ABOUT The Linda Lee Alter Track

The Linda Lee Alter track provides an opportunity for one queer artist, centering those who have historically lived within the margins, giving them a space at and with DVAA to explore connection, transformation and liberation. The selected artist/curator Fellow will present an exhibition or curatorial project that explores LGBTQ+ narratives and experience of the world. Artists/curators working in all mediums are invited to celebrate Philadelphia’s broad diversity of sexual and gender minorities through thoughtful, provocative, and visionary visual arts presentations.

This Fellowship track is named for Philadelphia artist, collector, and philanthropist; Linda Lee Alter.