Christos Koutsouras: Land Art (Telling Trees)
2018-05-04 08:00 - 2018-07-14 17:00 (America/Indiana/Indianapolis) | Tube Factory artspace, 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
Deeply rooted in place, Land Art (Telling Trees) is inspired by a large-scale fire that tore apart the island of Samos, Greece — the birthplace of the artist. Koutsouras first approached this theme in 1994 after a fire destroyed much of the vegetation on the island. When a massive fire again hit Samos two years ago, he returned to this theme and finished the work he started 20 years ago. Koutsouras envisions the white trees he painted juxtaposed with the black landscape as a visual reference to the act of fire. He shares that his objective was, from the beginning, to talk into the people’s consciousness and show the force of the action. Koutsouras wanted to do more than just create an image. This was a work in progress over several years, starting with a spontaneous reaction back on time.
Land Art (Telling Trees) includes large photographs manipulated by Koutsouras in different ways. Some pieces are painted on, others drawn upon with pencil, and some left intact. The work captures the destruction and rebirth of the forests and fields of Samos from fires that swept through the landscape. He created other works by wrapping paper around the burned trees of Samos and rubbing charcoal imprints. The exhibition also ties Samos and Indianapolis (two places Koutsouras has lived at different times throughout his life) together with a sculpture made from two pine trees from the west side of Indianapolis blown over by straight winds. The 40-year-old trees were saved from rot or becoming mulched by Indy Urban Hardwood.
The upstairs video room features a documentary about Koutsouras and other Greek artists by filmmaker Dia Kontaxis, a professor at the University of Miami. Her work has screened at museums, galleries and festivals including Venice (Art Biennale), New York (Tribeca Film Festival), Montreal (Art Fifa), Paris, Athens, Ankara, Lleida, Taipei and Miami (Art Basel). In another video piece located in the monitors outside of the video room and downstairs, Koutsouras paints the charred trees white to contrast with the blackness of the landscape.
Koutsouras, who studied painting in Germany, often pulls from the instruction of an inspirational teacher and tries to make each work into its own narrative. Each piece must have a beginning, middle and end. The result in this show: a story of the destructive and restorative forces of nature.
The exhibition was made possible by The Efroymson Family Fund, Managed Health Services – MHS, Sun King Brewing Company and Indy Urban Hardwood.

The Immigrant Yarn Project-KnitNight
2018-05-31 17:30 - 18:30 | Tube Factory artspace, 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
Would you like to be part of a nation-wide community art project?
Hundreds of artist / knitter / activists from around the country are collaborating in a single, magnificent gesture of unity, solidarity, and yarn-based creativity in a celebration of our nation’s glorious diversity. Organized nationally by Enactivist, a San Francisco-based 501(c)(3), the project is brought to Indianapolis by Mary Jo Bayliss. There is no cost at all to be part of this project and it is a purely democratic (by the people) and colossal work of public art, representing a cross section of the American experience. We think it’s time to rise above division and come together to celebrate what we all have in common – citizenry in a nation composed of diverse backgrounds, families, politics, faiths, identities and ideas.
Countless small squares and pieces have come into the studio, and more knitted by immigrants and their descendants arrive everyday. From high schools to retirement centers, from California to Maine, we have collected these works of art, representing a personal or familial story. The pieces are compiled, sewn together and fashioned into over 100 sculptural columns, in a single colossal work of yarn-based art. First displayed at Fort Point National Historic Site, at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco in May 2019, and then in locations throughout the USA, the Immigrant Yarn Project will provide a testament to the creative spirit of our shared immigrant heritage. It is a celebration of our national gestalt, where the whole is different and as magnificent as the sum of its parts.
See https://enactivist.org/ to learn more about the organization behind this nationwide public art project.

Collectors' Night: Make an Offer
2018-05-31 19:00 - 21:00 | Listen Hear, 2620 Shelby St, , Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
Collectors’ Night at Listen Hear is presented on the First Thursday of every month. This offers an intimate environment for conversation with the Artist- giving collectors a first chance look at the exhibition.
In the series “Make An Offer” , Jacob Gardner utilizes illustration, printmaking and sound as media to discuss the depth of the human condition. Gardner investigates repetition of form in the communication of emotion.
