Emeryville, CA – The Bullseye Bay Area Gallery presents a solo exhibition of mixed media sculpture by Gina Zetts. To Build a Home will be on view February 7 through April 18, 2015.
Bay Area artist Gina Zetts stacks three distinct, worn suitcases for In Search of Home (2014); cast glass mice clamber over the luggage while more spill out of holes gnawed through each latched case. Endearing, iconic objects abandoned by humans become makeshift shelter for homeless creatures. This is a consistent theme in Zetts’ solo exhibition, a bittersweet meditation on the idea of home. Drawing on her experiences living in rust belt communities, To Build a Home explores the ways in which we make homes in vulnerable situations and what keeps us connected to a place after its collapse.
Each piece in To Build a Home focuses on the tenuous relationship we have with place. A simple wooden, slat backed, side chair holds a glass forest in Modified Consumption (2014), a monument to the complex relationship between the creation of home and the resources in the landscape that are needed to create it. Point of Origin (2014) features embroidered handkerchiefs emblazoned with keyless maps rather than monograms, turning them into unmoored islands rather than personal mementos. While he Sleeps (2014) is a teacup in which a doomed mouse has decided to rest, reflecting our own situation, making homes even as economic and environmental forces work silently to undermine our efforts.
Born in Northwestern Pennsylvania, Gina Zetts received an MFA from the Rochester Institute of Technology and a BFA from Alfred University’s New York State College of Ceramics. She was a finalist for the Niche Awards, the UncommonGoods Glass Award, and has been featured in Corning’s New Glass Review. In 2014, Zetts won the Bronze Award in Bullseye Glass Company’s Emerge competition. She currently lives and works in Oakland, California.