About Operating System
Operating System is an online platform for creative output initiated by artist team Ashley Garner and Neill Catangay. Both artists are second year MFA students at Pafa and are members of the MFA Exhibitions Committee. The platform's first Open Call, Alternatives '20: Art House was created in collaboration with the MFA Exhibitions Committee, Dr. Kevin Richards and Addison Namnoum of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. This online project was created out of the necessity to connect artists and their practices with the community in this challenging time of quarantine and uncertainty. We want to encourage different ways to think about how artwork is displayed both in a physical space and a virtual space. What can we learn from work when it's displayed in an unconventional or new space? How can we express our work in this new digital landscape we find ourselves in? How do you see your work living in a digital exhibition? How can we re-evaluate the way we operate?
Project Managers
Ashley Garner - TheColorG - Project Manager, Artist and Curator
​thecolorg.com
Ashley Garner TheColorG (b. 1991) is a visual artist who grew up in Martinsburg, PA and currently resides in Philadelphia, PA. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and is currently pursuing her Master of Fine Arts degree from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. Ash works in soft sculpture, site-specific installation and painting. Her work examines visual and physical relationships between art and architecture that exist as a metaphor for connections and bridges between her childhood and adulthood experiences. She uses symbolic soft objects as a physical link between those experiences within a presented architecture and space.
Ashley’s work has been exhibited at museums, galleries, and institutions that include Atelier FAS Gallery, Philadelphia, PA; the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA; Cherry Street Pier, Philadelphia, PA; Point Part University, Pittsburgh, PA; Westin Convention Center, Philadelphia, PA; Framehouse and Jask Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA; The Brewhouse Association, Pittsburgh, PA; Fusion Atelier, Brookville, PA; Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, Edinboro, PA; and the Erie Art Museum, Erie, PA. Ashley’s work will be featured in the Wassaic Project Summer Publication 2020 and she will also be attending a 2-week residency at the Studios at MASS MoCA in March 2021, funded by a PAFA fellowship.
Neill Catangay - Project Manager, Artist and Curator
neillfcatangay.com
Neill Catangay (b. 1993) is a Filipino interdisciplinary artist born and raised on Guam. Catangay received his BA at the University of Guam in 2017 and is a graduate candidate at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. His multimedia process employs illustration, paintings, sculpture and photography. Catangay explores the ironic relationships between found objects and personal memory, using contrasting materiality to create objects of particular context. He uses the physical connections of this process to explore themes of absurdity, the abject and post-humanism.
​Catangay’s work has been exhibited internationally: selected exhibitions include Guam Filipno Artists, Dededo, Guam; Guam Art Exhibition (GAX), Tumon, Guam; Pennsylvania Academy of theFine Arts, Philadelphia, PA; Isla Center for the Fine Arts, Mangilao, Guam; Cambridge Innovation Center, Philadelphia, PA; Anne Bryan Gallery, Philadelphia, PA; InLiquid Gallery, Philadelphia, PA; Orion Pop-Up Gallery, Philadelphia, PA; The Guam Council on the Arts and Humanities Agency Gallery, Hagatna, Guam; Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, PA; and Guam Museum, Hagatna, Guam. Catangay is a recipient of CAHA FY 2017-2018 Grant from The Guam Council on the Arts and Humanities Agency, and is also a recipient of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Fine Arts Venture Fund.
Contact
Email: operatingsystemexhibitions@gmail.com
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