Between States of Being
Andrew Bailey Arend, Dakota Gearhart, Martha Glenn, and Rachel Meginnes
October 7 - November 19, 2022
Opening Reception: Friday, October 7, 6-9pm

Tiger Strikes Asteroid Greenville (TSA GVL) is excited to present Between States of Being opening October 7 at the TSA GVL gallery.  This exhibition, featuring works by Andrew Bailey Arend, Dakota Gearhart, Martha Glenn, and Rachel Meginnes, explores a nebulous space of transformation, where the self is neither what it was before or what it will become. There exists a nothingness between states of being. When something transforms from one thing to another, as with metamorphosis from a caterpillar into a butterfly, there is a time when it is neither the thing it was, nor the thing it will become. But, this space is necessary for metamorphosis, even in the smallest increment. This exhibition is curated by TSA GVL member Lindsay Smith Gustave.

Inspired by Jean-Paul Sartre’s existential text, Being and Nothingness, Between States of Being explores the inevitability of this liminal space as we move between states of being. Our present is a constantly evolving negation of our past, a nothingness that functions purely as a transition from old to new. 

These artworks present a conversation that offers different moments in this transformative process: with ceramics, Arend forges the result of alchemical change; Gearhart explores, in video, the nonsensical decay inherent in the metamorphosis into the future self; Glenn envisions the timeless space of waiting in sculptural form; and through reclaimed textiles, Meginnes examines the breaking down of the past self. 

Emblematic of a human need to always be in-process, consciously or unconsciously, Between States of Being provides moments for meditation—a pause between past and future. This period of nothingness is a suspension of time for the viewer to reflect on where we were, where we are, and where we might be going.

Andrew Bailey Arend (b. 1987 Anchorage, Alaska) is an artist who explores relationships between body, action, material and ecology. His work generally takes form as sculpture and also touches on performance, drawing and photography. His work is exhibited nationally and he has been awarded residencies and fellowships including Lighthouse Works, The Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts and the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology. Andrew Bailey Arend received his MFA from Alfred University in 2016. He is currently a Lecturer and Lab Operations Assistant Manager for the Art Department at Appalachian State University.

Dakota Gearhart is a transmedia artist whose practice concerns the effects of modern science and technology with a particular focus on the radical deconstruction of contemporary power structures according to an ecofeminist worldview. She seeks to make the familiar strange—and sometimes the strange familiar—and through that inversion, articulate a more robust and less oppressive future. Recent works have explored such topics as the commercial flower trade, gender bias in big tech, and coral reef tourism in her home state of Florida. Color, humor, and a disorienting species of maximalism are common features of her collage-based aesthetic. Her work has exhibited at The Bronx Museum of Art, NY; Tacoma Art Museum, WA; Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, FL; Disjecta Contemporary Art Center, OR; Horse Hospital, London; Horse and Pony Gallery, Berlin; Lab’Attoir, Thessaloniki, Greece; and Taiyuan University, Taiyuan, China. She has been awarded the BRIC Digital Media Fellowship, Franklin Furnace Fellowship, and a National Endowments for the Arts US-Japan Creative Fellowship which will bring her work to Japan in 2022. She is based in New York City where she teaches Motion Graphics with Parsons School of Design at The New School and with the Integrated Design Media program at New York University.

Martha Glenn is an artist and gallerist living and working in North Carolina. She completed her MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2021, with a BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She previously resided in Berlin, Germany and has exhibited internationally with solo shows at The Anderson (2021, Richmond), The DePillars Gallery (2020, Richmond), State of the Art (2016, Berlin).

Rachel Meginnes is an artist and educator committed to the idea that art creates more fulfilling lives. Rachel received her BA in Art at Earlham College in 1999 and her MFA in Fibers at the University of Washington, Seattle in 2005. In between, she spent two years studying traditional Japanese textile processes in Morioka, Japan. From 2005 – 2011, she co-owned and operated an international rug company based out of Sikkim, India and Seattle, WA. In 2012, Rachel was awarded a three-year residency at Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina which began her shift to making art full-time. Her artwork has been exhibited internationally in Thailand and Hong Kong and can be found in the collections of the Cameron Art Museum, Wilmington, NC; the University of Arkansas, Little Rock, AR; Fidelity Bank, Raleigh, NC; the Capitol Broadcasting Company, Durham, NC; Samsel Architects, Asheville, NC; and in private collections around the country. Rachel has taught all ages and levels from underserved youth in after school programs to college students and adults in the midst of choosing and changing their careers. Her workshops integrating the subjects of art, craft, and design have been offered at craft schools and colleges across the country and in Canada. Rachel has recently developed an arts educational partnership between Earlham College in Richmond, IN and Penland School of Crafts in Penland, NC to promote craft education within the context of academic art. Rachel lives and works in Western North Carolina.