The ICA is pleased to present a group show of artists inspired by the tradition of ornamentation. These artists go beyond decoration and explore the use of pattern and iconic representation to express the energy underlying our natural world. Through non-traditional and even unconventional materials these artists will challenge and expand our notions of decoration. Ornamentation: the Art of Desire will feature Jamie Brunson, Timothy Horn, Carrie Lederer, Bonnie Neumann, Robert Ortbal, Francesca Pastine and Sarah Ratchye.

Using oil pigment mixed with wax and other media, Jamie Brunson applies layers of pattern to create a visual metaphor for the interdependency between all things. Brunson finds inspiration in the ancient ruins, historic temples and religious monuments she visits in her travels to India, Morocco, Italy, Japan, Thailand and Mexico. Brunson uses the complex geometry, patterns and colors from textiles and architecture she sees around the world. Brunson comments that “although these diverse civilizations, with their varied belief systems, are spread widely over time and geographic space, pattern is an element common to all of them.”

Using the science of fractals, Carrie Lederer creates elaborate paintings and installations emphasizing the innate order that lies beneath the seemingly chaotic forces of life and the universe. “I am drawn to nature’s intrinsic ability to reproduce pattern – as a source of imagery and also as a working process for my own art,” says Lederer. Lederer uses a Byzantine intricacy of stars and snowflakes to reflect upon the origins of life. Carefully placed gourds, figurines and idols transform these paintings into shrines honoring “nature’s lunatic exuberance.”

As in the work of Lederer and Brunson, Bonnie Neuman uses the creation of pattern in her artwork as a means to represent the deep structure hidden within chaos. Using stencils, silkscreen and oil paint, her panels are built up, layer upon layer. For this artist “process is a visual incantation and contemplation which determines the composition.”

In his exploration of the interrelated worlds of natural phenomena and human nature, Robert Ortbal creates objects and installations out of wax and everyday objects. He transforms surfaces, shapes and form through ornament. Ortbal looks to molecules and cells as an “exciting new treasury of motifs” to be organized, juxtaposed and distorted in his “modern Rococo.” Although his elaborate organic chandeliers and biomorphic sculptures seem to have grown naturally, they come from Ortbal’s thorough knowledge of the Rococo and Art Nouveau periods of decorative and applied arts.

Whereas Ortbal and Lederer’s work is a creation of pattern and repetition in the organic world of chaos, Francesca Pastine uses careful attention to detail and precision to create intimate patterns from cutouts. Instead of folded paper, Pastine uses layers of paint. As her clipped “paint skins” hang freely, their dimensions are exposed in the intricate repetitive patterns created by her scissors.

Timothy Horn follows in the tradition of ornamentation as personal adornment by making elaborate and oversized jewelry and accessories. He uses heavy materials like lead, bronze, nickel and glass. Horn’s sculptures address desire in a way that is whimsical at the same time as it is sexual and vulgar. He plays on the custom of delicate embellishments as alluring by overstating and thus diminishing their purpose.

In the objects created by Sarah Ratchye, ornamentation serves to conceal real identity. Guns are encrusted in paint and jewels transforming violence to beauty. Tension arises between the original object and its new appearance. Ratchye uses this decoration to illustrate “the power of art to transform the commonplace.”

In the project Room, Nathan Burazer creates ornament and pattern through video animation. Microscopic, botanical, biological and celestial forms inspire his shapes and colors. According to Burazer “these lively, evolving shapes reflect the intricacies of life forms and eco-systems. These systems grow independently of each other but work productively as a whole, multiplying, mutating, growing apart and later decomposing.”

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