VICTORIA MAY
And The Refinement of Their Decline
What do we require to feel comfort? What causes the “need” for luxury? Historically, sumptuous fashion or decor uses precious materials or ordinary ones that have been highly crafted or refined through human labor. How did these refinements come to be invented? What propelled people to transform simple needs for warmth, protection and comfort into elaborate embellishments? The fact that these refinements often stem from potentially abject substances, such as moth cocoons or sheep fur, creates a compelling tension between their source and their final manifestation.
ABOUT VICTORIA MAY
Victoria May is an avid advocate for material re-use. She received her MFA from San Jose State University and her BA from UCLA. In 2010 May received a Santa Cruz County Rydell Fellowship and In 2015 she was named an Artist Laureate by Silicon Valley Creates. Her work has been published in By Hand, Fiber Arts, and Surface Design Journal. She exhibits nationally and internationally and is represented by Green Chalk Contemporary in Monterey, CA and Conrad Wilde Gallery in Tucson, AZ.
Victoria May
EDUCATION
MFA, San Jose State University.
BA in Design, cum laude, University of California, Los Angeles.
SOLO AND TWO-PERSON SHOWS
2018
WOMAN | WOMAN | Victoria May, Lisa Diane Wedgeworth; curated by Jill Moniz.
Louis Stern Fine Arts. West Hollywood, CA.
2017
Origins: Raw and refined, Monterey Peninsula College Gallery, Monterey, CA.
Left Coast Annual Awards Exhibition, Sanchez Art Center, Pacifica, CA.
2016
And the Refinement of their Decline, Don Soker Contemporary Art, San Francisco, CA.
2013
Maintenance and Operations, Don Soker Contemporary Art, San Francisco, CA
2012
Designed for general use, Stripe Design Group, Santa Cruz, CA.
2010
Designed for general use, Don Soker Contemporary Art, San Francisco, CA.
Designed for general use, Carl Cherry Center, Carmel, CA.
2008
Residuum, Don Soker Contemporary Art, San Francisco, CA.
Hub, Invisible Venue, Oakland, CA.
2004
Envisioning White, Museum of Art & History, Santa Cruz, CA.
Figment of the Machination, Art Building, Santa Clara University, CA.
Periphery of Experience, Smith Gallery, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA.
2001
Shaping Memory Shaping Us, Creative Arts Center Gallery, Sunnyvale, CA.
SELECTED GROUP SHOWS
2019
Party for Democracy: Kamalla Harris, The Hawthorne Mansion, Monterey, CA.
The Art Party, The Hawthorne Mansion, Monterey, CA.
The New Domestics, Finding Beauty in the Mundane, LH Horton Jr Gallery, SHIMA 144, Delta College,
Stockton, CA; curated by Gail Enns; catalog.
2018
Holding Up 1/2 the Sky, Roberts Projects, 5801 Washington Blvd, Culver City, CA.
The New Domestics, Finding Beauty in the Mundane; curated by Gail Enns,
Monterey Museum of Art, Monterey, CA.
Sister City Prints (October), The Art Vault, Mildura,Victoria, Australia.
Sister City Prints, West Gallery Thebarton, Adelaide, Australia.
High Fiber, Conrad Wilde Gallery, Tuscon, AZ.
2017
Annual Exhibition, Artik Art and Architecture,
Material as Metaphor, Craft and Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles, CA.
Elemental, Conrad Wilde Gallery, Tuscon, AZ.
Lucid Art Residency Exhibition. Gallery Route One, Pt. Reyes, CA.
2016
Reclaimed: Elevating the Art of Reuse, Minnesota St. Project, San Francisco, CA.
Thread, El Camino College Art Gallery, Torrance, CA; curated by Susanna Meiers.
Sanchez Art Center, Pacifica, CA.
String Theory, Tucson Art Museum, Tucson, AZ; curated by Julie Sasse.
High Fiber, Conrad Wilde Gallery, Tuscon, AZ.
Artists’ Annual, Kala Art Gallery, Berkeley, CA>
2015
Shelter, Conrad Wilde Gallery, Tucson, AZ.
Handmade : State of the Arts, The Maloof Foundation and Craft in America Center,
Los Angeles, CA; curated by Emily Zaiden.
[Im]materiel, Headlands Center for the Arts; curated by Kevin B. Chen.
2014
Extra Ordinary, Conrad Wilde Gallery, Tuscon, AZ.
Day Re-dreamed, curated by Mayumi Hamanaka, Berkeley Central Arts Passage, Berkeley, CA.
Soft Muscle, curated by Adrienne Heloise, Root Division, San Francisco, CA.
2013
Installations, Don Soker Contemporary Art, San Francisco, CA.
Milestones: Textiles of Transition, curated by Deborah Corsini, San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, San Jose, CA.
Innovations in Contemporary Craft, Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA; curated by Monica Moses, Editor in Chief of American Craft Magazine.
2012
Beauty, Berkeley Art Center; curated by Glen Helfland and Katrina Traywick,
Rydell Visual Arts Fellows, Sanchez Center, Pacifica, CA.
Rydell Visual Arts Fellows, Museum of Art & History, Santa Cruz.
Outfitters: The Contemporary Art of Clothing, Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek, CA; curated by Carrie Lederer.
2011
Chain Letter, Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Santa Monica, CA; curated by Christian Cummings and Doug Harvey.
Yuma Art Symposium, Yuma, AZ
unCommon Threads, El Camino College Art Gallery, Torrance, CA; curated by Susanna Meiers.
2010
Modified, Art Ark, San Jose, CA; curated by Nancy Sevier.
Cielo/Sky, Sala de exposiciones del Parque García Sanabria; curated by Shelby Graham,
Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands and Porter Faculty Gallery, UCSC, Santa Cruz, CA.
Depth of Surface, San Francisco State University, CA; curated by Victor De La Rosa.
By a thread, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, CA; curated by Cathy Kimball,
Book as Medium, Sesnon Gallery, University of California, Santa Cruz; curated by Felicia Rice and Shelby Graham.
Corporealities: Bodies in Question, Conrad Wilde Gallery, Tucson, AZ.
2009
In Stitches, Leila Taghinia-Milani Heller Gallery, New York, NY; curated by Beth Rudin DeWoody.
Fashion Art exhibition, Michaelangelo Gallery, Santa Cruz.
High-rise Project, Don Soker Contemporary Art, San Francisco.
In this house that I call home, Pajaro Valley Art Gallery, Watsonville.
2008
The Veil: Visible and Invisible Spaces, traveling through 2012; curated by Jennifer Heath.
Mapping Correspondence: Mail Art in the 21st Century, The Center for Book Arts, New York.
Ying: Inspired by the Art and History of China, Museum of Art & History, Santa Cruz.
Oscillations, Cabrillo College Gallery, Aptos.
2007
Cutting Edge Books, California State University East Bay, Hayward.
Figuratively Speaking, Heritage Bank, San Jose.
Close Calls, Headlands Center for the Arts, Marin, CA.
2006
American Seven, Works Gallery, San Jose,CA.
X-Libris: SFCB’s 10th-Anniversary Exhibition, San Francisco Center for the Book
By the Hand, Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek.
Don Soker Contemporary Art, San Francisco, CA.
Hair Raising, San Jose Institute for Contemporary Art, San Jose, CA.
Bookworks: PCBA Members’ exhibition, San Francisco Public Library. CA.
2005
Collage/Assemblage, Art Object Gallery, San Jose, CA.
Black, White and Read, Cabrillo College Gallery, Aptos, CA.
Material Moments, Gualala Art Center, CA.
2003
Monotype Marathon XI, San Jose Institute for Contemporary Art, CA.
XOXOX, San Francisco Center for the Book, CA.
2002
Fabricated, IDEA, Austin TX.
Seventh Sense Fashion Show, Santa Cruz, CA.
Relevant Structure, San Francisco Center for the Book, CA.
Monotype Marathon VIII, San Jose Institute for Contemporary Art, CA.
Exemplary Contemporary (awarded First Prize) Eloise Pickard Smith Gallery, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA.
2001
Personae, Angel’s Gate Cultural Center, San PedroChallenging Complacency, Monterey Peninsula CollegeThis is not a Book, San Jose Institute for Contemporary Art.
2000
Annual 3-D Competition, San Jose Art League.
What is Reading?, San Francisco Center for the Book32nd Annual Textile Exhibit (awarded Best of Show), Olive Hyde Art Gallery, Fremont.
1999
Seventh Sense Fashion Show, Santa Cruz Natural Selection, San Francisco Art Commission Gallery.
Women in the Visual Arts, Erector Square Gallery, New Haven, CT
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
2018
Roth, David, The New Domestics, Finding Beauty in the Mundane, SQUARE CYLINDER, http://squarecylinder.com.
Vecchione, Patrice, Walk about town: A woman’s walk, THE MONTEREY HERALD.
The New Domestics: Finding Beauty in the Mundane, AMERICAN CRAFT COUNCIL.
https://craftcouncil.org/event/new-domestics-finding-beauty-mundane
2013
Baker, Kenneth, Victoria May at Soker, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, Chronicle, 3/24.
2011
O’Malley, Susan, Exhaustively Effortless, Rydell catalog essay.
2009
KQED’s Spark, May 13, featured on public television weekly arts show.
2008
Art worth getting a bead on, by Kenneth Baker, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, 9/28.
Artshift San Jose, August 22, review of solo show by Hanna Hannah.
2006
BY HAND: THE USE OF CRAFT IN CONTEMPORARY ART, edited by Joseph Magliaro and Shu Hung, PRINCETON ARCHITECTURAL PRESS.
Gant, Michael S, Threads of Memory, METRO SILICON VALLEY, 2/1/07.
Fisher, Jack, The Artist’s Trail Along South First, SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS, 2/05,
Hendrix, Anastasia, Tressed Out: Art off the Top of Our Heads, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, 1/15.
2005
Patterson, Sunita, Hats: the Pinnacle of Wearable Art, FiBERARTS MAGAZINE, Jan/Feb issue. Additional images featured on website : fiberarts.com.
2001
Fisher, Jack, Books that are not Books, SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS, April 8.
Golonu, Berlin, This is not a Book, ARTWEEK, 3/01.
Waters, Christina, Fictitious Idenities, METRO SANTA CRUZ, 3/28.
HONORS/MISC.
2016
Residency alternate, Selected for Lucid Art Residency.
Djerassi
2015
Artist Laureate, Silicon Valley Creates.
Kala Artist in Residence.
2013
Nominated, Eureka Fellowship.
Nominated, Pro Arts’ 2 x 2 Solos.
2012
Jentel Artist Residency, Banner WY.
2010
Recipient, Rydell Fellowship.
2007
Nominated, Eureka Fellowship.
2006
Collaborated with Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens on costumes for their Yellow Wedding.
2005
Nominated, SECA Award.
Nominated, Rydell Fellowship.
Invitational Print Edition for Works, San Jose, CA.
2004
Nominated, Eureka Fellowship.
GALLERY REPRESENTATION
Green Chalk Contemporary, Monterey, CA