Breanne Trammell: Nails Across America Kickoff!

May 28–May 31, 2013
Opening: Thursday, May 30, 6-8pm

NYC, March 2013 — Breanne Trammell, an artist and core member of the Wassaic Project, announces her much-anticipated cross-country road trip Nails Across America. The road trip is part of “Nails in the Key of Life,” her experiential art project using manicures as a forum for exchanging ideas, conversation, and collecting oral histories. Nails Across America launches at Mixed Greens in May 2013.

Mixed Greens: “We’re so excited to be the first stop on Breanne’s Nails Across America tour! Mixed Greens is a proud advocate of the work of Breanne Trammell, social practice, and gorgeous nails. It’s thrilling to be able to celebrate all three at the same time.”

The Road Trip
Traveling in a 1968 Shasta Compact trailer which has been transformed into a mobile nail salon, Breanne will be making stops across the U.S. including Woody Creek, CO; Lawrence, KS; Sonora, CA; Chattanooga, TN; among larger cities such as Seattle, Los Angeles, Dallas, Minneapolis, and more. The final destination is the Wassaic Project Art and Music Festival taking place August 2–4, 2013. A large portion of the trip has been funded and mapped out via Kickstarter.

Bowie Zunino, Wassaic Project: “We’re incredibly proud to be exhibiting Breanne’s mobile nail salon at our 2013 Summer Festival. We have worked with her since the project’s inception: searching for the perfect canned ham trailer, attending classes as nail models, and cheering her on as she graduated from nail school. With her nail technician license, her beautiful sense of color, and irresistible charm, there is no stopping Nails in the Key of Life.”

Through Nails Across America, Breanne seeks to connect with a broad audience through the simple act of performing manicures. By making stops across the country in a mobile nail salon, Trammell opens up the accessibility of her project to a wider community beyond the traditional white-wall art world. This project is for everyone. Building an archive of participants as diverse as possible is essential to the project’s success: young, old, blue collar, white collar, mechanics, artists, and farmers alike. Breanne aims to break gender bias by offering male-specific manicures: Bro Nails, the GentleMANicure, and the Working MANicure.

The curated manicure menu references recurring themes in Trammell’s art such as popular culture, junk food, and art history. Glittery blue acrylic nails pay homage to the television program Friday Night Lights, and manicure flavors run the gamut from Cheeto Orange to International Klein Blue. Participants who want custom nail art may choose from donut sprinkles, #2 pencils, Richard Diebenkorn-inspired paintings, and more!

Archive
The end goal of Nails Across America is to create a project archive based on collected oral histories and an edition of 500 sets of nails. Following each manicure in the mobile salon, participants will receive a signed and numbered (1/500, 2/500, 3/500 and so on) letter-pressed certificate of authenticity to commemorate their participation in the project.

About Breanne
Breanne Trammell is an artist living and working in Wassaic, NY, where she is a core member of the Wassaic Project. She received her MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, and has exhibited her work at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, MASS MoCA, Mixed Greens, and Susan Inglett Gallery.

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