Cloudbank | When the wind goes wrong | Close Call | Untitled (Cigarette Box) 2018 | Baba

About

In our Back Room, we will present a collaboration between Luis Corzo, Sue Ravitz and Keegan Mills Cooke, and an installation by Healeymade.

Elise Ferguson’s “Cloudbank” is derived from the 15’ long curtain that hangs on the Main Gallery’s north wall. Continuing her series of folding, repeating geometric motifs, this curtain is a hand-printed block print on linen. In addition, Ferguson will show a series of paintings that are pigmented plaster on panel. Using pattern and color, the paintings are based on mathematical puzzles and geometric variation. Irregularities in the paintings’ surface create a balance between crisp geometric motifs and the paintings’ physical surfaces. Traces of process and the history of each layer are revealed on the unkempt edges of the panels that are deckled with plaster build-up. Having long employed printmaking techniques in her paintings and frequently making reference to textiles and textile design, this project brings together several of the themes in her work into a single exhibition.

In the Waiting Room, Johanna Unzueta will present “When the wind goes wrong”, a selection of handcrafted sculptural elements made from felt and thread. This work exemplifies Unzueta’s interest in the transitory nature of specific spaces. Often regarded with banal indifference, waiting rooms are momentary spaces where people tend to lose their focus and shift into a dimension of “non-thinking”. The artist likens the transitory qualities of these rooms to the similarly transitional inner-workings the mind. While in this state of waiting, our minds collect images, feelings and sometimes sounds that manifest seemingly out of nowhere. Memories rise to the surface then gently re-submerge. Waiting rooms can conjure feelings of déjà vu and an ambivalent sense of the familiar. Unzueta’s felt sculptures tap directly into this recognition of the commonplace, depicting unassuming walls with protruding sink and faucet fixtures. Hung with intentional irregularity throughout the room, Unzueta’s work disrupts one’s expectations of their given surroundings, propelling those in wait to fully consider their place in the passing moment.

In the Project Space, Richard Roth presents “Close Call”, a dynamic series of formally abstract work completed in 2018. In spite of their diminutive stature and stark vocabulary, Roth’s paintings embody an interest in play, the quotidian, and the "retinal." They claim object status (as opposed to window status) enabling them to tap into the expansive 3-D polychrome universe – product and package design, nature, architecture, masks, custom cars, and fashion. The paintings’ box-like proportions allow for a wide range of new issues, both formal and content-related, that enrich the artist’s practice and its conversation with the contested legacy of modernism.

In the gallery’s Back Room, Luis Corzo, Sue Ravitz and Keegan Mills Cooke will present “Untitled (Cigarette Box) 2018,” a collaborative project featuring photographs, objects and a limited edition zine. Inspired by Ravitz’s collection of 1950-60’s cigarette boxes, photographer Luis Corzo sought to capture these vintage ceramic containers in a way that spoke to their unique ambiguity. Drawn to the inherent contradiction of a beautifully hand-crafted object made expressly to hold cigarettes, Corzo playfully reverses the intended function of these boxes by turning them into vessels of ‘healthy’ goods - blooming flowers, supple skin and vibrant fruits & vegetables. Along with Corzo’s photographs, selected pieces from Ravitz’s cigarette box collection will be on display. An accompanying zine produced by artist Keegan Mills Cooke will be available during the exhibition.

Also in our Back Room, artist and designer Healeymade will present “Baba”, a 12-piece edition of 4.5” resin figures originating from a hand-sculpted, biomorphic form. Though cast from the same mold, each figure is one-of-a-kind due to its unique color mixture and application. Inspired by mass-produced toys, sci-fi, special effects, nature and military motifs, Healeymade’s work offers a dark commentary on cultural mythologies, childhood nostalgia and the collective unconscious. His work has been mentioned in The New Yorker, Juxtapose Magazine and the artbook publication “Witty Design Objects” (Garden City Publishers, 2007).