CONTINGENCIES

About

Contingencies is a group exhibition bringing together participants of Residency Unlimited’s artist residency program. Hailing from disparate parts of the world—Ukraine, Australia, Portugal and Israel, these artists manifest multiplicity in their visual and intellectual lexicons, uniting under consonance of a coherent distinction in their practice. Chance, therefore, is the foremost determinator for assembly of Shay Arick, Mikhailo Deyak, Paula Dunlop and Von Calhau! in Contingencies. As diverse as their artistic motivations is the artists’ utilization of various media, partially dictated by the mobile nature of their last few months due to their residencies in New York. The exhibition, therefore, reflects a sense of drift and consequent practically in use of mediums employed by its artists. The works demonstrate the fruits of the instinct to turn limitations into advantage and how characteristic offerings an exhibition space helps mold artistic choices.

Arick subverts performance of masculinity and fetishization of machismo with a film place inside a cowboy hat placed into a wall. This token of American male figure serves as a nook for an intimate viewing of the movie image. Paula Dunlop assumes complete authority over the conception of her toned cyanotype photographs of abstract imagery achieved through capturing hallucinatory renditions of faint circular forms. The images are close-up details of a solar-shaped draping object the artist made using glass beads. Mikhailo Deyak sculpts metal into fluid forms, proving the material’s malleable nature hidden beneath its stiff presence. The dramatic effect of Deyak’s wavy metal sculptures stem from found sources, implementing to their sheeny surfaces traces of history and process. Von Calhau!collective mines rituals of the mundane, balancing the ridicule embedded in reason with logic of absurdity. Through printed media, sound and performance, the duo both satirizes our fascination with data, objects, and self-representation.

This program is made possible with the support from EGEAC Atelier Museu Julio Pomar (Portugal), Mifal HaPais Council for the Culture and Arts, the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian, state and territory governments.

Contingencies is hosted by Realty Collective. Realty Collective is a company that works to transform people’s experience of what is possible in Brooklyn real estate. They believe every real estate transaction should bring connection, confidence, and prosperity to individuals that live, work, and create in the diverse communities of Brooklyn facing the future together.  Realty Collective agents are experienced real estate professionals and neighborhood experts who are also extremely active within their communities. Their team consists of creative and talented women and men who are proud to work for a respected woman-owned company that actively engages their neighborhoods.