Jason Peters and Jared Flaming open DePurposed at 326 Gallery, New York

About

The show brings together two divergent practices centered on a common process of retooling cultural ephemera into profoundly differing experiences. With the aim to antagonize their prior signification, Peter’s sculptures utilize common commercial and "found" items to elevate the mundane, and dislodge the assumptions of the artistic medium. Flaming's detailed paintings point to history's undermining and falsification of Canonical images, offering tedious echoes of their origins while simultaneously aiming to act as reminder of their fixed lineage, suggesting a new purpose. Likewise, the sculptural work of Peters seems to exist in a liminal state, unable to fully cast off their earthly character while en masse becoming something thoroughly sublime.  

Together, Peters and Flaming create rumination on the process of signification. How histories are changed and challenged, and an objects origins are never static. Their work offers an experience derived from common knowledge but leads to novel ends.  

"The constant nagging of genesis however seems to beg the question of whether one may fully leave their foundations". The show pays homage to the adage by Terry Eagleton.