THE END & THE BEGINNING ALICE GIBNEY SARAH IRIVIN
MASSEY KLEIN 124 FORSYTH STREET NY, NY 10002 MASSEYKLEIN.COM INFO@MASSEYKLEIN.COM
The End & The Beginning Alice Gibney Sarah Irvin
January 11 - February 17, 2019
Massey Klein Gallery 124 Forsyth Street New York, NY 10002
Massey Klein is pleased to present The End & The Beginning, a two-person exhibition exploring themes of life and death through works on paper by Alice Gibney and Sarah Irvin. Alice Gibney’s illustrations in The End & The Beginning are humorous explorations of humanoid and animal figures. Her characters twist, rise, dance, and praise; their movement captured through frames as if they are sequences in a stop-motion film. The charcoal, color pencil, and ink on paper drawings range in scale from 1:1 ratio of human proportions to small, intimate sketches. Gibney’s works were created in response to a sudden and unexpected loss of a loved one. Her figurative drawings began to blur and erode as the artist’s emotional life and identity spread itself across the paper in a performative gesture of mourning and reflection. Celtic myths, slapstick humor, and Samuel Beckett became the beacons of light that shifted the artist’s perspective and made room for grief to evolve into a new tale. And so these characters were born to tell a new story: one wrought with paradoxes and clumsiness. They belong to a world that is not ours, but has the flavor of somewhere familiar. A tent, a child’s playtime sculpture, synthetic wigs, and exaggerated clothing cover their frames and become their bodies. Gibney is a Canadian artist who lives and works in Berlin, Germany. This is her second exhibition with the Gallery. Sarah Irvin’s graphite drawings on paper record the experience of new life and motherhood. At various times while breastfeeding, the artist created drawings that codified her daughter’s action of eating. Loops go up with a suck and round down with a swallow, transcribing the unreadable language of a baby at the breast. Also while breastfeeding, Irvin used a digital program to track the start time, breast side, and duration of each feeding. From this immense amount of data, the artist created an interactive sculpture resembling a card catalogue that allows the viewer to not only review different sessions, but physically acknowledge the significant amount time and energy needed for an often unacknowledged task. In the artist’s rocking chair series, the act of caring for a baby is codified as a form of mark-making. Pieces of graphite hung from the underside of Irvin’s glider rocking chair and created marks on a piece of paper attached to the stationary base. The series began when her daughter was born and was completed the day she turned one. Anyone who used the rocking chair during the first year of the child’s life participated in the creation of the works. In addition to the original works on paper, the Gallery will release a limited print edition of the first and last breastfeeding and rocking chair sessions as well as a small edition of breastfeeding record logs for the collector to “complete” on their own. Irvin is an American artist who lives and works in Richmond, Virginia. This is her first exhibition with the Gallery. For press inquires or information about works available, please email info@masseyklein.com.
Sarah Irvin Infant Feeding Log (10/4/2014 & 6/7/2015), 2018 edition size: 23 Platen-pressed cards, hand-stamped archival ink 6.25 x 4.5 inches
Sarah Irvin Infant Feeding Log, 2018 Card catalogue with 2,435 unique platen-pressed forms, hand-set letterpress colophon, and titled paper on paper, hand-stamped with archival ink, metal rods, wooden base with milk paint 7 x 78.25 inches
Alice Gibney The Escape, 2018 Colored pencil and ink on paper 12.5 x 9.4 inches
Alice Gibney The Forgotten Triplet reaches a conclusion, 2018 Colored pencil and ink on paper 19 x 13.4 inches
Alice Gibney The Boobhead said nothing, 2018 Colored pencil and ink on paper 15.7 x 12 inches
Alice Gibney The Fortune Teller (know-it-all), 2018 Colored pencil and ink on paper 13.4 x 9.4 inches
Alice Gibney Every night she picks up the leftover balloons, 2018 Grahpite and colored pencil on paper 13.4 x 9.4 inches
Alice Gibney Conjuring the hidden truth, 2018 Colored pencil and ink on paper 11.6 x 8.3 inches
Alice Gibney Choosing open hands, 2018 Colored pencil and ink on paper 11.6 x 8.3 inches
Alice Gibney Sometimes we need to create our own hero, 2018 Colored pencil and ink on paper 11.6 x 8.3 inches
Sarah Irvin Breast Feeding Series (10/16/2014 & 4/14/2015 session), 2018 Edition size: 23 Archival ink jet print on paper 20 x 14 inches (each)
Alice Gibney Daily Ritual, 2016 Charcoal on paper 91.75 x 59.5 inches
Alice Gibney Her origin Story, 2018 Charcoal and ink on paper 12.5 x 9.4 inches
Alice Gibney Incubation, 2018 Charcoal and pastel on paper 12.5 x 9.4 inches
Sarah Irvin Rocking Chair Series, 2014 59 framed graphite on paper approximately 7.5 x 17 feet
Sarah Irvin Rocking Chair Series (first & last session) Edition size: 23, 2018 Archival ink jet print on paper 13 x 8 inches each; framed, 16.5 x 20.5 inches
Alice Gibney Evolving out of chaos, 2014 Charcoal and oil pastel on paper 92.5 x 59 inches
Alice Gibney A Quiet Metamorphosis, 2018 Colored pencil and ink on paper 13.4 x 9.4 inches
Alice Gibney Gone Astray, 2018 Colored pencil and ink on paper 16.5 x 22 inches
This catalogue published on the occasion of the exhibition The End & The Beginning Alice Gibney Sarah Irvin January 11 - February 17, 2019 Massey Klein Gallery 124 Forsyth Street New York, NY 10002 www.masseyklein.com
Š2018 Massey Klein Gallery, Alice Gibney, Sarah Irvin All rights reserved. No part of this publication shall be reprinted or reproduced in any form without written permission from Massey Klein Gallery or the artists. Photos courtesy of Jon-Paul Rodriguez