Lisha Bai Leah Beeferman Ethan Greenbaum Annalisa Perazzi Elisa Lendvay
Kim Jong Il Ronald Reagan Demetrius Oliver Matt Kleenex Allyson Vieira Ramon Esquiverna Laetitia Ann-Saedler Joe Winter Camilla Perowski-Wittgenstein Edo Udo Rachel Minnesota
The Order of Things The Longest Curated by Jamillah James Show Title of the Universe is Here From January 4 to February 1, 2013 Curated by: Opening Reception: Friday, January 4, 7-9 PM Franklin Delano and NURTUREart Gallery Eric Sutherland 56 Bogart St., Brooklyn, NY 11206 From April 26 to May 28, 2012 Opening Reception: Friday, May 28, 7-9 PM NURTUREart Gallery 56 Bogart St., Brooklyn, NY 11206
The Order of Things by Jamillah James
The Order of Things considers the shift in our relationship to the universe in light of recent apocalyptic predictions. An acute awareness of time, as some wait with baited breath for “the end”, engenders a special attentiveness to space, materiality, and objecthood, with smaller details emerging and becoming foregrounded. The artists in this exhibition use a nearly scientific vernacular, either through their own experimental studio practice, or in how they visualize and aestheticize the passage of time. They are addressing cosmological hierarchy from the bottom up, reiterating the impulse of subjects to understand their existence and the world through objects. Lisha Bai uses sand and Plexiglas to form columns and leaning slabs, referencing the visual language of Minimalism and more directly, the hourglass, the classic marker of time. Bai’s intensive manipulations of her material leave little to chance. The collection of pink, blue, and violet grains contrast with the vast expanses of darkness, creating the illusion of bands of refracted light or celestial bodies in the cosmos. Leah Beeferman studied science for a number of years before becoming an artist. Beeferman creates animations, laser cut etchings, drawings, and installations with geometric renderings of data culled from various scientific journals. When taken out of context, the resultant images appear as particles floating in the ether. On a recent
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residency in the Arctic Circle, Beeferman made a field recording of her explorations of the terrain in isolation. Sounds of water gurgling, wind howling, and some moments of relative silence comprise a sonic record of the unusually harsh, mostly uninhabited sublime landscape. Ethan Greenbaum uses a combination of processes to make large scale reproductions of forms we encounter and mostly overlook on a daily basis. Greenbaum is particularly interested in architecture and landscape; he walks and bikes around parts of the city, photographing surfaces--particularly crevices, sidewalks, and foundational materials--reinforcing that perception is governed primarily by the body’s relationship to space and the objects within it. Elisa Lendvay’s small, hand built sculptures made of wire, clay, plaster, junk and other found material have the appearance of being unearthed from another time. Lendvay sometimes refers to them as “thoughtforms”, which are traditionally understood as the physical manifestations of mental energy and intent. Those objects are sometimes used in magic, a practice that falls outside of the realm of perception and runs counter to theology, science, or other explanations of the workings of the universe. In her interdisciplinary practice, Lendvay is interested in the quasi-spiritual relationships we form with environments and objects and the lives and value
Lisha Bai: Untitled (sand rotation), 2012. Sand and Plexiglas, 81 x 30 x 1inches.
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of objects beyond visual fancy. Demetrius Oliver reveals a fascination with outer space, the romanticized final frontier. Over the past few years, Oliver has made a series of paintings on paper, using the broken spines of umbrellas and spray paint, the action leaving behind abstracted impressions resembling constellations. Telescope (2008), made from a configuration of 48 stacked buckets. The other component, a slide projector, was once a popular visual aid for science lecturing now nearing obsolescence. A slowly rotating image of an ocean’s tide is projected inside of the buckets; tides are caused by the Sun and Moon’s force of gravity and the Earth’s rotation. With each click of the projector, Oliver alludes to this cosmic and temporal phenomenon. Allyson Vieira’s “Torso” series of sculptures are accumulations of debris from her studio stratified in plaster, investigating what Vieira has referred to as “geologic time”. Vieira keeps a collection of empty buckets around her work space, using them for mixing plaster, holding and carrying objects and waste disposal. After she has filled the bucket, she pours excess plaster from other projects into the bucket, each bucket becoming a time capsule of her process. Finally, the work of Joe Winter demand attention to minute changes on the part of a viewer. He allows invisible forces—sunlight, gravity, and so forth—to determine the outcome of the work and act upon the surfaces in a carefully protracted manner. Winter embeds these “experiments” within an aesthetic informed by institutional spaces such as offices and classrooms. Here, Winter uses a fabricated office file sorter as a receptacle for colored construction paper, onto which he places custom-cut glass, which acts as
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both a paperweight and a conduit for near-photographic exposure. The naturally faded prints are then displayed on cork bulletin boards typically used for the display and collection of information. The exhibition borrows its title from the text by Michel Foucault, but is more interested in the use of the phrase as it predates the text. Most manners of existence are stratified in one way or another—the distribution of power and agency touches upon all systems of order. This exhibition engages the primary, phenomenological relationship between subjectivity, perception, time and space with work unified by a scientificallyinformed aesthetic, examining banality and the existential in equal parts.
Lisha Bai: Calendar (December), 2010. C-print, 20 x 30 inches.
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Leah Beeferman: 12012280v1, 2012. Laser etched Plexiglas, Formica table, sound, installation dimensions variable (Table dimensions: 120 x 24 inches). Image credit: Pierre Le Hors.
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Leah Beeferman: Untitled (video still), 2010. digital animation with sound.
Leah Beeferman: 12012280v1 (detail).
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Ethan Greenbaum: Back Up, 2012. Direct to substrate print on vacuum formed plastic, 40 x 44.75 inches (framed).
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Ethan Greenbaum: Peel, 2012. Direct to substrate print on vacuum formed plastic, 79 Âź x 54 Âź inches (unframed).
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Elisa Lendvay: Bulletin, 2012. Plaster, wood, metal, acrylic paint and medium, 20 x 20 x 3 inches.
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Elisa Lendvay: Four Clusters. 2010 - 2011. Mixed media, found material with papier mache. Each approx 12 x 4 x 3 inches.
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Demetrius Oliver: Azimuth, 2012. Enamel and graphite on paper, 70 x 51 inches.
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Demetrius Oliver: Telescope, 2008. 48 plastic buckets, slide projector, 80 slides in continuous loop, digital c-print, dimensions variable (telescope: 154 x 48 inches; digital c-print: 18 7/8 x 25 inches).
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Allyson Vieira: Torso (Decadent), 2012. Mirror, plaster, Plaster Weld, chalk, wax, urethane, gloves, and blades, 15 3/4 x 47 1/4 x 13 inches. Image courtesy Laurel Gitlen gallery.
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Allyson Vieira: Torso (Archaic), 2012. Mirror, plaster, urethane, gloves, and cups, 15 3/4 x 47 1/4 x 11 1/2 inches. Image courtesy Laurel Gitlen gallery.
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Joe Winter: Model for a history of light (revision), 2010. Felt letterboard sign, desk lamp with CFL bulb, portfolios of UV-faded construction paper prints, dimensions variable.
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Joe Winter: Model for a history of light (void), 2010. Wood, UV-proof glass with circular hole, pushpins, sunlight, 24 x 32 inches.
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NURTUREart Non-Profit Inc. is dedicated to nurturing contemporary art by providing exhibition opportunities and resources for emerging artists, curators, and local public school students. The unique synergy between NURTUREart’s programs generates a collaborative environment for artistic experimentation. This framework, along with other far-reaching programming, cultivates a supportive artistic network and enriches the local and larger cultural communities. NURTUREart Non-Profit Inc. is a 501(c)(3) New York State licensed, federally tax-exempt charitable art organization founded in 1997 by George J. Robinson. NURTUREart is funded in part by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Barclays, City Council Member Diana Reyna, City Council Member Stephen Levin, the Greenwall Foundation, the Greenwich Collection, the Harold and Colene Brown Foundation, the Laura B. Vogler Foundation, the Leibovitz Foundation, the Lily Auchincloss Foundation, the Milton and Sally Avery Foundation, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the New York City Department of Education, The New York State Council on the Arts, The Wolf Kahn and Emily Mason Foundation and generous individuals. It receives legal support from Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts.
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NURTUREart Sponsors : The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts City Council Member Diana Reyna City Council Member Stephen Levin The Durst Family Foundation The Greenwall Foundation The Greenwich Collection, LTD The Joan Mitchell Foundation The Harold and Colene Brown Family Foundation The Laura B. Vogler Foundation The Leibovitz Foundation Lily Auchincloss Foundation Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation New York City Department of Cultural Affairs New York City Department of Education New York State Council on the Arts No More Poverty Urban Outfitters WNYC Star Initiative The Wolf Kahn and Emily Mason Foundation Many generous individuals Thank You : Brooklyn Brewery Societe Perrier Printing For Less Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts
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56 Bogart Street Brooklyn, NY 11206 L train to Morgan Avenue T 718 782 7755 F 718 569 2086 E gallery@nurtureart.org www.nurtureart.org Directions: By Subway: L train to the Morgan Avenue stop. Exit the station via Bogart Street. Look for the NURTUREart entrance on Bogart Street, close to the intersection with Harrison Place. By Car: Driving From Manhattan: Take the Williamsburg Bridge, stay in the outside lane, and take the Broadway / S. 5 St. exit. Turn left at light onto Havemeyer St. Turn right next light onto Borinquen Place, continue straight, street will change name to Grand Street. Turn right onto Bushwick Ave, left onto Johnson Ave, then right onto Bogart Street. Look for our entrance at the corner of Bogart Street and Harrison Place.