Tag: newman popiashvili gallery

Almanac

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Almanac, opening January 10, 2013 at Newman Popiashvili Gallery.

ALMANAC
Michel Auder, Helen Beckman, Tyler Drosdeck, Adriana Farmiga, Adler Guerrier, Marcia Hafif, Michael Huey, Gerben Mulder, Mark Woods, Italo Zuffi

Exhibition dates: January 10–February 16, 2013
Opening Reception: Thursday, January 10, 2013

Newman Popiashvili Gallery is pleased to present a group show of the gallery artists. The title of the exhibition Almanac references the tradition of documenting of events in the present year, to create a basis for prediction of seasonally recurring weather conditions, appearance of stars and constellations, and other events. This exhibition presents a set of works that have been created recently, as well as a few years ago, reflecting on the idea of data-organization and prognosis for the future through being shown together .

Michel Auder’s photographs Rocket, Eye, Fighter and Guns, Only Louis Waldon’s Gun present an array of consecutively photographed images. The images shot in different locations and on separate occasions, produced on a four–frame strip of film, were later scanned and reassembled into the present groups.

Helen Beckman’s work evolves from a response to an artistic tradition of representing figure within landscape. Beckman’s paintings are populated with a variety of personal archetypes, referencing natural decay and coarse repairs to past grandeur.

Tyler Drosdeck’s sculptures have the illusion of being real life objects. Untitled (Silver) appears as painted plywood, but in reality it is a cast treated with silver-leaf and oil. Gathered by the artist, the overlooked, discarded objects have been altered in a specific way, exposing the intersection of the mundane with an elevated aesthetic sensibility.

Adriana Farmiga’s piece examines change and reconstruction, addressing specifically the visual qualities of construction sites found in the NYC metro area, and the recent surge of hurricanes in the region. The piece functions as both painting and sculpture, where the construction scaffolding is a testament to the layers of time, blue paint reapplied at each new site.

Marcia Hafif’s photographs deal with observing and recording a series of consecutive events; each image in a way predicting the next. The interrupted meal and the arising tension are translated into a photographic storyboard.

Adler Guerrier’s drawings can be easily associated with maps through the geometrical shapes that float and intersect on diffused background of yellows and blues, together with a layer of collage and typographic elements. The text undergoes a transformation, where it becomes nearly unreadable.

Michael Huey’s photographs are based on the artist’s work with the documentation of interiors. The artist examines the readymade nature of extant arrangements of various everyday objects in a manner that tries to reveal their meanings with minimal interventions. The familiar takes on a ghost-like shimmering quality adding another dimension to the relationship between past and present.

The exhibition includes Gerben Mulder’s recent paintings. Each stroke on the canvas appears suspended in space emerging through a vibrant array of colors. The elements of abstracted flowers stand as separate states of mind in steady effort to negotiate structure within the disarray of isolated emotional events.

Mark Woods’ photographs from the After Analysis series concentrate on depicting ordinary objects and locations in peculiar relationships. The photograph Hood shows the front section of a damaged car, duck-taped together. The image extends an allegorical reading of reconstructed physical past to anticipated future, just like a traditional Almanac allows prediction of events.

The ceramic and marble sculptures by Italo Zuffi’s are a direct evidence of the durability of those materials in the face of nature. Each group of objects is an exact reproduction of industrially made bricks. The sculpture functions as a reference to architecture and its basic components, as well as an absurdist task of such manual replication.

©2013 Newman Popiashvili | 212.274.9166 | 504 West 22nd street | New York, NY | 10011

nytimes review

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Karen Rosenberg of the nytimes on ‘Space is the Place‘

Eduardo Gil
Ferrán Martín
‘Space Is the Place’
Newman Popiashvili
504 West 22nd Street, Chelsea
Through July 31

This two-man show organized by the Venezuelan artist Javier Téllez appears at first to be an exercise in Relational Aesthetics, violating the sanctity of the gallery space in various ways that have become predictable. Fortunately, the artists use the basic principles of R.A., as the movement is known, as cover for more personal investigations. It’s about them, not us.

Ferrán Martín, who is from Spain, drops the gallery’s ceiling to the height of his dead father (5 feet 4 inches). The gesture works on a number of levels. Physically, it forces all but the smallest viewers to stoop, a dictatorial imposition. (The news release notes that Manolo Martín, Ferrán’s father, was the same height as Franco.) And because the gallery is on the basement level of a town house, the dropped ceiling is below ground; it gives viewers the disconcerting feeling of being in rising floodwaters.

Eduardo Gil, a Venezuelan, has made a video of himself hitting a tennis ball off the four walls of the gallery. The piece, “Muscle Memory 2,” isn’t exactly site-specific; it’s a version of an earlier project executed in his studio. In between ground strokes, the camera cuts to cultural objects in Mr. Gil’s possession: a standard postcollegiate mix of books and albums, with the occasional baseball card thrown in. It’s silly but endearing, as if the artist were squaring off with his former self, and benefits from Mr. Martín’s altered space.

The curator, Mr. Téllez, includes himself in the exhibition. (You may remember his video of blind people interacting with an elephant, from last year’s Whitney Biennial.) Here he has designed a poster/gallery announcement that reproduces a still from Luis Buñuel’s 1969 film “La Voie Lactée” (“The Milky Way”). It shows the pope in front of a firing squad, and offers a reminder (in case anyone still needs one) that galleries aren’t sacred spaces.