SOUTHFIRST 60 N6th Street  Brooklyn, NY  11211  www.southfirst.org     ph 718 599 4884

SOUTHFIRST: PRESENTS

JOSÉ LERMA

TWO BEATS OFF
19 September – 2 November, 2003
OPENING RECEPTION:  FRIDAY, 19 SEPTEMBER  6–9 PM

SOUTHFIRST gallery is proud to present the first New York solo exhibition of José Lerma. TWO BEATS OFF, an exhibition of oil paintings, will be on view from 19 September–31 October, 2003.

The show features oil paintings Lerma created this summer during his stay at the artist residency program Skowhegan.  Pink Polo Shirt
, Rush, Leopold, Kiss Boy, Gumhoodie, and other paintings continue the work  Lerma began in April at Southfirst in “Lives of the Obscure.” Playing with a cartoonish figuration reminiscent of Phillip Guston or Carroll Dunham and the painterly concerns of Joan Mitchell, their self-deprecating tone deflates the machismo of painting as a practice.   Lerma has previously exhibited in a solo show at 7/3 Split in Chicago, and a two-person show at Southfirst about which The New York Times wrote: “He’s very good.”  

José Lerma was born in Sevilla, Spain in 1971 and received an MFA from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He recently completed a year of  teaching painting at the Escuela des Artes Plasticas, San Juan, PR, where he worked with the studio program M&M Proyectos. He is a recipient of a Glassell Core Program fellowship and will begin residency in Texas this September, and he was recently nominated for a Tiffany Grant.

PROJECT ROOM: A  sound collage in the form of Coltrane's solo in Psalm, 2003 a sound installation composed by Mike Skinner with producer/engineer Chris Bracco. This experimental sound piece was made in the form of John Coltrane’s iconic jazz track, A Love Supreme. The sound marks the project room and spills out over the gallery and hallway.

The gallery is located on 60 N6th Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Gallery hours: Fri, Sat & Sun 1-6 PM and by appointment. Subway: L train to Bedford Avenue. For more information, please contact gallery director Maika Pollack at 718 599 4884 or info@southfirst.org.