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

SOUTHFIRST: PRESENTS

 

ÉAS IF THE FORCE COULD EXTRACT SOMETHING SPECIAL

Katey Austin, Jennifer Bonner, Christian Brahe, Nam Le, Stacy Bloom Rexrode, Amanda Wagstaff

3 August – 29 August, 2014

BBQ: Sunday, 3 August 3-6 PM

             

SOUTHFIRST is proud to present ÒÉAs if the Force Could Extract Something Special,Ó an exhibition featuring works by recent graduates of the MFA program in Studio Art at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. The exhibition is curated by Southfirst. The show is on view from August 3 - August 29, 2014, and an illustrated catalog with an essay by Harry Turfle accompanies the exhibition. There will be an opening reception and BBQ for the artists on Sunday, August 3, from 3-6 PM.

 

Katey Austin makes intricate collage compositions of lush domestic interiors from painted and cut paper; their colors and subjects evoke the work of Pierre Bonnard. Yet AustinÕs sense of space and color emerge from dream-experiences stemming from the unconscious mind. Having suffered from sleep walking since she was a child, the artistÕs Nabis-like interiors are eerie, half-remembered dream topographies from somnambulistic journeys. Jennifer BonnerÕs images combine painting, sculpture and photography to construct fantastical narratives in which animals, seemingly having hailed from her native Orlando, FloridaÕs Universal Studios, make epic trips through enchanted snowscapes. These scenes are captured in photographic stills that, repurposed as viewfinder disks, make glowing narratives of the imagined stories. The work brings the magic of Disney to a long tradition of painting and the American landscape. Christian BraheÕs pen-and-ink drawings register mark-making over the extended time span of a single film or television show. They are almost illegibly dark, but some small figurative and narrative hints emerging from each sheet signaling that the work is a collision between traditional fine art practices and new media viewing experiences. Nam LeÕs works, hanging steel sculptures, evoke the early experiments of the Russian avant-garde: like Aleksandr RodchenkoÕs constructions, in rotating they conjure dynamic spatial possibilities. Stacy Bloom Rexrode recycles consumer products to create elaborate decorative works. Her Quasi-Delft Bequest (2013-14) uses the aesthetic of Dutch pottery to incorporate corporate logos onto blue-and-white plates; twist-ties turn into an 8-foot snowflake in a display of craft that subtly critiques consumer culture. Amanda Wagstaff combines the practices of printmaking with an interest in the poetry of everyday objects; her pressed-flower monotypes extract the faintly colored liquid aura of wild plants, while collographs explore the form of flattened boxes. During the opening of the exhibition Wagstaff will exhibit a performance work in which local flowers, frozen into three blocks of ice, will melt over the course of several hours.

 

Southfirst gratefully acknowledges the UNC Greensboro MFA studio art program and Singha beer for their generous sponsorship of the exhibition.

 

SOUTHFIRST, founded in 2000, is located at 60 N6th Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn between Wythe and Kent Avenues. Summer gallery hours are Wednesday and Friday from 1 - 6 PM and by appointment. Subway: L train to Bedford Avenue.  For more information, please contact Camille Freeman at 718 599 4884 or info@southfirst.org.