SOUTHFIRST
60 N6th
Street Brooklyn, NY 11211 www.southfirst.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Zak Kitnick: Murphy Beds
January 30 - March 1, 2009
SOUTHFIRST is pleased to present "Murphy Beds," an
exhibition of new sculptures by Zak Kitnick on view from January 30 –
March 1. In pursuit of sculptural simplicity, Kitnick's subtractive methodology
modifies aluminum fences, curtain rods, and blinds. The works have been built
and unbuilt by assembling industrially made domestic wares.
In ÒI Love the Things I Hate When TheyÕre Perfect,Ó black
bars plot out an eight-by-eight foot square fence containing its strewn
accents—fleur-de-lis finials rendered incapable of embellishing the bars
in traditional, heraldic menace. Kitnick's new, blunted form presents a tension
in its lack of decorative function. Lofted eight feet high on the gallery's
longest wall are two fixtures whose dissected brass curtain rod and finials
rest on the ground framing an apparition of an image or a hanging textile. Opposite
this void, four Venetian blinds are suspended in a customized soffit, their
slats running perpendicular as they are stacked outward from a brick wall. This
redundancy and multiplicity obviates the need-based function of the blinds and
turns notions of choice and option into an opaque grid. A hundred years after
Adolf Loos wrote ÒOrnament and Crime,Ó Kitnick takes the bastardized detritus
of form-follows-function industrial design and repurposes found, extraneous
decorative elements, turning architectural precepts into sculptural
propositions.
Zak Kitnick holds a BA from Bard College where he studied
Studio Art and Art History. He lives and works in Brooklyn, New York and has
been included in the exhibitions "Salad Days" at Artists Space,
"Sugar" at Asia Song Society, "Alone/Together" at
Talman+Monroe and "O Natural" at 400. His solo show ÒOde to JoyÓ was
the inaugural exhibition at CleopatraÕs in Brooklyn, NY in 2008. His work will
be included in the upcoming exhibition ÒChanging Light Bulbs in Thin AirÓ at
the Hessel Museum of Art.
SOUTHFIRST is located on 60 N6th Street in Williamsburg,
Brooklyn. Gallery hours are Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 1-6 PM and by
appointment. Subway: L train to Bedford Avenue. For more information, please contact Carolyn Park at 718 599
4884 or info@southfirst.org.