A Short Survey of Contemporary Abstraction, curator James Austin Murray

Sandy Bennett Gallery, Bergen Center for Performing Arts, Englewood, NJ

It May Be Time to Rethink the Way You Think, 2017, hand-dyed canvas, polyester rope, wood, wax, 88 x 40 x 27inches

A Narrow Passage, a multidisciplinary exhibition featuring the work of Lana Duong, James Gilbert, Jenalee Harmon, Megan Mueller, Jenny Rask, Nicolas Shake, Katya Usvitsky, and May Wilson, has already been received with great fanfare. Major media outlets like the Los Angeles Times and the international publication, Art Week, have been promoting the show, as well as well-respected regional outlets, like Curate LA, Art and Cake, Venison Magazine, Asymmetric Magazine, and DoLA:

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Noysky Projects presents A Narrow Passage, a multidisciplinary exhibition that explores themes of constriction, compression, and concealment as a way to relate to personal biographies.

Abstract works from A Narrow Passage are comprised of materials that twist, turn, bond, choke, or smother to the point of collapse, while others have approached constriction in a more gratifying way, like the comforting sensation of a warm embrace or the euphoric feeling of pleasure derived from pain.

Artists have used the compression of space as a visual device to relate to the body for thousands of years. Ancient Egyptians wrapped the body in ornate sheaths that accentuated the unique forms of the individual, while providing familiar biographical landmarks to aid the spirit in its journey to the afterlife. Shibari, a form of Japanese rope bondage developed during the Edo period, was used as a decorative device to display captive prisoners like trophies, creating complex patterns and shapes that pressed into the skin. Twentieth-Century works from Man Ray and Christo & Jeanne-Claude have used concealment as a means to invoke mystery, transformation, and revelation, while Eva Hesse and Jackie Winsor put the body back into abstraction, using hands-on processes and tactile materials that actively rejected the detached qualities of the minimalists.

Many of the works in A Narrow Passage employ elements of playfulness with form while acknowledging the weight and density of the artist’s chosen materials. Some of the works in A Narrow Passage relate to the quirks of the body, straddling the line between fragility and rigidity, using irregular, organic forms. Others have used tension to reveal internal conflict, illuminating our efforts to adapt to our new political realities while also protecting the ideas we cherish most.

NOW AVAILABLE

James Gilbert / Garth Bowden – Plastic Primitive

Signed by both artists, Numbered, Limited Edition of 100, 34 black and white Plates

  $25 with free shipping in the US, All others please inquire.

Contact me directly for your copy.

An exhibition of new sculptures, drawings and photographs from Los Angeles based artist James Gilbert and Paris based Garth Bowden.

This exhibition is the culmination of an on-going conversation between the two artists and their individual studio practices. For the first time, the artists have proposed a joint residency together in France where all work is created along side each other, in response to each other, specifically for this exhibition.

This dialogue between the two artists marries the language and structures of primitive visual forms with images from contemporary pop culture. Setting in play contradictory elements – objects of symbolic meaning used for ritual and cultural identity versus objects devoid of meaning – the products of consumerist pop society such as plastic toys, games and cartoons.

There is an interest in defining a period of our collective history and cultural understanding. Drawing from the vitality and power of primitive tribal art and the banal objects of pop culture, both artists seek to compress these apparently opposing elements into objects of meaning and humour.

“The conscious search in history for a more deeply expressive, permanent human nature and cultural structure in contrast to the nascent modern realties.” Stanley Diamond, “In Search of the Primitive”

LeStudio, Paris, France

Tweeted, Googled and Inappropriately Touched

Read full article at Nakid Magazine

“I think of each pair of underpants as an intimate portrait. They are an examination of the large amount of intimate and private information we willingly share through social media, reality television and 24-hour news cycles – the immense fascination with celebrity and pop culture. Each pair of underpants is sewn from transparent industrial plastic then embellished with beads, zippers or sequins, like layers of experience, personality and behavior. The underpants expose our most intimate information – revealing our perviness, opinions, quirkiness, sense of humor and a narrative of our culture.”

James Gilbert

Moist casts a long slow look at sensuality, sexuality and eroticism into this group exhibition, giving free reign to desire.

Orange County Center for Contemporary Art

117 North Sycamore Street

Santa Ana, California, 92701

Radius Gallery (formerly SCICA) at the Tannery Arts Center
1050 River Street, #127
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
May 7 – June 29, 2014

Pajaro Valley Arts Council (PVAC)
37 Sudden Street
Watsonville, California 95076
May 7 – June 22, 2014

UnDressed explores the realm of apparel beyond the conventional limitations of fabric, needle and thread. Expect the unexpected in this exhibit of curious, intriguing, narrative garments and accessories that utilize traditional methods, as well as experimentation with unusual materials, tools and techniques to create surprising, witty and thought provoking conceptual pieces and installations

The performance will present an unique opportunity for museum participants to physically engage with the artist in a museum setting, while igniting a conversation about the cultural dynamic between arts and sports.

Each challenge will be on a certified wrestling mat with a referee present. Participants must be +21 years old and weigh approximately 100-175 pounds. Male and female. No previous wrestling experience required. No shoes on the wrestling mat.