Serenity Later
Serenity Later
April 28 – May 26, 2019
Opening: Sunday, April 28, 4-6 PM
Curated by Alicia Adamerovich
Artists: Alicia Adamerovich, Juan Alvear, Carson Foley, Alison Kudlow, Kat Lyons and Douglas Rieger
Serenity Later is a group exhibition featuring the work of Alicia Adamerovich, Juan Alvear, Carson Foley, Alison Kudlow, Kat Lyons and Douglas Rieger. The artists explore themes of higher power, fetish, psychology and the universe in a show that conjures surreal elements such as unearthly humans, animals, and objects into unsettling and uncanny environment with a mind of its own. Through painting, sculpture and words the artists explain the human experience without the presence of a single person. What could be discovered from the things we leave behind if we were no longer around?
Serenity Later playfully seduces the viewer into the nature of worship, at the same time shows how objects become placeholders of human desire for higher powers - to escape their vulnerability, lending a form to their belief. As curator Adamerovich tactfully utilizes T.S. Eliot's objective correlative--"a set of objects, a situation, a chain of events which shall be the formula of that particular emotion" that the poet, or in this case curator, feels and strives to evoke--via her assembly of objects and curation of each emotions, ultimately presenting a visual discussion on the nature of reverence.
In her sculptural objects, 'Noon, Dusk and Dawn,' Alison Kudlow aims to freeze moments in time and embody unseen forces choosing materials such as glass that make the ephemeral tangible for the viewer. She observes sunlight as a protoscientific ritual and celebrates the space between science and mythology. This strong connection with nature as a metaphor of existence is also present in the paintings of Kat Lyons, which questions the role of historical symbolic lexicons and their relationship to ecology. Through animism, the belief that all things contain a spirit, she dissolves the boundaries between animal, human, and object. The characters in her work are non-human but have humanlike experiences exploring themes of vanity, eroticism, labor, and projections of self-awareness.
The works of Alicia Adamerovich, Juan Alvear, and Douglas Rieger, approach animism and objecthood similarly, but from the position of the inanimate object. These three artists lead viewers to question what it means to be "living." Attributing souls to material objects as recognizable as cosmetic fingernails and furniture, these artists don our familiar lifeless world with a conscience. Adamerovich's paintings and drawings, focused on surrealism and domesticity, relate commonplace environments to our relationships with each other. Alvear's hellish sculptural work brings an uncanny nature to what we might consider a commodity.
Douglas Rieger draws inspiration from household objects such as plumbing valves, motor cases, fishing rods, and reproductions of American colonial furniture. His work has a perversity and humor that gives it a muddy sexuality and blends the body and the mechanism. The works are not meant to fit a logic; they are a dialogue between machine and operator.
Carson Foley makes highly rendered, greyscale drawings that approach abstraction in a realm of scientific understanding. His stark juxtaposition is more literal: bringing cold, ominous, and architectural environments and structured to his narrative books and to the surface of human flesh through finely, detailed tattoos. The work is placed in an alternate universe that blends technology with humankind and portrays a sterile coldness.
The artists have all approached ritual, worship, objecthood, and the cosmos in diverse ways, spanning from narrative sequential works to abstract sculpture. Beguiling worlds and disconcerting actions feed a strain of euphoric, mysterious, and sometimes dark undercurrents that connect each of the works and stealthily encourage the viewers to start thinking more existentially. It is encouraged to step outside your body while entering this exhibition.
Address: Kunstraum LLC, 20 Grand Ave, Space 509, Brooklyn, NY 11205 Hrs: Thu - Sat 12-6 PM by appointment only – please contact us first! Contact: Nadja Marcin, 646.924.9656, nadja@kunstraumllc.com Social Media: www.facebook.com/kunstraumllc
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Image: Kat Lyons, Love Dogs, oil on canvas, 36" x 48"