Kiyoshi Ike | Distant Memory| East Gallery
Going Home
Mixed Media, 48" x 39" x 14", 2009 |
Artist Statement
The longer I stay in the USA, the more my sense of being Japanese becomes stronger. It feels as if I am reaching for who I was then verses now. It involves the way I look at things when growing up with the aesthetic and ethics of a Zen and Confucius upbringing - here are some examples. . . Being Natural, Respect and Accept things as they are. Do not kill (people / animal / nature). . . Empathy for everything. “While you are open and willing, you are able to see and sense the deeper meaning of what’s going on and find a beauty from the unexpected”. My installation of 2005, “Brooklyn Sidewalk” sums up this narration. Brooklyn Sidewalk I took my two dogs for walk early-mornings when I lived in Brooklyn. One Saturday morning, as we were out the door, I saw the light powdered snow had fallen in the street earlier. There was no traffic at all. As we walked the snow changed, becoming fluffy and a bit heavy. I felt we were the only living souls, and “Snow observes all sound” came to my mind. Peaceful and Still. We came upon the corner of a large brick apartment complex and turned right as usual. Then I found the white long pile in front of the entrance. I walked closer and saw the discarded objects out for recycling, each illuminated their shapes by white contours - old children toys, furniture, plastic ornaments, and all the house hold items. A family moved out from the apartment perhaps. In the middle I found a large doll, partially covered by the snow, one eye closed and one opened. It looked old, scruffy and used up. Things once treasured and loved become unwanted junk over time - nothing stays the same. . . We continued walking in the snow. Kiyoshi Ike January 30, 2019 |
Christopher E. Manning | Kept Moments Quite Fragile | TDP Gallery
Spine
Acrylic, Screw Eyes, Ferrels, Rubber Coated Wire, 72" x 12" x 12", 2018 |
Artist Statement
Using sculpture, photography, printmaking, drawing and collage in tandem, works explores an autobiographical excavation of the self with interest in duality and fragmented storytelling. Conceptually these mediums have been used to record history, but often that moment is just the surface, processes lead to unearthing the exteriors of time, covering a vulnerability or amending memory with footnotes. Each piece possesses bits of life lived - a teetering of truths and lies, light versus dark, success and failures - presented as an amalgamation of memories, and experiences that we preserve/destroy, expose/cover, and eventually what reemerges, revealing both a lineage of masks and underlying layers of faces beneath. Together these works create a portrait of what shapes us, while embodying the deluge of all that was forgotten or surplus to existence. Christopher E. Manning (b. 1983, New York) has a MFA from SUNY New Paltz and a BFA from Manhattanville College. Manning is the Exhibitions Manager at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, as well as a Professor of Visual Art at Manhattanville College. He has also taught at the College of New Rochelle, and has been a visiting critic at the Wassaic Project and SUNY New Paltz MFA and BFA programs. His work has been exhibited at The Parlour Bushwick, BK; Garrison Art Center, NY; Exit Art, NY; Dorsky Curatorial Projects, LIC, NY; Central Booking, NY; The Impossible Project Lab, Berlin, Germany; Catskill Art Society, Livingston Manor, NY; Lift Trucks Projects, NY; Hillyer Art Space, DC; The Auction Project, Miami; Samuel Dorsky Museum, NY; Theo Ganz Studio, Beacon, NY; Ann Street Gallery, Newburgh, NY; Manhattanville College; Iona College; The Susan D. Goodman Collection, among others. His work has been featured in The New York Times; The Queens Chronicle; Ain’t Bad Magazine; The Impossible Project; Scandale Project; Kolaj Magazine and Vellum Magazine. The artist lives and works in North Salem, NY. |
Shifting Parameters| West Gallery
Hot dog
Ceramic, Polymer Clay, Underglaze, Resin, 2.25" x 6.5" x 3", 2017 |
Matthew Dercole | Artist Statement
I develop story lines stemming from the exploration of our relationships with ideas and imagery that are often overlooked, taken for granted, sometimes disturbing, and usually misunderstood. Within these stories, I approach and investigate the dull, banal, and the obvious aspects of everyday life with a new curiosity. Series of works are based around separate moments, all relating to each other through symbols, characters, themes, and imagery. Thinking of stories and books and how they elicit imagery, I approach my work from the point of view of a story, working through series and ideas as thoughts and surroundings evolve. The exploration of the self, the understanding of others, and the dynamics they create are an underlying theme throughout my work. Drawing from a fascination of biology, I create forms based on principles of nature coupled with the experience of thought and feeling. The works become combinations of the natural progression of life, such as growth and decomposition, and the human aspects of reason and ability. I am reacting to the way people think and feel about their identities, how the act of learning and the responsibility of knowledge affect our everyday lives. |
Seeding No. 2
Acrylic, Canvas, Thread on Wood, 5" x 8" x 3", 2010 |
Bumin Kim | Artist Statement
This body of work is a showcase of questions; an approach towards the idea of painting and drawing in the expanded field. Kim explores the nature of line, and the potential held therein, to push the boundaries between the two-dimensional surface and three-dimensional space. Thread and string are synonymous with the actions of weaving and stitching, both for utilitarian purposes, and to serve as metaphor, for the joining of two separate entities with efforts to repair what once was, or with the intent of becoming something other, whole and new. The transformative power of materiality is at play in these works, and Kim has repurposed the context of thread and string, to emphasize the energy, delicacy, and grace of painting and drawing. Both the weight of line as thin and singular, and the collection of lines en masse as solid form, are sensitive tools found in Kim's repertoire; these are tools which have been exercised with skillful intent to build interesting forms, reminiscent of exacerbated versions of value studies, gesture drawings, or economical sketches one might find in the foundations of drawing. But that would be too reductive to let them exist still tethered to such a basic, albeit important set of concepts. These works shift, undulate, and pulse into our space, promulgating themselves as entities emancipated from the confines of flatland, and now poised, vibrating, just above the surface. Drawing has been personified, and is no longer limited to the index of the hand, or the illusion of the flat surface. It is an echo of a once sorrowful song, who’s voice is present, tender, and alive. |
Stacks
Acrylic on Wood, 30" x 30", 2019 |
Jennifer Sabella | Artist Statement
This body of work is reflective of my continued fascination of color, texture, composition, and repetition. Wood serves as a basic sculptural element to explore interactions of color and depth within these three dimensional/sculptural paintings. I experimented with surface treatments through combinations of acrylic paint and clear resin to create large landscapes of color with interruptions of complimentary color and glossy sheen. I’m interested in pushing the space between painting and surface, and creating immersive visual experiences. The endless possibilities of color continue to inform my work, but the essential meaning of these pieces arises out of the process of their making. |
Manufactured Tendencies II,
drop cloth, metal leaf, metal powder, 40”x28”x2”, 2018 |
Mari Skarp-Bogli | Artist Statement
Industrial Dichotomy This series incorporates raw industrial materials used throughout the building industry. Pine, paper, cardboard, aluminum, steel, copper, brass, industrial abrasives and adhesives are common materials creating mixed media three-dimensional ‘paintings’ that include pure elemental form and detritus. During technical production of these raw industrial materials lean manufacturing processes demonstrate complex yet minimalistic creation; utilizing repetition and patterning while seeking to minimize waste and maximize product. I attempt to replicate this process in my work, replacing fast production with slow, manual processes, embracing the element of human touch and the beauty of basic materials; identifying older world concepts quickly being replaced by technology. |
Pieces of the Planet Series: Horns
Plaster, clay fibers, pigment, wax on wood, 16" x 14" x 4", 2017 |
Greg St. John | Artist Statement
In my current work the “Pieces of the Planet Series “ I am exploration the idea of a small cutaway of the earth’s crust we tread upon; what is below our feet the colors, shapes, textures, surfaces things that move and creep. These paintings are not to make a realistic depiction of earth’s surface or structure but a surreal - like world of primordial shapes, textures, colors, moving about and becoming dream like landscape. In making these painting I have chosen to use an array of materials plaster, pigments, clay, and fibers of various kinds, wire and sometimes found object such as pieces of rope or plastic. These materials are a comment on the fragility and inner workings of the surface we walk on. They have the weight and density of the earth’s surface but also the fragility of the planet we take for granted every day. |