Surreptitious Fondness
May 14 - July 10th, 2011
Artist Talk & Closing Reception: July 9th, 4:30 – 8:00PM
Artist Talk & Closing Reception: July 9th, 4:30 – 8:00PM
Exhibition Artists:
Jose Arenas, Chitra Ganesh, Aleksander Garin, Erin Rachel Hudak, Gisela Insuaste,
Brian Lund, Conor McGrady, and Mason Salterellir.
New York Art Residency & Studios (NARS) Foundation is pleased to present an Artist Talk in conjunction with "Surreptitious Fondness," an exhibition featuring a selection of multidisciplinary artworks that tackle a variety of subject matter that range from the most intimate experiences to addressing the public consciousness..
The exhibition includes a large-scale painting by Jose Arenas that addresses a sense of disorientation, dislocation, and displacement. Arenas layers metaphorical images like insects, birds, and navigational symbols - maps, compasses, and ships - to allude to place, direction, and the feeling of living in a state of in-between.
Another work that layers disparate materials and visual languages drawn from a broad range of material, including Hindu, Greek and Buddhist mythology, 19th century European portraiture, fairytales, Bollywood posters, anime, and comic books is a digital print by Chitra Ganesh. Ganesh creates alternate narratives of sexuality and power in a world where buried stories and marginal figures emerge to reveal moments of abjection, desire, and loss.
Aleksander Garin's more quiet and simple drawing is a highly refined vignette that captures the swiftness of the gesture yet is refrained in conveying its narrative by editing out any context or background creating an ambiguous restrained figure floating in space.
Erin Rachel Hudak's intimate mixed media drawings about desire, longing, and destruction uses shared consciousness and collective content such as the New York Times articles as a starting point juxtaposed with personal narrative to communicate directly to the viewer.
Gisela Insuaste's intriguing and delicate painting based on her travels through Spain and Japan explores the intersection of architecture, topography, and memory tapping into the subtle and quirky topologies of urban spaces that are composed of interdependent elements that resonate with personal narratives.
Brian Lund's drawing installation utilizes colorful dots, lines, geometric shapes, and analytical notes to translate the motion picture JFK's editing system into forty abstract compositions using highly personalized mark-making.
In contrast, the large iconic black and white figure painting by Conor McGrady references how power, control, and social instability translates into personal boundaries and collective selfhood, while Mason Saltarrelli's fable-like narratives on paper are inspired by his home city of New Orleans and the improvisational nature of jazz.
