Looking Forward while Looking Back
With works by Cathleen Clarke, Matthew Cronin and Alina Grasmann.
Curated by Elisa Gutiérrez Eriksen
May 29 - June 18, 2020
Virtual Exhibition
The new iteration of Looking Forward while Looking Back: Speculative Interiors, presents the works of NARS Alumni Alina Grasmann, Cathleen Clarke and Matthew Cronin.
What does memory mixed with visual archives become when these are constantly revisited in an effort to reconstruct a narrative?
The works of Cronin, Grasmann and Clarke become familiar, yet strange. They change, expand, and transform into a distant interior –stuck in impermanence.
As these artists converge, a dialogue connecting painting and photography arises. Their aesthetic qualities live in a threshold between a formal language and a vaguely kin fiction that triggers a synapse within the memories of the observer as it enters into a collective speculative interior.
From images from childhood to iconic events or places inserted in quotidian landscapes, interpretations of objects and images from old catalogues, these works redefine the meaning and feeling of an old souvenir, and capture the passage of time by mixing what was once with what could be. They can be seen as eternal moments where time and place become subjective segments, connected to a story that rises from an eternal interior place, stuck in memory.
While reconstructing a present –and even projecting a possible future– the works in this exhibition live in a multiplicity of dimensions. Places become content and the content becomes a place.(1)
(1)Emanuele Coccia, The Life of Plants
About the artists:
Cathleen Clarke
Inspired by childhood and the enigmas that surround it, Clarke’s work explores themes of memory, mystery, and the passing of time. The figures in her paintings appear distant, confronting the viewer as if from another time. Sometimes isolated, these individuals are absorbed into their backgrounds, evoking the anxiety of being controlled by one's surroundings. Referencing old family photos, childhood memories and found images, Clarke allows the paint to interpret what is often overlooked or forgotten. In this way, the reference becomes a small piece in her process, and the end result is the memory and feeling she has from it.
Matthew Cronin
Matthew Cronin is an artist living and working in Brooklyn, New York. His process makes use of pre-existing imagery which he reimagines through montage and multiple exposure. For the series “Dwelling”, Cronin transforms photographs produced during the 1970s for J.C. Penny Catalogs. He creates new, speculative interiors that explore the relationships between comfort, class, and tradition.
Cronin holds an MFA in Studio art from the University of Texas at Austin as well as a BFA in Photography from Massachusetts College of Art and Design. In 2020, he participated in the NARS Foundation's Winter Residency.
Alina Grasmann
Alina's paintings almost look like photos. They are very precise and detailed. The light on the walls or the reflection in the pool for example are carefully painted. You could nearly believe that they are exact replicas of the original photos. But something seems off. Sometimes you can notice that light and shadows don't fit together. And the wallpaper with the painting of Breugel – is it really there or was it added by the artist? Alina's work always lies on the boundary between fact and fiction. Traditionally, a photo is considered a true document. In contrast, paintings are viewed as fiction - composed, manipulated, unreal.
They're not real, they're made up. But the unstoppable development of digital media has changed this difference between photography and painting. CGI enables the creation of previously unthinkable realistic fantasy worlds. Alina brings this new aspect of the photo - its capacity for the fictional - back into painting. Her paintings are almost theater-like. They invite us to come in and stay in them.
(M. Wisniowska)
Due to COVID regulations, attendance is limited for the opening reception.
NARS Foundation Galleries are open to the public from 12pm - 5pm, Monday - Friday. Please contact info@narsfoundation.org with any other inquires.
