Josh Reames: Wet & Wild
Kate Steciw: Shapes of Things
April 9–May 12, 2016
Opening: April 9, noon–8:30pm
Brand New Gallery
via Carlo Farini 32
20159 Milan
Italy
Hours: Tuesday–Saturday 11am–1pm,
2:30–7pm
T +39 02 89 05 30 83
info [at] brandnew-gallery.com
Josh Reames
Wet & Wild
Brand New Gallery is delighted to present Josh Reames’ solo exhibition Wet & Wild.
In Wet & Wild Josh Reames presents a new series of paintings which employ commonly used artistic techniques, such as trompe-l’oeil, action painting, graphic design and rudimentary drawing, all existing on one plane.
The artworks by Josh Reames consider abstraction and painting in relation to the internet and digital image searches via Google Image and Tumblr.
Reames’ conceptual framework functions as a kind of filtration device for cultural by-product and its attending relativism, literally flattening disparate images and references and thereby removing their hierarchy. In this evanescence, a compendium of signs, text and symbols (emoji, letters, text, and numbers—doubling as marks, sprayed or squeezed), objects (cigarettes, fried eggs, bombs, tennis balls), and cultural icons (Gumby, female breasts) are all flattened to the same level of composition.
“One thing that I am really interested in is the way that the Internet—browsing, blog rolling, etc.—takes away the hierarchy of image importance, meaning, and connection […] I think about painting in a similar way, where images, marks, art historical references, and everyday objects are all depicted on the same level, contained in the same rectangle, emerging out of one painting and into another.”
Kate Steciw
Shapes of Things
“I am 37 years old. I was born on the cusp of Taurus and Gemini which would suggest that I am both stubborn and flakey. I am not a good photographer and I am not that good at Photoshop (though I have claimed both as professions). I can’t paint. I can’t draw. I am sloppy and impatient, I choke.
“I have a problem with ‘follow-through.’ I break things. I lose things. I forget things. I take things personally. I take things too far. I don’t back up my files. I don’t read directions and I’m not good at taking direction.
“I no longer own a decent camera but I do take pictures almost every day. I save them for years and years. I take other people’s pictures and save them too. I love good stock photography. I worked as a retoucher for many years and saw a lot of it. I know enough about Photoshop to do what I need to and that is all that matters.
“I want to work every day and this is the only way I know how. Some images in these works are mine, some are not. Some were taken recently, some I’ve had for years and more still, I’ve bought or borrowed somewhere along the line. I don’t print or cut the images myself but I wish I did. I do glue them and string them together by hand; it’s crafty and I enjoy this.”
