Painting As Paradox
7 November - 21 December 2002
Artists Space
38 Greene Street, 3rd FloorNew York, NY 10013
T.212.226.3970 Ext. 27
F.212.966.1434
Curated by Lauri Firstenberg
Simon Aldridge, Ellen Altfest, Augusto Arbizo, Jan Baracz, Roberto Bermejo, Sebastian Blanck, Mark Bradford, Monica Bradley, Jane Callister, Karlos Carcamo, Carolyn Carr, José León Cerrillo, Matt Chansky, Nayda Collazo-Llorens, Elizabeth Conlon, Claire Corey, Maria Cruz, Jay Davis, Andrea DeFlorio, Mary Doherty, Tim Doud, Carl Eckhoff, Benjamin Edwards, Judith Eisler, Karel Funk, Michael Gibson, Frantiska + Tim Gilman, Inaki Gracenea, Isca Greenfield-Sanders, Terry Haggerty, Perry Hall, Brad Hampton, Marc Handelman, Janice Handleman, Ellen Harvey, Millree Hughes, Minako Iwamura, Sunny Kim, Kieran Kinney, Carla Klein, Dorota Kolodziejczyk, Mara Korkola, Sze Tsung Leong, Evan Lintermans, Valentina Loi, Octavius Neveaux, David Nicholson, Odili Donald Odita, Graham Parks, Michael Phelan, Thomas Pihl, Seth Price, Nathaniel Quinn, Blake Rayne, Jessica Rohrer, Gabriela Schutz, James Sheehan, John Tremblay, Anton Vidokle, Kelley Walker, Darren Wardle, Kehinde Wiley, CarrieYamaoka, Gyoko Yoshida, Brenda Zlamany
Painting As Paradox is an exercise in synthesizing the research of eclectic practices of young emerging artists grappling with various legacies of painting. Their work reflects a continual gesturing towards tradition and a concurrent redefinition of painting in contemporary terms. Examining the tendencies of artists trying to reconcile the contradictions and taboos of painting to date, not to mention its alleged disappearance and resurgence, this exhibition investigates the measures taken to maintain the mediums relevance.
Affected by the specter of both historical and contemporary precursors, the work represented in the exhibition also demonstrates the re-posturing of traditional genres within the lexicon of new technologies. This highly self-conscious interest in the status of painting, its production, reception, and circulation, has led to enormous activity. From digital painting, hybrid painting, non-painting, hyper-figurative painting, and beyond, it is evident that current artists are in effect initiating a collapse of categorization.
In light of the current block-buster exhibitions such as Urgent Painting at the Musee dArt Moderne de la Ville de Paris or Painting at the Edge of the World, Walker Art Center, Painting As Paradox does not intend to compete as a survey of present movements in art making. Rather, the exhibition focuses on over fifty emerging artists whose work reveals contradictions within individual practices, as well as exposing the visual and conceptual tensions between disparate contemporaneous productions.
Hung salon-style to reflect the sheer proliferation of contrary practices engaging with painting in literal or negational terms, and to illustrate the maintenance, yet eruption of traditional genres, the task of this exhibition is to represent, not to reconcile, disparate levels of production in a condensed space.
A catalogue is available upon request.
Installation view: 1. Valentina Loi, Boy; 2. Mara Korkola, No Place 38; 3. Maria Cruz, Untitled; 4. Maria Cruz, Southwest Breeze; 5. Augusto Arbizo, Forest I; Augusto Arbizo, Forest II; 6. Dorota Kolodziejczyk, All of the Above; 7. Jane Callister, Liquid Landscape; 8. Ellen Altfest, The Brook; 9. Blake Rayne, Untitled; 10. Odili Donald Odita, Shockwave; 11. Millree Hughes, Krill; 12. Michael Phelan, Floating Castle; 13. John Tremblay,(Molten Rock) Magma (Asphalt Rundown); 14. Jane Callister, Liquid Landslide; 15. Michael Phelan, Autumn Maples; 16. Michael Phelan, Springs Here; 17. Graham Parks, the division
