Jeff DeGolier and Stacie Johnson Exhibition
chashama Gallery (461 W 126th St.)
This event has ended.
Stacie Johnson and Jeff Degolier create a multiple media exhibition in flux.
The artists will be working in the gallery during open hours for the duration of the exhibition. Their finished works and site-specific projects will always be available for viewing. As both artists make visually dense work, it is guaranteed that there will be much to see.
This exhibit is funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts
Artists' Statements:
JEFF DEGOLIER
The purpose of my work is to span polarities physically and metaphysically that seem ridiculous and unlikely. Through the construction of situations made from refuse and commonly found, popular materials, an awareness of environment emerges where materials have opportunity for growth beyond their means; like the crystallization of a mineral, they take form naturally. This process involves the constant reexamining of discarded items. It allows the work to speak to its place in the cyclical development, deterioration, and material excess of the contemporary landscape. Embellishing objects that would otherwise be deemed junk and reinventing them as photograph and sculpture in-dialogue with nature, the contemporary compulsion for excessive self-improvement (renovating, customizing, replacing, reshaping) is illuminated. Imbuing disposed-of materials with gestures of aspiration, this work questions traditional notions of utility by highlighting the aesthetic value of object, its place and occupation in space, and its own obsolescence.
www.jeffdegolier.com
STACIE JOHNSON
My paintings are the product of an ongoing investigation of how color and shape create visual vibrations. My intention is to animated the painted object. I want to push simple forms to the edge of their referential potential. The works are tightly designed and compositionally complex. I am exploring modes between still-life and abstraction or more specifically between illusion and flatness. The best example of this effect is when shadow becomes pattern and vice versa. Many of my paintings are still-life in that they are depictions of temporary sculptures made from studio remnants: tape, cardboard, fabric, etc. Even when the paintings are illusionistic, they often depict abstract sculptures, and so there is an ongoing tension between the 2D and the 3D. My newest works are abstract paintings made from shaped paper. These “cut-outs” are hung on the wall to interact with wall paintings. This work similarly confuses the 2D and the 3D and because these works are site-specific, their scale can increase exponentially depending on the location of the installation. My practice fulfills a desire to combine playful optical effects with stylistic references to past eras of Art and Design. Even when abstract, the work is highly personal and each painting feels like a self-portrait. In this way, I am investigating a type of “material mysticism” in which physical objects become animated with psychic potential.
www.staciemayajohnson.com
Media
Schedule
from October 20, 2011 to November 06, 2011
Open hours: Fridays & Saturdays: 11:30am-7pm (and by appt.)
Closing Reception on 2011-11-05 from 18:00 to 21:00