John Salvest “Object Lessons”
Morgan Lehman Gallery
This event has ended.
Salvest believes that the beauty, courage, sadness, humor, and absurdity of the world are reflected in the physical evidence of our human needs and shortcomings - specifically in the detritus of our daily lives. In this most recent body of work, Salvest further mines the evocative power of everyday objects, continuing to challenge our pre-conceived notions of their inherent value. He revisits business cards, reclaimed medicine cabinets, and pills and also introduces new materials such as secondhand romance novels and used crutches. The found objects are recontextualized, often with the assistance of the written word, to create works that both communicate personal realizations about morality and time and also comment on the triumphs and follies specific to our era.
Salvest’s studio is a laboratory where life’s scraps - a used coffee filter, a weathered clothespin, a deck of cards eroded by shuffling hands - are collected, sorted, and then reconfigured in an attempt to draw out potential meanings. The title, Object Lessons, refers to various accumulations of these familiar objects which, through the artist’s gathering and sorting, have now become visual aids meant to illustrate or explain an abstract idea - tangible representations of Salvest’s realizations about time, mortality, and the many paradoxes of the human condition.
Media
Schedule
from April 17, 2014 to May 17, 2014
Opening Reception on 2014-04-23 from 18:00 to 20:00