Victoria Fu, John Gerrard, Marco Rios and Josh Tonsfeldt Exhibition
Simon Preston Gallery
[Image: Victoria Fu "Velvet Peel 3" (2016) video, color/sound, 7 min. 50 sec. loop]
This event has ended.
Simon Preston Gallery presents a group exhibition bringing together four gallery artists, Victoria Fu, John Gerrard, Marco Rios and Josh Tonsfeldt.
Victoria Fu’s installations interplay photographic, screen-based and projected images. Layered analog and digital textures, found and original footage, choreographed videos and live performing bodies suggest the folding of virtual into actual space. In Velvet Peel 3 (2016), everyday gestures, in repetition, at once convey and obscure meaning in a linear looping video. In this installation, titled ( __ ) (2016), the video plays against a backdrop of color field staged lighting and photographic images that, at times, both collapse and delineate the physical and representation space of the screen.
John Gerrard’s work employs post-cinematic, real-time computer simulations that frequently refer to structures of power and networks. Flag (Thames) 2016 portrays a small section of the river Thames, near Westminster, in London, with a gasoline spill at the center of the scene. The river is represented in meticulous detail, alongside renderings of buildings that sit on the riverbank - present as reflections. The scene accurately refracts the light off the water & oil to create a vivid prism, endlessly shifting in shape over time. The undulation of the surface animates the scene, giving rise to the title of the work, an emblem for a flag, not of a nation state, but of a global dependency on petroleum.
Marco Rios creates theatrical installations that construct surreal realities deriving from contemporary cultural mythologies. In a Room or Lonely, Chapter One, (2016), is an installation consisting of a neon sculpture spelling out a phrase in reverse, only to be revealed through its reflection in the accompanying mirror, specifically scaled to the height and shoulder-width of the artist. The first in an on-going series delving into themes within Paul Schrader’s iconic screenplays such as Taxi Driver, American Gigolo and Light Sleeper - a trilogy of male protagonists on the edge of urban society who would ‘like to have a life of his own but doesn’t know how to get one.’
Josh Tonsfeldt exhibits several new works including a video displayed on a disassembled LCD screen, exposing the transparency of the screen and it’s lighting beneath. Utilizing this as sculptural form, objects are placed between the screen and illuminating light source, creating an indecipherable collapse of space. The film material from screens reappear in two framed compositions, layering the material with found objects. Here, the optical effects of these films obscure the compositions, holding image and material within a state of suspension.
Media
Schedule
from June 26, 2016 to August 05, 2016
Opening Reception on 2016-06-26 from 18:00 to 20:00