Jacob Kassay “H-L”

303 Gallery (555 W 21st St.)

This event has ended.

303 Gallery presents new work by Jacob Kassay.

Whether walking up the stairs or reaching in the cabinet, through the daily repetition of the same surroundings, domestic space is where haptic sense develops then sediments, conditioning the body’s motor skills to automatically navigate and interface without assessing its environment. Kassay’s new sculptures explore these systems in which architecture both latently shapes and eludes conscious sense. This rote coding of gestures causes the awareness of one’s surroundings to slowly erode, with familiarity superseding reflection. Thickening the peripheral features and interstices of interior space that are routinely used but disregarded, Kassay reframes how attention is built into its surroundings.

Three architectonic sculptures within the exhibition terminate in dead ends and reroute one’s circulation through the gallery. Modeled on separate stairwells at 1:1 scale, these works present corridors whose connective function is severed, neither ascending nor descending. These disconnected passages form a series of transitions that hover in an architectural uncanny, somewhere between model and fragment, calculated rendering and lived space.

Railings are affixed along the gallery wall, framing it as a transited space. These supports are lined with Braille characters without syntax, extruding the eponymous letters of the exhibition - H for one, L for the other. This fixed-scale language communicates nothing other than prehensible vocalizations: embedded sighs and inaudible drones which trail off into space.

Jacob Kassay was born in 1984 in Lewiston, New York. In 2017, his work will be the subject of a solo project at Albright Knox, Buffalo NY, curated by Cathleen Chaffee. Past solo presentations have been held at The Kitchen, New York; The Power Station, Dallas; and Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia. He has been included in group exhibitions at venues including MoMA PS1, New York; Fondation Richard, Paris; Centre National d’Art Contemporain, Grenoble; FRAC Poitou-Charenetes, Angoulême; and Kunsthalle Andratx, Mallorca. Kassay’s work was part of the 8th Gwangju Biennale, curated by Massimiliano Gioni; and the 2010 White Columns Annual, curated by Bob Nickas. His work can be found in public and museum collections, including Boston Museum of Fine Arts; FRAC Poitou-Charenetes, Angoulême; and Arab Museum of Modern Art, Qatar. Kassay lives and works in Los Angeles.