Robert Nava, Marco Pariani, and Lauren Taylor “Person, Place, or Thing”

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Person, Place, or Thing highlights the work of Robert Nava, Marco Pariani, and Lauren Taylor. This exhibition explores the fluidity between the conceptual demarcations of the body, the space it inhabits, and the objects it can hold.

The bold graphite drawings of Robert Nava work seamlessly onto canvas in tandem with fields of pigment and spray paint. Raw gestural mark-making is imbedded in the painted surface to exude a childlike imagination. Nava unearths his own mythology by creating a space for monsters, angels, and dragons to appear. Often large in scale and depicting a singular being, these spontaneous compositions capture a nascent subconscious. In turn, Nava creates energetic personas in motion which contrast with the untreated areas of the canvas. With extra air to breathe, Nava’s cast of characters become one with their painted environments.

Marco Pariani similarly paints his milieu in an expressionistic manner. Pariani’s response to discomfort with his environment is to strip away the undesirables in order to produce a refreshed setting. The artist taps into spontaneous modes of Abstract Expressionism to produce his reimagined atmospheres. Expansive swaths of bright earthy color is organically juxtaposed to create a terrain where someone is either coming or going. Hues of parchment, grassy green, and a spectrum of mauve hang suspended in this work, leaving a ghost-like residue of our collective experiences.

Lauren Taylor’s sculptures explore absence and presence as one encounters her work. At first glance Taylor’s assemblages appear as strewn laundry littering the floors. In actuality, what appears soft and in flux is stiff and stagnant. Tumbled clothing and objects are altered and manipulated to stay in place despite their casual compositions. This playful investigation of our surroundings at once creates a sense of subversion and intimacy. The stand-in objects allude to the bodies that may have inhabited them, incorporating every crease and fold along the way. The cloth structures create an impression of time and place meanwhile offering clues about whom adorned them. Taylor’s flung piles of worn items act as a psychological conduit between person, place, and thing.