“Epic People” Exhibition

Here Gallery

poster for “Epic People” Exhibition
[Image: Left: Dianne Hebbert; Center: Sylvanus Shaw; Right: Lauren Gregory]

This event has ended.

Curated by Marine Cornuet

HERE proudly presents Epic People.

Epic - adj. “Heroic or grand in scale or character.” - Oxford Dictionary

Tired of the over-usage of the word “epic” to qualify such things as “win” or “fail”? This exhibition offers an alternative and re-invigorates the term with portraits of seemingly ordinary people executed in manners that glorify their subject or lead the viewer towards heroic and mysterious narratives.

Dianne Hebbert’s full length portraits on frosted mylar depict larger-than-life figures in everyday situations. These characters are cut out from the background they were first painted on and stand alone in the exhibition space, allowing for their figures to fill rooms the way our bodies do, juxtaposing the picture plane with our lived environment. All the characters painted by Hebbert in this series are people with narratives of immigration, either new transplants or first generation Americans, the artist’s acquaintances, friends, or family whose stories she chose to highlight.

With thick, energetic finger and brushstrokes, Lauren Gregory captures vivid images of people in sometimes comical, sometimes dramatic poses, always infusing the resulting portrait with a feeling of intimacy. Furthering the movement already present in her paintings on canvas, she also creates oil paint stop-motion animations that function as “moving paintings”. The result is intense and mesmerizing, as the characters’ movements are constantly decomposed and recomposed in front of the viewer, who is compelled to interpret the story that unfolds in front of her.

Similarly, but with very different means, Sylvanus Shaw’s albums are composed of a multitude of images (drawings, symbols, and collages) that viewers can connect and narrate through their own sensibility. Each album contains a series of 20 compositions, formed of hundreds of drawings accumulated by the artist over the years. This impressive project - named the Drawing Bullion Project, referencing the way precious metals are melted in bulk before coining or weighing - offers a glimpse in a world of strange characters, monsters, latin inscriptions, and what seems like ancient tales that beg to be deciphered.

Dianne Hebbert is a Nicaraguan-American artist working out of New York City. Raised in Miami, FL, she attended New World School of the Arts. She earned her BFA in painting from Purchase College in 2010 and MFA in Printmaking from Brooklyn College in 2016. She is a recipient of the Vermont Studio Center Fellowship and residency. In 2016 she had a solo show at Thomas Hunter Projects, Hunter College, New York. She has exhibited paintings and prints throughout New York, in Rhode Island, Virginia and Vermont. Dianne organizes exhibitions as well. She was an Emerging Leader of New York Arts Fellow for 2016-2017.

Brooklyn-based and Tennessee-raised, Lauren Gregory is a painter, animator, and director. A third-generation southern female painter, she began by following in her mother’s and grandmother’s footsteps, often painting friends and family in quick one-sitting sessions. Her work has shown at MoMA P.S.1, the New Museum, and MOCA Los Angeles. In 2017, she had residencies in both Italy and Budapest, as well as solo shows at Kunsthalle Darmstadt in Germany and at the Budapest Art Factory. Lauren lives and paints in New York City, where she teaches animation at Parsons School of Design.

Sylvanus Shaw is a Brooklyn-based artist, whose drawings are currently the subject of a solo exhibition at the Southwest School of Art (San Antonio, TX) and a group show at Building 98 (Marfa, TX). He has exhibited widely including at the Spring/Break Art Show, Salon Art + Design Fair, International Fine Arts and Antiques Dealers Show, International Art & Design Fair, the National Arts Club, as well as a solo exhibition at the Fraunces Tavern Museum in lower Manhattan. His writings have appeared in Zingmagazine, SpringGun Press, Lilies and Cannonball Review, Aufgabe and elsewhere.

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Schedule

from September 06, 2018 to October 27, 2018

Opening Reception on 2018-09-06 from 17:00 to 19:00

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