Nick Poe and Sophie Stone Exhibition

Safe Gallery

This event has ended.

Nick Poe’s work captures the subtlety of architectural elements and magnifies these details to compose new experiential occasions. For this particular exhibition Poe has installed a bar, a pool table, and shelving as temporary places to inhabit within the gallery. Furniture that is typically activated by the excitement of social space is presented as the work in and of itself. Linking the components together is a set image chosen by Poe which becomes a motif throughout the gallery; appearing either framed or printed directly onto the objects. Poe often experiments with picture framing in a way that alters, or refocuses, the aperture of our perception. In this instance the gallery becomes the frame for the artist to further tune and calibrate. In addition, the lighting of the space has been modified as a form of reshaping context. Poe advocates for an appreciation of the unity of content with its surroundings.

The work of Sophie Stone highlights transitional moments in time. Textiles are a source of exploration in this body of work, in which each piece is simultaneously a painting and a rug. Existing in a state of functional ambiguity, the work is displayed on the floors, walls, hung as room dividers, and bent into corners. By occupying the space in variation, the rug/painting hybrids present a state of flux. As rugs they invite decay and erosion; when viewed as paintings, the stitchings and weavings stand in for gesture and expression. Stone makes her work in reaction to her surroundings, often times incorporating travel with her search for found material. Several of the works on exhibition were made in Colorado, where she gathered material during long drives through the landscape. Rope, slippers, plastic, hammocks, sticks, beads, and bed sheets are incorporated into Stone’s work, creating tension in unexpected ways. Woven plastic mats, manufactured carpets, and found textiles are continuously cut, painted over, and restitched. Thick layers of house paint and knotted fabric add a sense of organic break-down, acting as a physical representation of the passage of time.

Nick Poe is a multidisciplinary American visual artist based in New York. His practice is characterized by a holistic approach to art making wherein emphasis is granted to contextual elements such as containers, documentation, and architecture as much as to conventional subject matter, image and content. Often working with picture framing techniques and architectural construction methods, Poe advocates for an appreciation of the unity of content with its surroundings.
Poe’s work has been the subject of several solo and group exhibitions throughout the US including with Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery, The Guggenheim Museum, Malraux’s Place and Karma & Fulton Ryder.

Sophie Stone received her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2009. She has been featured in exhibitions at Redling Fine Art, Los Angeles; M+B Los Angeles; Del Vaz Projects, Los Angeles; Johannes Vogt, New York; Shoot the Lobster, New York; Eli Ping, New York; and Nicole Klagsbrun, New York. Sophie has been written about in Art News, Artforum, Artsy, Frieze Magazine, and Hyperallergic. Her work is a part of the Frédéric de Goldschmidt Rothschild collection as well as others. She lives and works in New York.