“Silhouettes, Impressions, Shards” Exhibition

Songs For Presidents

This event has ended.

Songs for Presidents presents Silhouettes, Impressions, Shards: Linda Ganjian, Jeremy Stenger, Nichole van Beek, curated by Jesse Lambert

Emulating the processes, materials, and structures of the traditional decorative arts, the artists in Silhouettes, Impressions, Shards explore the expressive possibilities of repetition, pattern, and motif in painting and sculpture. Decorative art traditions are many and varied, and each artist taps into the creative potential of the decorative aesthetic in personal and idiosyncratic ways. Textiles, batik, carpets, ceramics, and architectural ornament provide sources of inspiration. As much as their approaches differ, the artists touch upon overlapping formal themes and strategies. Questions are posed about what constitutes pattern or other structural logic. Can a pattern or other structure be successfully pieced together from fragments of something that used to be whole? Does an overwhelming amount of detail obliterate a pattern or structure? There are many visual tricks and sleights of hand here—games for the artist and viewer to get lost in. As much as each artist assembles a personal collection of formal and decorative concerns, there are elements of the outside world that seep into the work: an awe of the natural world, reflections on globalism and trade, or the psychological charge of domestic life. For the viewer, this presents an engaging experience of being in the work and pulled back out—ping-ponging between exploring a complex internal logic and encountering references that lead out of the maze, down twisting paths of association.

Linda Ganjian received her BA from Bard College and her MFA from Hunter College CUNY. She has exhibited work at Art in Buildings 125 Maiden Lane (NYC), Islip Art Museum (NY), Depo (Istanbul), Auxiliary Projects (Brooklyn), Artspace (New Haven, CT), National Academy of Design (NYC), Socrates Sculpture Park (Queens, NY), Queens Museum, Storefront for Art and Architecture (NYC), Brooklyn Museum of Art, and Stedelijk museum de Lakenhal (Leiden, Holland). She has received grants from the Queens Council on the Arts, Pollack-Krasner Foundation, Artslink, and fellowships to MacDowell Colony, Millay Colony and Vermont Studio Center. She has completed public art commissions for the NYC School Construction Authority and the MTA.

Jeremy Stenger was born in San Diego, CA, and resides in New York City. He received his BFA from California College of the Arts in San Francisco, and his MFA from Hunter College CUNY. He has exhibited work at Hosfelt
Gallery (NYC, San Francisco, CA), Axel Raben Gallery (NYC), Fire Place Projects (Hamptons, NYC), Super Deluxe (Tokyo, Japan), Michael Steinberg Fine Art (NYC), and Rare Gallery (NYC), among other spaces.

Nichole van Beek received a BFA from the Cooper Union and an MFA from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is represented by Jeff Bailey Gallery in Hudson, NY and has exhibited work at Geoffrey Young Gallery (Great Barrington, MA), Morgan Lehman Gallery (NYC), Interstitial (Seattle, WA), Ortega y Gasset, and The Parlour Bushwick (Brooklyn). In 2017 she attended the Jentel Foundation Residency in Banner, Wyoming and in 2016 she received a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant to attend the Vermont Studio Center. She has received a NYFA grant in painting, and participated in Socrates Sculpture Park Emerging Artist Fellowship. She teaches at Pratt Institute and Suffolk County Community College.