David Humphrey and Keisha Prioleau-Martin “Footloose”

Ortega y Gasset Projects @ The Old American Can Factory

[Image: Keisha Prioleu-Martin "Lost Rhythms" (2018) 18 x 24 in.]

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Curated by Catherine Haggarty

Ortega y Gasset Projects presents Footloose, a two person exhibition featuring David Humphrey and Keisha Prioleau-Martin curated by Co-Director Catherine Haggarty.

Footloose is a painting show about the connection and rhythm between two artists. Although they do not work collaboratively, Keisha Prioleau-Martin and David Humphrey share similarities and differences just the same. Their pairing in this show is not for similar subject matter, but for their shared attitude and how that generates our perception.

Ultimately painting and dancing are centered around the body. Both provide the opportunity to move fluidly and free the mind from concern. Deep down inside, everybody loves to dance. Perhaps just the same, painting is like dancing: expressive, uninhibited and mysterious - and it becomes harder to do freely as you get older.

Dancing mirrors several facets within the field of painting - it can reveal and demonstrate moments of self revelation in a way that is often ineffable. Often, awkward, clumsy and sexy moves are stand-ins for how the body navigates physical space. Dancing can be as primal as music and is a form of expression that releases endorphins as soon as it begins. Within painting, the audience often projects, dissects, imbues, and translates what they see in relationship to what they already know. Footloose is a celebration of painting and of the endearing effort to be a part of something much larger than yourself.

David Humphrey is a New York-based artist who has shown nationally and internationally. He has received a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Rome Prize, among other awards. An anthology of his art writing, Blind Handshake, was published by Periscope Publishing in 2010. He teaches in the MFA programs at Columbia and is represented by Fredericks & Freiser Gallery, NY.

Keisha Prioleau-Martin currently lives and works in Ridgewood, New York. She received her B.F.A. from SUNY Purchase and her work was recently included in Tiger Strikes Asteroid New York’s The 2018 Flat File: Year Five.

Catherine Haggarty is an artist, curator, and writer based in Brooklyn, New York. Haggarty earned her M.F.A from Mason Gross, Rutgers University in 2011 and is an adjunct professor at The School of Visual Arts (SVA) and Hofstra University. In 2018, Haggarty was the Anderson Endowed Lecturer at Penn State University and the Juror for Espositivo Residency in Madrid, Spain.