Theresa Bloise and George Boorujy “Messenger”

Ortega y Gasset Projects @ The Old American Can Factory

[Image: Theresa Bloise “Drippy Mountain”]

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Curated by Nickola Pottinger

Ortega y Gasset Projects presents Messenger, a two person exhibition of paintings by Theresa Bloise and George Boorujy curated by Co-director Nickola Pottinger.

George Boorujy’s work explores our relationship to the environment and wildlife. Whilst Theresa Bloise paintings depict massive geological landscapes that are meta physical and defiant of the laws of physics. Though the artists have not collaborated before, their work has been engaged in a long conversation, and so birthed the ethos of Messenger. The elephant in the room is the reference to the impending environmental crisis which is shifting more rapidly than it ever has in human history. The wildlife and landscape depicted in this exhibition aims to raise awareness of the climate injustice that has continued to threaten us and our planet.

Bloise’s large scale painting installation has a commanding presence. Extremely captivating and magnetic with its infinite blue, it reigns supreme in the gallery space akin to an apocalyptic figure. Towering high above the surrounding paintings, we find Boorujy’s painted portraits of species frozen and yet motion rendered with an insurmountable level of care and detail. Each of the creatures’ eyes are protuberant and magnetic as they are individually engaged in their own time capsule.

The scale of the works are larger than life telling life stories. There is an intrinsic value in representing these species and landscapes because they will never be able to come back, and their decline is attributed to our global economic system.

We invite you to contemplate and consider this leap year with our Messenger, without delay.

George Boorujy is an artist exploring our relationship to the environment, especially our interaction with and perception of wildlife. He has exhibited widely nationally and internationally and is represented by P.P.O.W. gallery in New York. He has had solo shows at P.P.O.W. gallery, the Baker Museum in Naples, Florida, and the Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art. He is a member of the fine arts faculty at the School of Visual Arts. He has created work for the Wildlife Conservation Society, the New York Parks Department, the Audubon Mural Project, the Labrea Tar Pits, and for over a decade illustrated the Birdwatch column for the Guardian UK. A recipient of a NYFA grant in painting and a fellowship at the Smack Mellon residency, George Boorujy is a graduate of the University of Miami and the School of Visual Arts. Courtesy of the artist, and P•P•O•W, New York.

Theresa Bloise (born in Boston) received her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design where she studied for a year in Rome as part of RISD’s European Honors Program. She recently completed a largescale immersive painting installation for the Wassiac Project’s “Vagabond Time Killers” exhibition. Her work has also been exhibited at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, Smack Mellon, Kentler International Drawing Space, PS122 Gallery and Governors Island. She has been awarded residencies at the MacDowell Colony, the Lower East Side Printshop, the Vermont Studio Center, the Wassaic Project, and the Bronx Museum. In 2010 she received a New York Foundation for the Arts Painting Fellowship.