TELL ME NOW: Stories + Emblems 2012

Sun, 13 May 2012 21:11:00 -0400

SAMWELL FREEMAN

MADORA FREY

KATHERINE KELTNER

EMILY NOELLE LAMBERT

ALBERT WEAVER

Opening Reception May 17th 2012

6-9 pm/ on view May 18-20 1-6pm + by appointment

465 Grand Street/ 6th Floor/ NYC NY 10002

Grand Projects is pleased to present “Tell Me Now,” a dynamic group exhibition of NYC artists. The works of these artists, by emblematic means, touch on a primary function of art—to offer a story or insight into the human experience. Whether musing of the future or exploring process in the studio these artists are creating work in which one can readily find narratives of contemporary life.

Using electricity, Samwell Freeman’s work is a starry synthesis of the mysterious speedy electron and the soft slow human. Studying obsolete technology, Freeman explores our potential lives as elderly Cyborgs. He supposes the advanced integration of us as organic beings with the artificial (ie, mechanical heart valves, mind-controlled wheelchairs). MaDora Frey tells the story of a natural world replaced by urban elements, steel, concrete, glass, asphalt and the language of the digital realm. From everyday images found in both her physical and virtual environments, she creates kaleidoscopic images that call to mind the sinewy and geometric patterns of flora, fauna, Rorschachs, and mandalas. Culturally they ponder our sense of reality and the ubiquity of spiritual space. Katherine Keltner’s ethereal paintings express the dynamics of ephemeral experience. In the work on view, Keltner spray paints over a random accumulation of found natural materials and detritus in an attempt to make permanent a momentary event. What remains is a negative image and trace created by chance, a result she discovers only when she lifts the canvas. Emily Noelle Lambert’s vibrant paintings and assemblages are emblems of her journey within a work, one in which she allows herself to explore “her boundaries of permissibility” in terms of personal narrative and engagement with materials. Intuition and formal aspects such as color, texture, and line carry us through her process on sure footing. The work leaves us with a visual story of touch-and-go play between inner and outer self. An initial viewing of Albert Weaver’s video work provides us with a vision of calm and serenity. We are lulled by the ebb and flow of peaceful tides, until learning the landscape captured lies before the San Onofre nuclear reactor. At once the piece is transformed to an emblem of potential destructive power. The duration of the video, 6 minutes, hauntingly coincides with the duration of the earthquake in Japan in 2011.

Here we find artists making visible the stories of today. From the familiar of everyday life to representations of epic events, these images describe the intimate to universal, micro to macro, tangible to unfathomable. What emerge are emblems of modern life, placing the human experience squarely in the center.