 Thomas Nozkowski: Untitled (Q-58), 2004 Oil on paper, 22 1/2 x 30 inches Arturo Herrera, Jac Leirner, Thomas Nozkowski Brent Sikkema is pleased to present an exhibition of new works by Arturo Herrera, Jac Leirner and Thomas Nozkowski. All three artists take an open-ended approach to process while creating works that are rooted in the real world. Each treats these elements with careful attentiveness and freedom with their own seemingly abstract language. Arturo Herrera's new collage works use the orchestrated found. The artist selected children's book illustrations, edited them, and had a professional illustrator paint the modified scenes in airbrush. Each scene was done five times. Herrera then added his own abstracted hand-painted, hand-colored and hand-drawn collage elements on top of these images creating 65 distinct works of thought-provoking, poetic juxtapositions. Jac Leirner's colorful new sculptures exploit the latent aesthetic qualities of prosaic found materials. One new work employs tape rolls, presented on pedestals and another work utilizes a variety of strings, cords and twist ties - elements that connect or close other things. In describing her process, she said, "My main approach to these materials is putting together what is shattered all over, finding places and positions for what didn't previously have one -organizing, formalizing. It's a lot about patience." Her refined arrangements of the found suggests an obsessive formal curation. Thomas Nozkowski will exhibit six new works on paper in varied materials - oil, ink, gouache, and grease pencil on paper. As it does for Herrera and Leirner, the real world always remains a referential starting point for Nozkowski - though more obliquely. He has said, "I am very interested in how time and memory change our experience of images. The more distorted something becomes, the more I am convinced of its importance." His conscious arrangement of shapes and forms on often variegated ground always maintains a fluidity and internal balance. As John Yau has written, "Nozkowski's project parallels a desire to celebrate the uniqueness of a snowflake, not only because it is unlike any other, but also because there is far more to it than frozen water and dust." Exhibition: November 20 - December 23, 2004 Gallery hours: Tue-Sat 10am - 6pm Brent Sikkema 530 W 22nd St USA-New York, NY 10011 Telephone + 1 212 929 2262 Fax + 1 212 929 2340 Email gallery@brentsikkema.com www.brentsikkema.com |
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