 Spoon (detail), 2002 Diana Shpungin & Nicole Engelmann Routine Arena is pleased to announce the first solo gallery exhibition in New York of Diana Shpungin & Nicole Engelmann. In the past year their work has been widely shown in a number of exhibitions locally as well as in Europe and Canada. In the exhibition "Routine", Diana & Nicole will present new video works in the Main Gallery and photographs in the ARENA Project Room. Diana Shpungin and Nicole Engelmann investigate a series of intimate acts between two people. They depend on the collaborative effort and explore it as a self-reflexive act that is always aware of itself. Their personal relationship feeds the work. Playing off of the history of performance, installation, theater, and film they explore themes of media, sexuality and childhood play. Through the use of the neutral color gray and their identical uniforms they attempt to mask their personalities. Somewhere between silent film actors and the Stepford Wives, Diana Shpungin and Nicole Engelmann engage the viewer with their intimate interactions, while keeping us at a distance. The new videos that will be presented are "Routine", "Four Legged", "Spoon", "Ride and Screen". Their work was recently featured in the exhibition, Artpoint in conjunction with the Miami Basel Art Fair, at the Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art, Marella Arte Contemporenea in Milan, the Clifford Smith Gallery in Boston, Galerie Zurcher in Paris and at Poltrona Frau in New York which was curated by Omar Lopez-Chahoud. Their work will be featured at the Sculpture Center in New York in the upcoming season. March 18 - April 19, 2003 Hours: Tue-Sat 11 am - 6 pm ARENA 526 West 26 Street #310 USA-New York, NY 10001 Telephone +1 646 734 2261 E-Mail arenagal@thing.net |
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