Heather Rowe
Sanford Biggers
Carol Bove
Anne Collier
Jonah Freeman
Daniel Lefcourt
Michael Phelan
Noah Sheldon
Gibb Slife
Michael Vahrenwald
Fountains: works by 9 emerging artists / Heather Rowe: Green Desert
Fountains: works by 9 emerging artists
Heather Rowe: Green Desert
Fountains is an exhibition of works by emerging artists who use strategies associated with the readymade. It includes works by Sanford Biggers, Carol Bove, Anne Collier, Jonah Freeman, Daniel Lefcourt, Michael Phelan, Noah Sheldon, Gibb Slife and Michael Vahrenwald.
The title references Marcel Duchamp's Fountain (1917) which has been referred to as the most influential work of the Twentieth Century. Ninety years after its conception, artists continue to re-interpret as well as build on strategies of re-contextualization and displacement.
With a certain self-effacing attitude, the focus of the works is less on authorship and more on the relationships these works negotiate with the world as an endless supply of artifacts- both strange and familiar, opaque and symbolic (books in Carol Bove's shelf arrangements, magazines in Anne Collier's photograph, objects represented in isometric perspective in Daniel Lefcourt's photographic riddle). What was once the expression of individual aspiration by a decisive author is now diluted in works that question the possibility of originality itself (Michael Phelan's tie dye commissioned target paintings, Michael Vahrenwald's photographs of commercial therapeutic light boxes bearing new age brand names, or Sanford Biggers silent video of the reflection of a disco ball on the wall).
Several pieces make reference to places of social consensus and gathering (Jonah Freeman's sculptural environment which evokes mall architecture and city planning, Noah Sheldon's sound piece recorded in a casino, or Gibb Slife's sculpture which captures channel 13 through an ivy like antennae attached to an old TV). The tradition of the readymade has extended beyond sculpture, the medium traditionally associated with the concept, to inform conceptual strategies in photography, painting, video, and sound.
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Heather Rowe: Green Desert
In her first solo exhibition, Heather Rowe will present a single sculpture entitled Green Desert. Rowe's structures are architectural fragments that reference office spaces, corridors, or waiting rooms and are built out of familiar construction materials but take a departure from functionality. The introduction of figurative elements such as guillotines and glass or mirrored shards pushes the viewer to experience a sense of discomfort. The spatial dysfunction allows for various perspectives in which an open-ended narrative begins to unfold.
Green Desert, at once imposing and fragile, assumes a partial form of an inverted room in which the four corners have been turned in on themselves radiating outwards from the center of the gallery. Inspired by a scenario in which misinterpretations and assumptions occur between two people in close and intimate proximity, Rowe's awkward re-framing of the room reminds us of how you can be physically close to someone yet have complete psychological disconnect.
“... we can identify the different components of Rowe's installations as individual frames. Each offers a unique perspective, yet all come together to tell an overarching story. Also, the temporal factor has to be considered. A film unfolds over time; only through the film's duration can one put all the loose fragments and story-lines together. To confront Rowe's work requires a similar approach. Although, unlike in a filmic situation, where the viewer rests in one position, here the viewer has to walk around the work. And it takes time to assemble the 'frames.'" -Simone Subal, Things Fall Apart All Over Again, Artists Space, New York, NY (2005)
Heather Rowe graduated with an MFA from Columbia University in 2001 and has shown in Things Fall Apart All Over Again, curated by Simone Subal and Cecilia Alemani at Artists Space, New York; Good Titles from Bad Books , curated by Matthew Brannon at Kevin Bruk Gallery, Miami; and Mystic River, curated by Noah Sheldon at Southfirst Gallery in Brooklyn, New York. In the upcoming year, Rowe will show at White Columns, New York; Galerie Michael Zink, Munich, Germany; and at the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH.
Image: Heather Rowe, The Stationmaster's Wife, 2005
For press and visuals requests please contact the gallery at 212.352.9460 or email katrina@damelioterras.com.
D’Amelio Terras shows Adam Adach, Polly Apfelbaum, Erica Baum, Whitney Bedford, Delia Brown, Case Calkins, Tony Feher, Amy Globus, Joanne Greenbaum, Matt Keegan, Kim Krans, John Morris, Rei Naito, Noguchi Rika, Cornelia Parker, Dario Robleto, Heather Rowe, Karin Sander, Yoshihiro Suda and Sara VanDerBeek.
*D'Amelio Terras would like to thank Bartco Lighting for their professionalism, expertise and commitment to our lighting needs.
Opening Reception: July 13, 6-8pm
D'Amelio Terras is located on the ground floor at 525 West 22nd Street, in between 10th and 11th avenues New York
Gallery Hours September - Mid June:
Tuesday - Saturday, 10 - 6
Summer Hours: Monday - Friday, 10 - 6