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13/12/2006

Debora Warner

I-20 Gallery, New York

Subrational

Presenting new work that includes video, sculpture, painting and drawing, Debora Warner has selected images that intentionally evoke an emotional response. Christianity, pop culture, nature, sport, romance, and myth collide in this nocturnal kaleidoscope of sensation. The artist suggests, “Poignant experiences, real or imagined, rational or irrational, in both the physical and psychological realms are what we seek and what we also avoid. What I don’t know moves me. This extends to my elementary relationship with various media, and for me, there is no hierarchy."

The video trilogy is like a triathlon. In the first part, Night Swimmer: Mad, Warner references her triathlon training and is literally a vampire swimming through the felt material she uses to create her rose sculptures. This “total immersion" hints that a healthy separation does not exist between the artist and the work. In Bike Messenger: Happy, dressed as a giddy clown on a bike and riding through a tony Connecticut neighborhood, the artist delivers her own work to the house of a prominent collector where there are works of more established artists on the lawn and porch. The final episode of the trilogy, Distance Runner: Sad, shows the artist letting go of her creations and running away from them and lower Manhattan. An outsider in her own city, she is tragically clothed in a disheveled dress bearing the words “I love NY". Does she mean it?

Warner also exhibits her felt rose sculptures and three moon paintings. The moon and roses are traditionally associated with the feminine, and the moon is also often linked with the subconscious. Other iconic images include Holy Night, based on a haunting painting called “The Veil of Saint Veronica" by the 17th Century Spanish artist Zurbura'n. In the ironic new portrait, there are links to ideas of heaven. Warner’s source for images of hell, though, is newer. The painting Pennywise is based on the novel ‘It" by Steven King, in which an evil clown terrorizes children and then comes back (just like our neuroses) to hunt them as adults.

Debora Warner had recent solo exhibitions at Akira Ikeda Gallery in Tokyo and Berlin, and her work was included in “Cosmic Wonder" at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco (2006). Some of her sound works, including Flutter (2000) and Blood Horse (2004), have been shown at the FRAC Bourgogne, Dijon, and the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt. In New York, her work has been included in shows at the Swiss Institute; the New Museum of Contemporary Art; White Columns; Art in General; Klemens Gasser & Tanja Grunert Gallery; and Andrew Kreps Gallery. Her first project for I-20 was a sound work, Train Party (1999). Debora Warner was born in Jamestown, New York in 1971.

Image: Mad, Happy, Sad: The Endurance Trilogy

For further information, please contact Juan Pelaez at I-20 at 212-645-1100; fax 212-645-1098 fax; pelaez@i-20.com

Opening: Thursday, December 14, 6-8 pm

I-20 Gallery
557 West 23rd Street - New York
Hours: Open Tuesday through Saturday, 11 AM-6 PM.

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