Meet The Artists // BIG FUTURE
Curated by Risa Shoup and Maximilian Bode
May 3-24 | 47 Bergen Street, Brooklyn, NY
Opening Reception May 3, 6-10 pm
During a studio visit Max told Risa about an idea for a show of artists’ proposals for fantastic, nearly impossible exhibitions. Risa was quite taken by the idea, and some months later, when the opportunity to curate this exhibition arose, she thought it might be the right time to manifest Max’s idea. But then! she ran into a friend, a film critic, who is currently obsessed with some short films made by Godard in lieu of written proposals to potential funders. He was having trouble getting films financed in the late 70s and 80s, and instead of filling out applications for funding, he made these shorts that were meant to encapsulate the theory and content of the longer films he wanted to make. These shorts now stand as works in-and–of themselves.
BIG FUTURE will showcase finished works that have never been shown before and represent the idea of an as-yet unrealized piece or collection of pieces.
This exhibition showcases the work of seven artists: Markus Bradley, Delano Dunn, Nancy Hubbard, Kiya Kim, Anne Mourier, Bethany Robertson, and Ian Trask. We would like to introduce you to the members of our exhibition. View selections from our exhibition in our image gallery at the bottom of the page.
Markus Bradley
Brooklyn-based Markus Bradley is an alumni of F.I.T. and Parsons School of Design. Bradley is an accomplished installation artist who uses color and light to create geometric images, which reference abstract symbols. In BIG FUTURE, we will be exhibiting sculptural, painted work which Bradley created to act as models for later installations. He has exhibited at Jackson Hall Gallery, Create NYC collective art residency, Bertrand Delacroix Gallery, Webster Hall and “Light up Brooklyn” presented by Google. His artwork is featured in the upcoming documentary “Evocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie,” a Magnolia Pictures release.
Delano Dunn
Los Angeles born Delano Dunn received his BFA from Pratt Institute in 2001. While attending school in New York, Dunn worked to refine his craft of illustrating, resulting in his induction into the Society of Illustrators. Dunn went on to work as an illustrator and graphic designer for six years before he decided to focus entirely on his fine art work. Dunn has shown in a number of solo exhibitions at places such as the University of California at Los Angeles, the Olean Public Library, and Brooklyn Brewery. He has participated in group exhibitions at Kunsthalle Galapagos in Brooklyn, New York University Gallery, and Manifest Gallery in Cincinnati. Dunn currently lives and works in New York City.
BIG FUTURE will feature collage work by Delano Dunn. These collages involve deconstructing and reassembling advertising from the 1970s and 1980s. All of these ads were originally intended to appeal to an African-American audience, and Dunn’s collages attempt to unearth the unspoken message that he recognizes in them. To Delano Dunn, this simple rearrangement of visual information, more directly and humorously “(tells) the black community how they could truly be more black, how they could obtain real, true blackness.”
Nancy Hubbard
The content of Nancy Hubbard’s artwork “examines the mysterious pull of time and memory,” which can also be said about the very combinations of media that she chooses to work with. Her preference for traditional techniques such as photogravure, and process based illustration is described by the artist as being an “escape” from 21st century life. While her works are tranquil and bare, they are empowered with an uneasy awareness of the past, and an almost uncomfortable sense of nostalgia. Hubbard is a graduate of both Rutgers University and SUNY, and is a current resident artist at the Invisible Dog. Nancy is also a current member of galleryELL, a transient gallery based in Brooklyn. BIG FUTURE showcases photogravure prints made by Hubbard, using imagery from her personal past.
Kiya Kim
Kiya Kim was born in South Korea where she attended Dong-eui University, receiving a BFA in Fine Arts. In 2010 Kim began her studies at SVA in New York, studying art business. She has since shown extensively in New York City and resides as a curator and artist at the Invisible Dog Arts Center. Kim claims that she is focused on “life patterns” in her artwork. By collaging reshaped images from mass media, Kim highlights patterns and the mimetic nature of the human thought process. Her work depicts a cerebral allegory, which draws influence from the book “Spark of Genius: The Thirteen Thinking Tools of the World’s Most Creative People.” BIG FUTURE includes collages by Kiya Kim, which combine flat collage element with select found objects.
Anne Mourier
Accomplished interior designer Anne Mourier discovered her affinity for photography and mixed media about a decade ago. Ever since, her work has drawn influence from her experience contemplating household items, and arrangements, which affect and alter living spaces. Anne Mourier currently resides in Brooklyn NY, where she moved to from France twenty years ago. She currently is represented by the Muriel Guepin Gallery in NYC and is scheduled for a solo exhibition at the Invisible Dog in september of 2013.
BIG FUTURE features a maquette created by Mourier, which play with the idea of household cleaning as being both an act of “leaving things bare” as well as a means by which to “hide things.” The images that Mourier has carefully selected for the pillows on her bedspread, represent members of her own family who share sentiments with the artist regarding obsessive cleanliness and tidiness. This model is a yet unrealized version of a larger installation that Mourier hopes to create which would “conceivably be able to support 35 bodies.”
Bethany Robertson
Printmaker, bookmaker, and art educator Bethany Robertson is an MFA candidate at the Mason Gross School of Art. Robertson claims that she “enjoys Fig Newtons, unicorns, being on boats, and 90s pop and hip hop. Her favorite food is pizza and her favorite color is chartreuse.” As part of her MFA thesis exhibition, Robertson has been creating sculptural arrangements of paper in an ongoing project called Slash. Robertson hopes to reconcile her focuses on sculpture and printmaking by combining materials which are commonly used in both fields. Her experience as a catalogue librarian at her undergraduate university, also seems to influence her sculptural arrangements.
Pieces made by Robertson in her Slash will be on display in BIG FUTURE. These sculptures highlight subtle shifts in color shades, and form “printerly” optical effects through a simple and elegant exploration of reinterpreting the common 8.5″ x 11″ page.
Ian Trask
Ian Trask is a scientist-turned-artist. His sculptures transform materials of waste and commercial byproducts into refined aesthetic objects through an alchemistic procedure of reinterpreting a material’s value and usefulness. In many of Trask’s sculptures, the viewer will find a mischievous invitation. Texture and tangibility are essential to the experience of these objects, and by provoking the impulse to explore, each piece rouses in the beholder the same spirit of curiosity, experimentation and play that occasioned their creation.
BIG FUTURE will include new works by Ian Trask, which contains overlain, anonymous photographic slides from the mid-20th century. Displayed as stand-alone slide viewers, these image combinations are created entirely by physically manipulating these slides.
All images are copyright and courtesy of the artist and Recession Art. Slideshow photo courtesy of Delano Dunn.
