A Taste of Young New York
November 12, 2009 – January 28, 2010
Opening Reception: November 12, from 6:00 pm
dvorak sec contemporary is very pleased to present A Taste of New York, a group show featuring an exciting and eclectic mix of young and emerging artists based in New York City. A Taste of New York is a survey exhibition mounted by dvorak sec contemporary to give an overview of the exciting artworks that will appear in the gallery over the next two years. The unique show will provide Prague with a sampling of talented young artists from the art capital of the world.
The artists define one of the newest aspects of contemporary American art and this exhibition marks the first time that most of them have exhibited in Europe. A Taste of Young New York celebrates the emergence of a group of American artists whose practices, while formally and materially quite distinct, all raise the question of movements in contemporary art practice.
About the artists:
Mia Brownell (USA) works reexamine the traditions of still life paintings as faithful representations of nature. Her paintings focus on the “gray area” between nature and artifice, calling attention to the specific content of foods and other issues surrounding the food industry. Though she uses a traditional technique, it is employed “refreshingly” as Oxford University Professor Hanneke Grootenboer remarks.
Paul Brainard (USA) an artist whose drawings and paintings present a hybrid that combines geometric abstraction, figuration, and Pop art. Brainard creates energetic and slightly chaotic compositions using a system of drawn lines, intersecting and super imposed over colored planes, diagonals and organic forms, interweaving architectural elements with sexy females, self portraits and popular figures. Brainard has participated in many notable exhibitions including a Deitch Project group show.
Scott Sjobakken (USA) reflects subtly on American values, cultural power and the military campaigns in which the United States is entangled. Sjobakken's paintings blur the line between entertainment and war, depicting popular action figures, cartoon characters, dolls and corporate mascots embroiled in violent conflicts of one kind or another. In his very young age, the artist has already been mentioned twice in the New York Times.
"Highlighting the extraordinary qualities of everyday materials" is part of Corey D'Augustine's (USA) garage aesthetic. On view at dvorak sec contemporary are the artist’s series of monochrome paintings made with unlikely materials like asphalt. D’Augustine’s work has been featured in P.S. 1 in New York and the Median Art Center in Beijing.
Benjamin King (USA) is a Brooklyn-based painter that merges themes of abstract expression and landscape into volatile yet mysterious paintings. King transforms paint into crust-like, earthy surfaces and atmosphere that push against each other, blurring the distinction between surface and illusion.
Working primarily with sculpture and drawing, Dean Goelz’s (USA) works highlight the play between the awkwardness and the elegance of existence. Lifelike, the sculptures of humanoid and human-hybrid forms embody the awkward everyman. They form herds, do their best to get along and end up as slightly creepy, slightly funny, complex characters that evoke our sympathy and compassion. The young artist has already had a number of solo exhibitions and has been a participant in highly regarded international art fairs.
Marc Travanti’s (USA) paintings present a physicalized interpretation of encounters between two individuals. In this series of paintings, Marc Travanti seeks to obliterate the space in between, rendering the encounter of two individuals in bluntly physical terms—a tangled ball of arms and legs, twisted torsos and cascading hair. His work has been on view at White Columns and The New Museum, both in New York City.
Andrew Prayzner (USA) paints images taken from a National Geographic article that chronicles the Colombian drug trade in the 1980’s. The paintings show the anonymous mules with pixilated faces that presumably protect their identity. Yet one notices there is a particular continuity to the various figures portrayed in the images, reflecting a post modern power structure as demonstrated in contemporary architecture, technology and aesthetics.
Simon Aldridge’s (UK) paintings deliberately employ the most traditional materials; the oil, linen and canvas, combined with a sculptor’s attention to material. The oil paint is blurred together in horizontal stripes; the images built up not dot by dot, but strip by strip, more Epson or HP than Monet or Seurat. Simon Aldridge received his Masters from the Harvard Design School and his work has been featured at Artists’ Space, PS1/MoMA, and the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York.
Dana Bell’s (USA) paintings illuminate great moments of 20th century cinema, selected with an eye towards classical sensibility, framed with geometric symmetry. From Fellini spectacles to little-known Noir gems, Bell spotlights films that have both strong aesthetic languages and nuanced psychological trends guiding the narrative. She has participated in a number of notable group exhibitions such as Metamorphic Gestures at the Chelsea Art Museum in 2008 and in Re-Accession: For Sale by Owner in the Flag Art Foundation.