Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Michael Caines, Perfect Happiness


KMNY projects presents Michael Caines, Perfect Happiness, on view from December 1 – 31, 2010

@
MULHERIN POLLARD Projects
317 10th Avenue, New York NY 10001
Opening reception with the artist: Thursday, December 9, 6-8 PM
Gallery hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 11-6 PM, or by appointment





 - Michael Caines: Cats vs Dogs
Michael Caines: Cats vs Dogs
oil on canvas
48 x 36 in.  
 


Michael Caines' current work situates American political figures, both past and present, in altered 18th century paintings and Christian religious kitsch, referencing scenes from Alice in Wonderland, Bambi, and the Wizard of Oz. Drawing on the lineage of political cartooning in these pictures, Caines treats Richard Nixon, JFK, and Carl Rove, among others, with surprising tenderness and humor.
Influenced by Rick Perlstein's 2008 book, Nixonland: The Rise Of A President And The Fracturing Of America, Caines considers the fate of now obsolete political figures, and those who will someday, in turn, fall into the shadow of history. Their images, so vivid, are given an afterlife in electronic media, and they are, in a sense, both entombed there and in limbo. Caines' new work reveals the peculiar beauty that history lends to these iconic physiognomies, and his work is as much a response to their physicality as it is to the politics they are, or were, embroiled in. Thus baby-headed Carl Rove is cuddled by Ronald Reagan as dowager duchess, while a younger, glowingly handsome Jesus-Reagan cradles a little Glenn Beck lamb.
Caines rifles through the past, masterfully reworking elements of historical pictures to provide landscapes for these figures to inhabit. By conflating painting and political history, his work evokes nostalgia for the idealism that comes with belief, whether in political or artistic greatness. Caines references Sir John Tenniel's beautiful illustrations for Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, utilizing the spirit of absurdity in the drawings and text as a form of critique. Rather than passively absorbing history and media images, Caines asserts his right to creative action. He thereby extends to us, his viewers, a kind of tentative idealism, one in which he in turn asserts our right to act on – rather than be acted upon – the images of our shared histories. 



 - Michael Caines: Secret Weapon
Michael Caines: Secret Weapon
Oil on panel
36 x 24 in.  



 - Michael Caines: Perfect Happiness
Michael Caines: Perfect Happiness
oil on canvas
48 x 46 in.  



 - Michael Caines: Little Lamb of the GOP
Michael Caines: Little Lamb of the GOP
Oil on panel
36 x 24 in.  


 - Michael Caines: Lil' Kim
Michael Caines: Lil' Kim
india ink on paper
16 x 11.5 in.            


 - Perfect Happiness
Perfect Happiness
india ink on paper
12 x 11.25 in.  
Sold




 - Michael Caines: Twin Set
Michael Caines: Twin Set
india ink on paper
12 x 11.25 in.  

Monday, November 1, 2010

Elaine Stocki, Balcony








 - William
William
C-Print





Stocki's capitivating photographs are remarkable for their hermetically sealed surfaces, a high degree of perfection in draughtsmanship and masterful compositions in light and shadow. Embracing the languages of desire, pain, indifference, and transcendence, of infirmity and ephemerality … instead of the allure of a rich heap of pearls or diamonds, Stocki offers human and animal physicality that is simultaneously transient, immobile or petrified. Each figure is depicted in an uncomfortable middle zone that is visually destabilized by an immediate presence and sense of imminent movement forward, towards a future position based on a pervasive synthetic realism that fosters a related deep-seated insecurity. 
~ Wayne Baerwaldt


Elaine Stocki was born in 1979 in Winnipeg. She attended the University of Manitoba for her BSc and BFA degrees and Yale University for her MFA in Photography. Recent exhibitions and projects include her MFA Thesis show at Yale University, New Haven (2009), Zach Feuer Gallery, New York (2009) and the Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin (2008). In 2011 Stocki will exhibit at La Maison Rouge, Paris, and Primetime, Brooklyn. She is part of the upcoming TBW Book Series 3.











 - Hand
Hand
C-Print
26 x 26 in.  


 - Sandra
Sandra
C-Print
26 x 26 in.  



 
 - Jamal
Jamal
C-Print
26 x 26 in.  


 - Laverne
Laverne
C-Print
26 x 26 in.  


 - Balcony
Balcony
C-Print
26 x 26 in.  


 -
Carrie
C-Print
26 x 26 in.            

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Mike Bayne, Oil Paintings By Robert Ayre


October 7 - 23, 2010 at Mulherin Pollard Projects, New York
Opening Thursday, October 7, 6 - 9 PM

Mulherin Pollard Projects
317 10th Avenue (between 28th and 29th)
New York NY
Tuesday - Saturday 11-6 PM




 - Untitled (Liquor)
Untitled (Liquor)
oil on board
8 x 12 in.
Sold






"I started out thinking I would write an artist's statement about the difference between mechanical and abstract thought. Then I thought I would write something, a comment, on Werner Herzog's idea that his movies are a metaphor for something but he doesn't know what. Then I moved on to something about identity, cultural or artistic or national, and I thought I would tie that in with an age of economic uncertainty and possible collapse. That seemed too broad for two hundred and fifty words though – the acceptable length according to artist statement conventions (I looked it up on Wikipedia – it's supposed to be a manifesto of sorts too) – so I decided to focus on identity transformations. I was going to write about forming the belief, as a group, that we aren't what we thought we were and tie that in with the title of the show (the name of another artist that I know very little about). Then I thought about something to do with work and how artists are one of the last professions to be paid according to their productivity in contrast to most other jobs, from lawyers to plumbers, who are paid a wage. I thought this would be a good jumping off point to talk about work more generally and high-end manufacturing. Another idea was to write about the history of banality in painting from Canaletto to Courbet and Manet and onto Morandi. I also wanted to talk about Jeff Wall versus Berndt and Hilla Becher and my preference for documentary or journalistic photography.
All of that is to say that I didn't have a specific focus or clear stream of thought while painting these works. But it's probably appropriate insomuch that it's representative of my support for uncertainty, doubt and the acceptance of ignorance. And hopefully provides some insight into what I was thinking, at times, while painting … and is more interesting than saying, 'I don't know'." -Mike Bayne







 - Untittled (red and green truck)
Untittled (red and green truck)
Oil on panel
4 x 6 in.
Sold








 - Penticton White
Penticton White
Oil on panel
4 x 6 in.
Sold








 - Untitled (87 Bay Street in autumn)
Untitled (87 Bay Street in autumn)
Oil on panel
12 x 8 in.
Sold







 - untitled (motorhome)
untitled (motorhome)
Oil on panel
4 x 6 in.
Sold







 - Untitled (blue minivan)
Untitled (blue minivan)
Oil on panel
4 x 6 in.
Sold







 - untitled (yellow and brown)
untitled (yellow and brown)
Oil on panel
24 x 16 in.
Sold









Thursday, August 12, 2010

she feels it all

She Feels It All, a group exhibition featuring works by Canadian artists from Toronto, New York and Los Angeles, on view from August 12-September 3, 2010.

Summer gallery hours are Tuesday-Friday, from 12-7pm.
Opening Reception: Thursday, August 12th, 6-9pm.


MULHERIN POLLARD PROJECTS
317 10th Avenue (between 28th and 29th)
New York, NY 10001
212-967-0392

Artists featured:
Davida Nemeroff (LA)
Sojourner Truth Parsons (Toronto)
Elise Rasmussen (NY)
Elaine Stocki (NY)
Julia Kennedy (Toronto)
Heather Goodchild (Toronto)
Tyler Clark Burke (Toronto)
Shauna Born (Toronto)










 - (she feels it all)-Sojourner Truth Parsons: she feels it all
(she feels it all)-Sojourner Truth Parsons: she feels it all
Photography
30 x 40 in.  





A summer group exhibition at Mulherin Pollard projects: Katharine Mulherin curates important young Canadian women artists. Interestingly connected, the artists in this exhibition invite us on an impressive voyage. Relating to their own lives, and the long and winding roads of others, each artist contributes work that is at once magical and transparent. Through transformative means, forceful and emotive content merges with contemporary issues in image and object production.The title, "she feels it all", comes from a photographic text work made by Sojourner Truth Parsons, which is presented in the show. We stumble upon a path where a patch of flowers provides the message.

The voyage begins.
The work presented here is very much an extension of the artists themselves, full of sensuous labour, disturbance, and history. Their work is connected to their lives and the lives of those around them. Building community through their varied practices: whether they are painting their friends, photographing strangers, creating social experiments, documenting an imaginary or forgotten past, travelling, exploring, connecting, performing, collaborating, organizing, or facilitating, these artists are prime examples of what gets made when artmaking becomes everyday practice.


Elise Rasmussen's process utilizes historical narratives as inspiration to create new works of contemporary relevance. In the fall of 2009, she embarked on a self-directed residency in a tiny village in Newfoundland. Her photographic diptych, Ladies Lookout ,responds to the romanticism and strife of women whose fates rest on the elements. These images take its name from and were photographed at the point on Signal Hill where women would wait in hopes of seeing their men return from the sea. The diptych serves as a response to folklore and reflection of the intensely elemental environment of the island of Newfoundland and is part of the series When the Sun Crosses the Line That Wind Will Rule the Weather.

Elise Rasmussen (b. 1977, Edmonton, Canada) first honored her franco-philia at the age of ten by proclaiming she would go by her middle name Elise. She continues to indulge her penchant for French culture by spending time in cafes, using Garamond typeface whenever possible, and creating projects inspired by New Wave cinema and the French Revolution. In addition to these pursuits, her works explore many themes including the relationship between salt and love, and how art makes people sick.Elise received her BFA from Ryerson University in 2004 and her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2007 where she was awarded a full tuition scholarship for merit. She has exhibited in the United States, Canada, Austria and Germany. Elise lives in Brooklyn, NY and recently completed a project investigating reasons why the Atlantic Ocean is ruining her love life, and the legacy of the Cod Fishery and Beothuk cultures on contemporary identity in Newfoundland.

Julia Kennedy's work is the residue of an ongoing exploration into the meaning of life, how she has come to make sense of things, a reflection of her personal desire to find balance and direction with the universe. This quest has lead to the development of a personalized symbology, a sort of coded visual language: a distillation of experience, a thousand pounds of rose petals=a phial of essence.

Through the rearrangement of universal symbols and objects, the creation of brand new symbols, specific instances in time, and combinations of these, Kennedy keeps the work open enough to encourage investigation. Believing in the power of new and alternate modes of communication, she promotes a looseness and a wider vision.

Julia Kennedy (b. March 28, 1984) earned her BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, and also studied at Cooper Union in New York. She currently lives and works in Toronto.


Shauna Born's most recent paintings have been small, static portraits of strangers and intimates. Her work plays on the historical desire to document faces in portraiture. The size and nature of her paintings reflect the methods we use to consume image culture through ephemera such as digital photos, websites and magazines.

Since graduating from the Ontario College of Art and Design in 2004, Shauna Born has lived and worked in Toronto and exhibited in Canada, the United States and Europe. She has received Emerging Artists grants from the Ontario Arts Council in 2007 and 2009. In 2009 she received a Special Mention as a finalist in Canada's national portrait competition the Kingston Prize. Born has paintings in the collection of the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art , Kansas, USA, The Beth DeWoody Collection, New York, USA, The Collection of George Hartman and Arlene Goldberg, Toronto, Canada, and the Canada Council Art Bank, Ottawa, which is Canada's permanent collection of contemporary art. She is also in numerous private collections across Canada and the United States. In September 2010 she will begin her MFA degree at the University of Waterloo.


Sojourner-Truth Parsons's work considers the intersection of magic, acculturation, feelings and sexuality. With references to both folk art tradition and witchcraft, her work straddles the tenuous line between make-believe and healing in confronting histories that feel borrowed, but are, in fact, inherited. The works in this exhibition address a simultaneous identification with and desire for the other, with a familiar, but out-of-reach sense of ritual, spiritualism and community. Working with readily available materials such as cardboard, white glue and scrap leather, Parsons's sculptures, performances and photographs cast deliberately fraught narratives marked by specters of belief and magical intensity.

Sojourner-Truth Parsons is an artist living and working in Toronto, Canada. Her work has been exhibited at Khyber Centre for the Arts (Halifax), Katharine Mulherin Contemporary Art Projects (Toronto), and will be seen at A1C Gallery (St. John's, Newfoundland) this fall. She recently toured with neo-folk band Tasseomancy, creating site-specific installations for their performances at venues across Europe. She holds a BFA from NSCAD University.


Elaine Stocki makes photographs and paintings of people in Winnipeg and New Haven, sometimes meeting them through classified ads that she has placed online or in the newspaper. She particularly likes groups of people. Her interests lie in the investigation of performance, spectacle and farce as tools for questioning and blurring the lines of gender, race and class. Stocki is seeking some sort of genuine expression of emotion in what are, for the most part, contrived situations.


Elaine Stocki (b.1979) was born and raised in Winnipeg Canada. She received her MFA in photography from Yale University in 2009. Recently Stocki's photographs were included in Collier Schorr's experimental exhibition Freeway Balconies at the Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin. She lives and works in New York City.


Heather Goodchild is a Toronto-based artist working primarily in textiles. Since 2002 she has used folk techniques such as rug-hooking, quilting, and inlaid patchwork to make objects and installations from an imagined history. By developing new ways to practice traditional crafts, she creates pieces that seem to exist both in the past and present. The stories and symbols in her work explore the human need for ritual, regalia, and a moral code.


Davida Nemeroff is an artist and the proprietress of Night Gallery (LA). Originally from Toronto, Nemeroff received her MFA from Columbia University in '09. She lives and works in Los Angeles.

For She Feels it All, Nemeroff explores the multivariate forms and bodies of power and femininity through a seductively moist lens.


Tyler Clark Burke works in paint, on paper, in glass, in metal, with people, with music, and now ash diamonds—but one thread always runs true: her themes are decidedly deadly. Her two last shows, A Murder of Vs and Shimera, were both widely reviewed; her work has been shown and collected internationally. Her career began in commissioned art for musicians (including a continuing collaboration with Feist, as well as work for artists on her own label Three Gut Records). She is a master of hi-jinx and heart strings, smoke and mirrors. Her work is a continuing play for passion, wrought in material. A fake abduction, a marching procession of faint zebras, and a spontaneous choreography of dirge dancers have all been part of her spectacle, your spectacle. Outside of art journals and magazines, her events and projects have been featured in or on MTV, Spin Magazine, ABC, The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star and The National Post.


Tasseomancy is a continuation of what was a bare bones neo-gothic folk duo. Formerly known as Ghost Bees, Sari and Romy Lightman have begun to experiment with heavier, ambient sounds, influenced by death ritual, hebraic song, war drums, ancestry and myth. The sisters recorded their second full-length this winter with producer Taylor Kirk and accompanying band, Timber Timbre. It will be released sometime before the next thaw.


Castlemusic is the avant-folk songwriting project of Jennifer Castle, Toronto. Elusive and poetic on record, her songs insist they speak for themselves. Intuitive and generous performances aim to share their secrets. Both her records and performances have been well received and are held in high esteem by press, peers and community.





 - (she feels it all)-Sojourner Truth Parsons; she feels it all she feels it all
(she feels it all)-Sojourner Truth Parsons; she feels it all she feels it all
Photography
15 x 20 in.   


 - (she feels it all)-Sojourner Truth Parsons: phonation
(she feels it all)-Sojourner Truth Parsons: phonation
Photography





  



(she feels it all)-Sojourner Truth Parsons: slow running with the fireflies
Photography
60 x 40 in.   
 - (she feels it all)-Davida Nemeroff: Muscle Beach
(she feels it all)-Davida Nemeroff: Muscle Beach
digital C-print
48 x 60 in.   
 - (she feels it all)-Davida Nemeroff: the morning after
(she feels it all)-Davida Nemeroff: the morning after
digital C-print
30 x 40 in.   
 - (she feels it all)-Davida Nemeroff: burning bush
(she feels it all)-Davida Nemeroff: burning bush


(she feels it all)-Davida Nemeroff: burning bush

 - (she feels it all)-Elise Rasmussen: Ladies Lookout ( diptych 50 x 40" each )
(she feels it all)-Elise Rasmussen: Ladies Lookout ( diptych 50 x 40" each )
chromogenic print

 - (she feels it all)-Tasseomancy
(she feels it all)-Tasseomancy

 - (she feels it all)-Heather Goodchild: The Balanced Life Will Flourish
(she feels it all)-Heather Goodchild: The Balanced Life Will Flourish
inlaid wool patchwork, cotton embroidery, watercolour on felt
60 x 60 in.   


 -
gouache on watercolour paper
12 x 9 in. 
$400 Unframed

 -
gouache on watercolour paper
12 x 9 in. 
$400 Unframed


 - Movement
Movement
pencil crayon on paper
33 x 30 in. 
$1400 Unframed
 - Togetherness
Togetherness
pencil crayon on paper
33.5 x 30 in. 
$1400 Unframed








Friday, January 1, 2010

Krisjanis Kaktins-Gorsline, New Work

KMNY is pleased a new body of paintings by Winnipeg-based artist, Krisjanis Kaktins-Gorsline. Krisjanis is a recent graduate of Columbia University's MFA program in New York. Over the course of his practice he has produced a body of work employing a variety of media and disciplines. He has also participated in exhibitions and art projects internationally.

Krisjanis' current body of work consists of figurative oil paintings that use the format of classical portraiture as their point of departure. The paintings present depictions of figures constructed from image fragments that oscillate between representation and abstraction.

  
 - Festoon
Festoon
oil on canvas
66 x 60 in.   
 - Spray
Spray
oil on canvas
66 x 60 in.   
 - Mellon
Mellon
oil on canvas
66 x 60 in.   

Oscar De Las Flores, New Work


Working mainly with traditional pen and ink on paper, Flores generates masterful figurative works, elaborately layered, that incorporate grotesque imagery with the beauty of sinuous lines. His
drawings depict figures, both real and imagined, that tell the story of an unending battle between
society's powerless and powerful. With a dark sense of humor that is Flores' own, his work also shows
the influence of generations of artists, integrating the grace and detail of early masters with the
imagination of the Surrealists.

Though the content of his drawings often display a clear narrative, it is rare that Flores begins
a piece with a plan for its full resolution. He may have a theme in mind at the start, but prefers to
allow each drawing to develop itself, each figure or symbol deriving form and meaning from the one
before it, until a narrative has found its way onto the page. Flores is driven extensively by his 
surroundings. He is clear in voicing the use of his art as an outlet through which to comment on the
condition of the world around him, and believes it is his duty to do so. Flores comments, "I, like
Orozco, Goya or Kollwitz believe in the need to directly portray that which is inhuman and immoral
in society as well as that which is compassionate and true in order to wake in all of us a sense or 
urgency at attending humanities' most pressing needs in a time when greed and rapacious hatred
becomes ever more predominant."

Born into an era of Civil War in El Salvador, it is from a young age that Flores has been exposed
to the volatile relations between the public and "unchecked powers." Because of his background, it
is with special interest in Latin American history that Flores began using his drawings as a tool with
which to communicate his ideas.

Oscar de Las Flores was born in Santa Ana, El Salvador, in 1975. He relocated twice with his family;
to Guadalajara, Mexico, and Toronto,Canada. The artist currently divides his time between Oaxaca
and Mexico City. He received his degree, with honors, from the Ontario College of Art and Design in 1997 and has shown extensively in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

 - Wagneriana, El Tren de la Muerte
Wagneriana, El Tren de la Muerte
etching
13 x 19.5 in.  

 - Untitled
Untitled
etching
15 x 19 in.