Dead in August

organized by Meaghan Kent and Sara Maria Salamone

site95 @ NYCAMS, New York Center for Art and Media Studies

44 West 28th Street, 7th floor, New York

October 19 – November 16, 2012

Opening: Friday, October 19, 6-8pm

Panel: Thursday, October 25, 6:30pm

Download Press Release PDF

Exhibition was made possible by NYCAMS and with additional support by Penske

site95 is pleased to present “Dead in August,” a group exhibition organized by Meaghan Kent and Sara Maria Salamone. “Dead in August” is part of a multi venue project that uses additional spaces in New York to create in depth exhibitions highlighting emerging New York based artists. The exhibition will be held at NYCAMS, New York Center for Art and Media Studies, New York. Artists include: Nils Folke Anderson, Agnes Barley, Jude Broughan, Matthew Brownell, Peter Demos, Nathan Dilworth, Roberto Carlos Lange, Francesco Longenecker, Christian Maychack and Alexandra Posen. A panel discussion moderated by Andrea Hill will be held Thursday, October 25 at 6:30pm.

This exhibition will feature work by a diverse group of 10 New York based artists whose practices all focus in the realm of abstraction. Interwoven with art historical references and ideologies, the sculptures, paintings, mixed media and site-specific installation aim to spark multi-disciplinary discussions with varied readings relating to contemporary themes in abstraction. These ten artists works are triggered initially with form and geometry, appropriation, the reduction of the representational, and interaction with art as object. Through the use of abstraction, these artists consider current influences and method making strategies in creating highly complex and engaging work.

Nils Folke Anderson’s work is based on the concept of reciprocal linkage. Borrowed from internet terminology, reciprocal linkage is used to describe how multiple websites are linked to each other. Anderson’s work itself can range from simple to complex, always playing with frame, interconnectedness and form, while every element is weighted the same and has the same relationship to the others. The result is a calculated, tactile and intuitive experience of geometric sculpture referencing Sol LeWitt. Anderson received his BFA from Cooper Union in 1994 and his MFA from Hunter College in 2006. Selected exhibitions include: Robert Miller Gallery, Phillips de Pury, the Whitney Art Party, and the Watermill Foundation.

Agnes Barley’s “Wave Collages” are a series of works on paper based on the structure of waves. The waves’ imagined architecture has evolved from remote forms to swelling structures and finally deconstructed into minimal references. The waves and their unfolding parts summon volume, horizon, shadow, and direction to unveil the watery terrain of a given moment. Barley received her MFA from the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. Her work has been exhibited internationally as well as The Drawing Center, Allan Nederpelt Gallery, NY and currently on view at Blackston Gallery, NY.

Jude Broughan creates compositions that often contemplate ‘empty’ or uninflected spaces. These open areas, whether physical or merely depicted, suggest both the anxiety of perpetual dislocation and the excitement of limitless potential. Born in New Zealand, Jude Broughan graduated from the School of Visual Arts and is currently an MFA candidate at Hunter College. Recent exhibitions include “Written by Snakes” at Churner & Churner, “Best of 2012” at Soloway, and “Nauscopy” at Chashama 461 Gallery.

Brooklyn based artist Matthew Brownell’s current work uses pattern, repetition and difference to combine elements of minimalism, abstraction, Op-art, and psychedelia. The use of non-traditional media allows him to reference the past and at the same time confound notions of it. Brownell studied photography at University of Pennsylvania. Following his studies Brownell joined the Nexus collective, participating in multiple group shows and one solo show.

Peter Demos’ current body of black and white monochromes addresses themes of opticality, repetition, and surface. The monochromes utilize different surface qualities in order to determine the visual structure of the paintings. Highly rational in execution, each painting is simultaneously unique and the basis for other works where it may be repeated and altered calling to the notion of originality, presentation, as well as aesthetic meaning. Demos received his BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and MFA from Hunter College where he was the recipient of the Tony Smith Award. He has exhibited in numerous exhibitions nationally, including group shows at Leo Koenig, Deitch Studios, Cirrus Gallery, and Dorsch Gallery. He recently completed a Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation Studio Residency in Brooklyn, NY.

Conceptual negation becomes a tool within the photographic sculptures created by Nathan Dilworth. By cutting away at each of his images, Dilworth is not only commenting on frame but bringing attention to the space that surrounds the structure, then breaking this same frame all while creating a new tangible system. Dilworth is a 2005 graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and De Ateliers Studio Program, Amsterdam, NL, 2007. Recent exhibitions include “Look For Small Recorders”, Launch F18, New York and “Nathan Dilworth and Frankie Rice”, Art Current, Provincetown, MA.

Roberto Carlos Lange is a composer and sound artist born in South Florida currently living in Brooklyn. Roberto’s musical pieces and videos are adjusted and aligned with the moment in which they exist; they are constructed through improvised performances and accidental happenings. Lang received his degree in Computer Art and Sound Design from Savannah College of Art and Design in 2003. Most recently Lange has exhibited at Flux Projects, Atlanta, GA, Kentler International Drawing Space and St. Cecilia’s Convent, Brooklyn, NY.

Francesco Longenecker’s recent drawings inspired by traditional cel animation look at the relationship between architecture and landscape through invented space. Where cel animation uses physical layering to separate the background from subject, he is using the layers to connect the background and subject. Longenecker is creating a type of spatial netting that continually shifts from deep to shallow space, linking both setting and subject and conveying a sense of immediacy and discovery. Longenecker received his MFA from the New York Academy of Art in 2007. His work has recently exhibited at Quint Contemporary, La Jolla CA, Factory Fresh, Brooklyn, NY, RARE Gallery and at Asya Geisberg Gallery in NY.

Christian Maychack’s current work focuses on the manner in which we have become adept at navigating the continuum between physical space and abstract mental space. Using the language of abstract painting and the modernist grid, the pieces reflect into an illusionistic space without fully relinquishing their sense of physicality. What results is a slow oscillation between different modes of interfacing with an object. Born in Troy, NY, Maychack received a BFA from Ohio University and an MFA from San Francisco State University. In 2008 he attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Maychack is a 2012 fellow in Painting from the New York Foundation for the Arts.

Alexandra Posen’s visual art, which first begun as a fluid continuation of her theatrical work, is now the heart of her practice. She has been influenced by a contemplation of this interplay in other artists, and the allusive possibilities of abstraction to give form to this relation, most notably in FIELDS, an ongoing series of beeswax and mixed media drawings on paper. The Soho native studied at Brown University while apprenticing with Julie Taymor, and later relocated to Paris, where she studied physical theater with legendary Jacques LeCoq and assisted in the atelier of Phillipe Genty.

Andrea Hill is the director and managing editor of Paddle 8. Hill began her art career at Phillips de Pury & Company in private sales and collections working with individual and corporate clients. Since July 2010, she has been an independent curator and worked with public art initiative Smart Spaces and produced exhibitions at Wesleyan University, Gasser/Grunert Gallery and organized video art festivals and events in the greater New York area. She received a BA in Art and English from Yale University and a Master in International Affairs from Columbia University.

site95 is an alternative non-profit organization established to present exhibitions for emerging and established artists in temporary urban locations. Drawing upon available space in major cities, site95 will present over five projects per year, each extending up to two months. The impermanent sites create a platform for artists and curators to present innovative ideas in different contexts and allow viewers to experience new work not native to their location. Exhibitions will offer openings, educational talks and tours, screenings, and performances. site95 also features the online monthly Journal with contributions by writers, curators, and artists.

The exhibition is free admission and open to the public. Exhibition hours are Monday through Friday 10am – 5pm or by appointment. For further information please checksite95.org and nycams.bethel.edu or email info@site95.org.