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ANONYMOUS TANTRA PAINTINGS These small paintings on found paper are made anonymously in India (especially in Rajasthan) by practitioners of Tantrism—some of whom are artists—to represent and embody fundamental aspects of Tantra, a vast and complex spiritual and philosophical practice. Viewing or meditating on these reductive and essential images stimulates specific mental and/or spiritual experiences that are part of Tantra’s teachings. While the images are centuries old with highly codified forms and colors, the paintings are packed with such a high level of the artists’ intentionality that they continually appear fresh and alive. Despite their didactic function, they also have a history of being coveted, both in India and in the West, as decorative objects and abstract art. Feature Inc. began exhibiting these anonymous Tantra paintings in 1998, as a result of the gallery’s research into contemporary Indian artists and art. |
| ANONYMOUS: tantric painting; Legend: Shiva Linga; Bikaner, Rajasthan, 2002 |
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CONNECTED: Ben Berlow, Mel Bernstine, Léonie Guyer, Bobbie Oliver, Sherman Sam Connected is a concurrent exhibtion of works on paper by five artists not represented by Feature inc., all of whose work has been influenced by the type of Tantra paintings that Feature exhibits (there are other kinds of Tantra paintings that are very different). The five artists are: Ben Berlow, Mel Bernstine, Léonie Guyer, Bobbie Oliver, and Sherman Sam. |
| SHERMAN SAM: SS-003-JWB; 2005-10 |
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Upfront: RICK SIGGINS |
| Arborvitae , 2011 |
| BRUCE BROSNAN: See, hear, remember Bruce Brosnan's upbeat and pushy painted wood (mdf) cutouts sit on the wall. They are mostly object and very little ground, which allows them to be rather free from the usual space place context. While physically flat, they playfully and graphically locate their layers or sequences of highly colored shapes within very simple space. There are moments when the shapes or groups of shapes suggest identifiable things yet they are removed from much specificity by the simplicity of their graphic or cartoon-like qualities. I especially like how the artist maintains the explosiveness of the kidult experience, yet also quiets things down into dreamy road signs from or for the mind. |
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| Burns with the Bark Still On, 2011 |
| TYLER VLAHOVICH: recent work Tyler Vlahovich has a BFA (1989) from California Institute of the Arts and lives and works in Los Angeles. This recent work is his third one-person exhibition with the gallery and coincidentally, we also began working together in 2000. |
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| Wooden Command, 2011 |
Upfront: TODD KNOPKE
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| The Door, 2012 |
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MAMIE HOLST: Secrets of the Universe Mamie Holst distances her subject matter with the use of a limited palette of black, white, and gray. This helps the paintings close down on notions of illustration and, as well, expand out into diagrams. In the midst of all that, there are moments in the paintings that open the door to science fiction. Yet this is countered with a big breath of non-fiction as much of her imagery is gleaned from her experiences with Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome, and is so noted in the titles. The heavier textures, which are the most recent development in the work, bring a funkier and more eccentric expressiveness to the table that for me makes this work feel all the more urgent, personal, and singular. Mamie Holst began exhibiting with Feature Inc. in 2000, and Secrets Of The Universe is her fourth one-person exhibition with the gallery. Born in Gainesville, FL, she has an MFA from School of Visual Arts (1987) and currently lives and works in Fort Myers, FL. |
| Landscape Before Dying (Exiting), 2009-11 |
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JOHN TORREANO: Impossible Collisions
John Torreano's most recent paintings are based on imagined collisions between deep space objects, such as nebula, with images/theories of or about dark matter. While the source images of nebula are actual and scientific, the images of the dark matter, which are from the Hubble gallery, are hyped, or even invented, in order to enhance a visual understanding of what they depict. "By combining these images/concepts of dark matter with images of various nebula, such as Orion or Carina, I find a place of working wherein I have to invent ways to bring these imagined collisions to some kind of painterly resolution. The chaotic nature of these imagined layers of impossible realities, forces me to invent things in the painting of the paintings, I wouldn't have a need for otherwise." John Torreano has an MFA from Ohio State University (1967) and lives and works in NYC. He began exhibiting with Feature Inc. in 1998, and Impossible Collisions is his fourth solo exhibition with the gallery. |
| Dark Matters Collide with Doradus , 2011 |
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Upfront: JENNIFER SIREY
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| Three Holes, 2011 |
| SAM GORDON: trompe l'oeil Sam Gordon has long mined his life experience for his work. The earliest works on paper, which feel half in the world and half in the head, remind me of tattoos. His photographs–which he calls thoughtographs–and his dedcades of sketchbooks push in and pull out of everything he does. Even in The Lost Kinetic World, his consuming, five-year-and-ongoin, hand-held cam documentation of magical moments in performance and events from wherever in the world he b, it is Sam Gordon who is there waving to you after all is said and done. As the artist puts it: "This group of new paintings follows my interest in exploring new processes and ways to make paintings. Instead of taking the canvas for granted, I wanted to construct the canvas-old clothes of mine,canvas remnants, and paint rags are sewn together to form the actual ground on which to work. Using bleach as paint, the mark making is one of erasure and suggests a photographic quality. What is painted and what is removed becomeas as confused as what is printed or sewn. The paintings often include thumbnail versions of themselves as well as pages from my sketchbooks as inkjet transfers- these serve as footnotes. How the paintings are made is left to the viewer to decipher." Sam Gordon was born in Brooklyn, grew up in San Franciso and received a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. His first solo exhibition at Feature Inc. was in 1997 and this is his seventh solo show at the gallery. |
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Upfront:
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| To Here Knows When, 1992 |
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TODD CHILTON: Steady For the past seven or so years, Todd Chilton has been making intensely colored, personally sized, straightforward, geometric abstract paintings. "I build the paintings by layering hand drawn patterns that are always bounded by the edge of the canvas. The paintings exhibit imperfections that are a result of handmade patterns and geometry. This often heightens optical effects in the patterns, and serves to create a situation in which the viewer becomes aware of the experience of looking. I want to create images that convey at once a sense of ambiguity, purposefulness, and humor. At times they have a sense of openness on one hand and resistance on the other. I am interested in what happens in the middle. Meaning comes through determined imprecision, broken or sagging structures and the obvious hand that created the painting. This underscores the physical experience that takes place between a viewer and my work through surface, scale and optical qualities, which subvert, or sustain, a sense of balance." Todd Chilton was born in Chula Vista, CA, 1977, attended School of the Art Institute, Chicago for his MFA (2005), and currently lives and works in Chicago. This is his first one-person exhibition with Feature Inc. |
| Steps, 2012 |
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ALAN WIENER: Sculpture Alan Wiener's small-scaled, multi-leveled sculptures begin as a liquid and end up solid. Their puddled modular forms remind us of that magic. While standing in front of an amazing building or amazing person, I am often fascinated by the very complex and barely knowable process by which they came to be. These sculptures, which often reference both hi-rise buildings and something near to human, play with the recognition of that fascination. As one stoops or bends to zoom in to scrutinize the deceptive building process and its subsequent liquid-to-solid drama, the interior becomes visible and reveals the skeletal network that structures the floors of empty/full chambers. Along the way, notions of inside and outside unsettlingly flip flop. The move from the outer moist flesh to inner dry skeleton parallels the dynamism of micro/macro shifts these sculptures induce, and while pulsing through these experiences, they bless us with a bit of vertigo. Though structurally strong, the scale and materiality renders these creatures vulnerable if somewhat naked. As they stand exposed on their pedestals, their presence amplifies into performance and as such, we are invited to view, examine, dissect, appreciate, comprehend...it is a digestion of sorts. Alan Wiener was born in Philadelphia in 1968, has a MFA from Tyler School of Art, Elkin Park, PA (1993), and lives and works in Brooklyn. He began exhibiting with Feature Inc. in 1998, and this is his third one-person exhibition with the gallery. |
| Untitled , 2009 |
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Upfront: BILL KOMOSKI
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| 1/3/12, 2011 |
| DOUGLAS MELINI: A Sharing of Color and Being Part of It Working with the contrast between a minimal palette and intensive patterning (a dialog that allows the paintings to be simultaneously quiet yet depply activated), Douglas Melini makes hard-edge abstract paintings that investigate color and space. "I like to think of the [aintings as being built, put together part by part, creating a geometric net for the viewer, a vibratory field." The paintings' fields are both solid and porous, and while they are primarliy constructed as a mental or physiological expanse, even a cursory review of their titles suggesta that one may connect to this work in a variety of ways. The portal aspect of the paintings is magnified by the artist's recent addition of a hand-painted, patterned frame. "The frames (which function in more than one way) were created to reinforce the idea of an interior space, a space that continues to move back, deeper (not extending left or right or up and down) as they continously open and close. The frame also allows the paintings to be active from all viewing angles, giving them a sculptural prescence... In the short film Powers of Ten by Charles and Ray Eames, we are taken on a journey through space, both macro and micro. The film depicts the relative scale of the universe in factors of ten. It is this type of space, a space that systematically continues to move inward, that is structured in the paintings." For some time now, I've thought of my paintings as transporters, signposts, and images that allow one to consider how one sees things, helping one to get from one space to the next. The paintings reflect my interest in visual vibrations and how our body and mind respond to vibratory experiences. I believe that art can function as a decoder, providing insights into how the orld looks; a way of connecting the dots, and really seeing things." Douglas Melini was born in VIneland NJ in 1972, has a BA from the Univerity of Maryland (1994), an MFA from Calfornia Institute of the Arts(1997), and currently lives and works in Brooklyn. His solo exhibitions include RIchard Heller Gallery , Santa Monica, CA, Rocket Gallery, London, White Columns, NYC, Ursula Werz, Tuingen, Germany, Minus Space, Brooklyn, and The Suburban, Oak Park, IL. A Sharing of Color and Being Part of It is his first one-person exhibition with Feature Inc. |
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| That Purple Odor, 2012 |
Upfront: JARED BUCKHIESTER
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| Squad D position A, 2012 |
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GINA MAGID : paintings Gina Magid uses elements of drawing and a fairly dark palette to make paintings where both the paint application and subject matter feel lived in. Her brushwork is basic and straightforward and doesn’t go out of the way to hide earlier developments, and her foregrounded subject matter makes no effort to deny the obviousness of her entertainment of a pipe not being just a pipe. While all the paintings exhibited are relatively slow in tone and pace and compositionally cultivate moving the viewer’s attention and thoughtfulness into or onto the resonance of the object represented, it is worth noting that in the two figurative works, one a portrait of Nina Simone and the other a portrait of the artist, both are wearing rings that visually counterpoint their open and forward-gazing eyes that transmit back to the viewer all that they put on them. Gina Magid lives in Brooklyn and attended UC Santa Cruz for her BA (1992) and Pratt Institute for her MFA (1996). She began exhibiting with Feature Inc. in 2000, and this is her third one-person exhibition with the gallery. |
| Big Cat/Poppy, 2012 |
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JOSH PODOLL: paintings Josh Podoll's most recent paintings are swirling and expanding atmospheres populated with a jumble of simple shapes and masses of various colors, densities and textures. Loosely formed, each floats as a mutable thing with irregular edges within the confines of the white canvas in much the way I imagine a mass of soup without a bowl would float in outer space—part animation, part science. Space generall opens towards the top of the canvas and a sense of weight or heaviness occurs at the bottom, yet there is no ground. Podoll's palette is limited and nears monochrome yet there are enough distinctions to move the push and pull over to micro macro. The more solidified shapes and masses moving through the splashes, bursts and gushes of the soup seem to be navigating under the playful intelligence of air traffic control. And every now and then I catch a glimpse of one of these paintings and it feels like a head full of thoughts. Josh Podoll lives in San Francisco, attended Maharishi International University for his BFA (1996) and University of Iowa for his MFA (2002) He first exhibited with Feature Inc., in 2004, and this is his third solo exhibition with the gallery. |
| Provisional Blanket, 2012 |
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Upfront: JUDY LINN |
| Bud, 2012 |
ALEX BROWN: Common Scents Alex Brown’s work is playfully difficult to pin down. From a distance it appears representational yet as one approaches the image, it falls apart into abstraction. As one steps away, like an animation, the abstraction reconfigures back into representation. The edges of the repeated modular shapes that compose the abstraction are hard edge with centers like some candies, gushy or gelatinous. The representational aspect of the work references the photography of the found printed source material, and the abstraction references mathematics or the computer, though neither technology is utilized. Sometimes science pops into that discussion as the repeated modular form begs to be understood as molecular structure. There are of course other ways to enter this work, color and history probably being the most obvious, or in this body of work in particular, light. My main concern however, is that we go for the multiple reads and enjoy the 200% that the artist builds into them. Alex Brown was born in Des Moines in 1966, lives there now, and took a BFA from Parsons School of Design in 1991. He began exhibiting with Feature Inc. in 1988 and this is his 6th solo exhibition with the gallery. |
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| Concert for Hate and War, 2012 |
Upfront: JASON REPPERT Jason Reppert was born in Boston in 1974, lives in Brooklyn, and has an MFA (2004) from Rutgers University, Mason Gross School of the Arts. His work is heavy on materiality, traffic cones form the base of each of the three sculptures on display, and while deep formal concerns are there, figurative, if not erotic, reference are also present.
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| Oracle, 2012 |
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PUNT |
| PUNT, 2012 |
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Upfront: JASON REPPERT Jason Reppert was born in Boston in 1974, lives in Brooklyn, and has an MFA (2004) from Rutgers University, Mason Gross School of the Arts. His work is heavy on materiality, traffic cones form the base of each of the three sculptures on display, and while deep formal concerns are there, figurative, if not erotic, reference are also present. |
| Oracle, 2012 |