After doing a few popup shows throughout the city, my back and I have decided to move the Art Locker to Little Berlin. under the moniker, “Littler Berlin” it will showcase small works on a “whenever” basis in the bathroom. Staying true to the original goal of presenting art in unexpected ways.
In My Fear I Saw Myself As I Beheld The Appointed Lobby
IN MY FEAR I SAW ONLY MYSELF AS I BEHELD THE APPOINTED LOBBY
Duo show with Dade Orphan and Jeremy Sims
This show explores an aesthetic of fear and paranoia by identifying with an object or metaphorically empty, curated space. While it is common for many people to have experiences akin to some level of objectification by walking down the street, by doing one's job or being intimate with a partner the scary part can be the realization and anxiety that follows. A person who experiences such anxiety might find themselves relating to the stated title of the show, however the goal of this show is to present the beauty that can still be found in every imperfect or chaotic moment. Those of us who are trained to deal with our anxieties and fears have various ways of externalizing them into something that isn't just a feeling but can be touched, looked at or spoken to; however for the writer, ones internalized anxiety comes out in the form of objects appearing to “misbehave”.
My Extremities Curled In The Heat of Circumstance
My extremities curled in the heat of circumstance.
Featuring Jackie Cassidy and Erica Harney
The Art Locker is a space that uses its small scale to explore ideas revolving around intimacy. The paintings exhibited here made by Jackie Cassidy and Erica Harney present the viewer with, from this curator’s perspective, intimacy of a delicate sort. The visceral tactility of Jackie's monochromatic works evoke an almost painfully vigorous mark making harking back to the work of Joan Mitchell or Lee Krasner, but where they deviate is in the depth and pictorial space Cassidy depicts. The aggressive layers don't behave like a protective armor but act instead like a cave for the viewer to explore and lose themselves in. “You wouldn't like me if you knew how I really was,” they almost seem to say as they evoke a feeling of revealing one’s suppressed emotions. What we realize by beholding her recent work is our own familiarity with the spaces she paints. These are about affirmation.
What do we think of when we look at dead leaves? Even better: What drives Erica Harney to collect and meticulously paint dead leaves? The curator cannot help but see an aspect of his humanity reflected in one dead leaf, curled up on a sidewalk but not yet trampled but instead picked up and immortalized on paper for viewers to find beauty in. Like Cassidy, Harney's paintings evoke a viewer’s curiosity with a surreal viciousness. That is not where the journey of the work ends though! The leaves are realistic enough to evoke the same feeling of fragility, as if they are on the paper themselves—and if we so much as look at them too hard, they will crumble. But because they are beautiful, the viewer can't help but behold them. Both the viewer and the viewed are the same, experiencing an existentially beautiful moment, preserved on paper. My extremities curled in the heat of circumstance.