Gallery | Still / Gesture
Elizabeth Bernstein + Kirk Stoller

May 14 - June 20, 2010
Exhibit Opening | Friday, May 14, 6-8PM
Artist Talk | Saturday, June 19, 4PM

Elizabeth Bernstein, Great Twin Aunts (2010), C Print, 20" x 20"

Swarm Gallery is pleased to present new work by Elizabeth Bernstein and Kirk Stoller in the main gallery.

Still / Gesture

Elizabeth Bernstein and Kirk Stoller uniquely explore unselfconscious, day-to-day narratives of domestic and intimate life. Bernstein's photographs are a language of private communication. Although some of her works have a Tableau vivant feel, they are culled from unstaged observations of her family and friends. They show the gritty alchemy of human connection, our vulnerabilities, imperfections, and foibles. The photographs ask questions and posit answers about the nature of our relationships, how we build our lives, and who we are vs. we want to be. How much do we reveal? How much of our communication is conscious? Or, how much are we consciously trying to hide? Ultimately, the images exist in this loop of question and answer about intimacy, awkwardness, effort, and intention.

Stoller's found wood sculptures are stacked, leaning or hinged, relying on the plane of the floors and the walls to maintain their structural integrity. Through his installations and sculpture, Stoller examines how everything we do has a similar influence on others. As influences around us change, we awaken to both our frailties and strengths. Space, both within the work and surrounding it, plays a key role in his work. He builds relationships between the various incorporated items based on formal issues such as shape, color, and pattern, balancing them against each other and amongst the floor, walls, and ceiling of the room around them. Stoller enjoys the small narratives that are created when things are placed on or near one another. In this way his work mirrors how he tends to make sense of the world in which we live.

Elizabeth Bernstein lives and works in San Francisco. She received her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. Her work has been shown on both coasts, and she currently works in the education department at an arts and technology museum. She is a photographer whose work examines body language, and how it communicates our complex emotional and psychological landscape. She grew up in New York City and attended the University of Michigan as an undergraduate.

Kirk Stoller received his MFA from UC Berkeley in 2004. His work has been included in exhibitions in several galleries and institutions including Ping Pong Gallery, San Francisco, SF Airport Museum, KALA Institute, Berkeley, Gen Art SF, and Kontainer Gallery, Los Angeles. Kirk was a recipient of the MacDowell Studio Residency in 2008. Kirk currently lives and works in San Francisco but will be moving to New York City to attend a Sharpe Foundation Studio Residency in 2010/11.

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