Two Solo shows at Swarm Gallery
SARAH SMITH | BURN THE BREEZE
KEVIN E. TAYLOR | POSTURE
April 18 - May 18, 2008

Artist Reception | Friday, April 18, 2008, 6-8PM

Kevin E. Taylor "Rowdy" (2008), Graphite, colored pencil on paper, 7" x 5" | Sarah Smith "Endless Gathering Lull" (detail) (2008), Ink, pencil, metal leaf composite and corrosive on paper, 60" x 114"

SARAH SMITH | BURN THE BREEZE
Sarah's fascination with antique objects and the look of old things has led to a series of drawings and cut wood assemblages which present themselves like hazy portals to moments of instant nostalgia. Her compositions unfold like mythical landscapes where sick, dying or dead animals act like the protagonists in a fragmented, out of scale world of shrinking natural habitats. Decorative Baroque style scrolls and flourishes appear to be instigating this out of balance, off-kilter feeling.

With her wood assemblages, Sarah is committed to using salvaged plywood she finds in dumpsters and trash piles. Since her work has a look as if it were "born old," she prefers to use a material that has inherent age. Warped, stained, broken pieces of found wood are cut into garlands of leaves, flowers, twigs, and hunted creatures that drape and dangle from stylized decorative shapes. These wall installations morph interiors and landscapes, the man-made with the natural and blur the past with the present.

For her drawings, Sarah uses composite gold leaf as the element to reflect our materially excessive times back at us. She takes that concept one step further by adding a layer of instant decay with a real chemical process by deliberately corroding the shiny surface of the gold with a corrosive acid wash. Her intention is to convey that we have entered an era of loss and the time in which we inhabit has taken its toll on the natural world which we are in the process of melting, polluting and turning to dust our most treasured of treasures.

KEVIN E. TAYLOR | POSTURE
Using imagery, Kevin attempts to expose the animal within. Much of that which is assumed to be chaotic and incomprehensible within the human paradigm can be clarified through the observation that we, like all organisms are bound first and foremost by natural law. Over time, civil responsibility has ordered physical detachment from nature, however a deeper mental architecture remains instinctively intact. It is this power play with which we struggle internally. Kevin takes interest in formulating a parody, amplifying an analysis, and offering visual depiction of this all at once grotesque, lovely, and hilarious production.

Curated by Andrea Antonaccio, Associate Director

Available works

PROJECT SPACE

What if James Joyce had originally been the author of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein?

Making Audrey is a series of ten paintings that represent scenes from a complete narrative of the artist's making. The series explores what relationships artists have to their art as self-evident objects. It also describes a parallel between the organic processes of art-making and the analytic processes of scientific-inquiry as modes of truth-seeking. Audrey, a Frankenstein-like character, is depicted by Obi in a story of poems that follow her life. Obi's inspiration for this series is imagining how James Joyce, if he were alive today, might approach his own version of Mary Shelley's classic, gothic tale.

The book "Making Audrey" (subtitled "A Living Thing"), presented as a limited-edition supplement to the exhibition, is a self-published collection of drawings and poetry. The oval paintings are made from oil, pencil and spray paint on paper and are presented in brightly colored 32" Victorian frames.

OBI KAUFMANN
In my paintings I construct compositions that incorporate references across disciplines as a way to convey a specific imagined reality. This reality, which formally incorporates techniques of graffiti and illustration, exists in poetic landscape populated by characters who vacillate between being rendered as articulated robots and indecipherable expressions.