KELLY WORMAN
Selected Recent Curatorial Projects
LAND AFTER TIME
Featuring work by: Stephen Eakin, Sarah Mullin, and Esther Ruiz
Curated by Kelly Worman and Christina Papanicolaou
E.TAY Gallery is pleased to present Land After Time, a group show featuring Stephen Eakin, Sarah Mullin, and Esther Ruiz, curated by Christina Papanicolaou and Kelly Worman. Somewhere between the familiar and the imaginary, there is a space where the objects in Land After Time exist. Inspired by a seemingly deserted Earth-like planet’s distant and unknown place in time, the exhibition reflects the artifacts, memories and relics that have been left behind. Glimpses of civilization fossilized in both organic and inorganic materials tell stories of a world’s past. Glowing light, elemental structures, and quiet landscapes suggest an extinct culture’s advanced, nearly utopian lifestyle with both utilitarian and aesthetic ideals. Land After Time asks, what could the remains of a forgotten era – and the promising spark of a new age – tell us about the future?
Stephen Eakin’s work explores the sentimentality we feel for certain objects and how the context for that meaning comes to exist. He uses personal narratives, traditions and experiences to consider our intimate attachment to such things while considering the politics of historical significance. Eakin investigates how much (or how little) context is needed to convey meaning and how we come to define something as important. His latest work embeds personally significant, found objects in rubber – a kind of contemporary amber – fossilizing them for the viewer to consider as artifact and artwork folded together. The accessibility of the object’s meaning is always in question, confused and compounded by the container. His referencing of American Shaker furniture design taps into an eccentric society’s desire to create objects capable of being imbued with spirituality through their crafting.
Sarah Mullin’s ethereal paintings present layers of abstracted space and gesture referencing the landscape and its earthly ecosystem. They reflect the joy or heightened awareness one experiences through pure observation, the way a baby or a physicist observes phenomena without naming. Abstracting from memory or imagination stimulates the consciousness differently than when working from life. As a result, each of her gestures is more of an impulse response rather than one she is fully responsible for. A warm palette and playful layers of texture combined with these raw and immediate responses channel an honest reflection of optimism and faith in the daunting complexity of a planetary environment.
Inspired by space operas, pop culture, geometry and the setting sun, Esther Ruiz creates objects that operate simultaneously as miniature landscapes from a distant future and actual sized sculptures informed by a relative of Minimalism. She tops cast cement columns with Plexiglas triangles, neon arches and fractured geodes in a way that leaves viewers thinking of (among other things) Dan Flavin, Pink Floyd and the stark beauty of the desert. Her most recent work ignites sleek, white structures with neon in a way that calls to mind archaic machinery that has been abandoned by its creator. But as sparse and concise as her work is, it’s replete with inherent feuds that investigate and celebrate both fictional landscapes and material honesty.
March 2nd through April 2nd, 2016 at:
E.Tay Gallery
39 White Street, New York, NY 10013
Gallery Hours: Wednesday - Saturday, 12 - 6pm
EVERY NOW + AGAIN
Featuring work by artists: Paula Abreu Pita, PolinaBarskaya, Jonathan Blaustein, Steven Bleicher, SeanCarroll, Vincent Colabella, Andrew Davidson, AnthonyHeinz May, Neil Keller, Martin Landau, Roxi Marsen,William Moree, Rebecca Morgan, Valerie Rizzo, MarikaRobak, and Jessica Perelman
Curated by Kelly Worman
Cultural theorist Mieke Bal describes cultural memory as a signifier that "memory can be understood as a cultural phenomenon, as well as an individual or social one”. As cultural memory happens in the present, all around us, at all times, it is constantly shifting and reshaping itself, linking the now to the then, while influencing the future.
Cultural memory, collective identity, heritage, and nostalgia are explored in this exhibition.
The artists chosen for this exhibition are from different generations, different disciplines, and of different cultural descent, yet they share the commonality of spending formative years in building their artistic practice at Pratt, whilst contributing to Pratt’s collective identity. Through this work, we get a glimpse of relatable imagery (frequently nodding to Americana), sometimes dredging up discomfort while other times giving us a case of the warm-and-fuzzies, yet resonating with a familiarity, naturally and poignantly identifying within each of us.
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 19th, 2 – 4pm
Pratt Institute (Brooklyn Campus)
Steuben Galleries
200 Willoughby Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11205
MO: Modus Operandi
Featuring work by artists: Annell Livingston, Steven Peters, and Erik Patton.
Curated by Kelly Worman
OPENING RECEPTION: Thursday, February 21st, 2013 6:30-8:30pm
Ground Arts Organization proudly presents M.O. (Modus Operandi), a group exhibition featuring three artists of different disciplines whose work is heavily process driven . Annell Livingston, Steven Peters, and Erik Patton were chosen as winners from the Summer 2012 Competition, by juror and New York Arts Magazine executive editor Jason Stopa. Each artist’s process is multilayered, exploring construction and deconstruction, while being guided by the openness and limitations of medium.
Fracture and Fragmentation
January 21st- February 10th, 2013 at Thomas Hunter Projects
Featuring work by artists Megan Suttles, Nick Stolle, Angela Jann, Anthony May, and Samuel Jablon.
Curated by Kelly Worman
Opening Reception: Friday, January 25th, 6:30-8:30pm.
Thomas Hunter Project Gallery, 930 Lexington Ave between 68th and 69th Streets.
Thomas Hunter Projects is proud to present Fracture and Fragmentation, curated by Kelly Worman, and featuring work by artists Megan Suttles, Nick Stolle, Angela Jann, Anthony May, and Samuel Jablon.
Fracture. Fragmentation. Deconstruction. Construction. Breaking down. Exploding. Imploding. Disintegration. Illusions. Breaking apart. Rebuilding. Containing chaos. Overwhelming senses. Collapsing and invading. Overstimulation. Pushing. Conflicting. Practice and product. Spatial structures. Social norms. Play. Decomposed precision. Uncertainty and certainty.
Forward. Rewind. Repeat
Featuring work by artists: Bianca Pratorius, Elizabeth Stehling, Caitlin Peluffo, Scott Malbaurn, and Charles Evans.
Curated by Kelly Worman
OPENING RECEPTION: Thursday, September 20th, 2012 6-9pm
Ground Arts Organization proudly presents Forward. Rewind. Repeat, a group exhibition featuring five artists of different disciplines from the east coast. The title obviously speaks to video, but also the act of mental and physical artistic process. Featuring Bianca Pratorius, Elizabeth Stehling, Caitlin Peluffo, Scott Malbaurn, and Charles Evans, this exhibition investigates the use of repetition in both process and outcome. These artists investigate the use of repetition in their work conceptually, or through repetitive movements and actions physically. These practices may yield patterns or rhythm in their work as a compositional strategy, or may be repeated actions generating consistently different results.
Bianca Pratorius, Scott Malbaurn, and Charles Evans explore pattern, repetition, and structure through the use of simple yet labor intensive practices. Through ritualistic gathering, keeping, and cataloguing of personal everyday objects, Charles Evans builds collections as a documentation of his existence. Similarly, Bianca Pratorius’ work derives from a desire to organize and secure her own reality in the chaos of today, with repetition and structure acting as a counterbalance. Sharing what one may imagine to be a meditative way of working, Scott Malbaurn’s work is precise, grounded, and minimal, yet simultaneously rhythmic and quietly vibrating. Both Bianca and Scott have an intentional heavy focus on medium, and allow it to dictate limitations and boundaries in their work.
Elizabeth Stehling and Caitlin Peluffo use continuous repetitive movement in their work with the aim of displacing the viewer’s symbolic representations. Caitlin Peluffo’s video work investigates the dualism of gender identity, domination, and frustration. Using repetitive actions, sound, and rhythm as a constant and prominent element in her work, Caitlin aims to create an anxious and uncomfortable internal dialogue within the viewer. Elizabeth Stehling investigates contradictory human interactions and group dynamics by planning repetitive and continuous movements for performers that exaggerate situations, yet leave room for improvisation and chance.
PAPER:WORK
Featuring work by artists: John O’Connor, Theresa Byrnes, Polly Shindler, Xanda McCagg, Anna Sorenson, and Brad Guarino.
Curated by Kelly Worman.
OPENING RECEPTION: Thursday, April 26th, 2012 6-9pm
Ground Arts Organization proudly presents the exhibition Paper:Work. This exhibition highlights works on paper by six contemporary painters. These six artists investigate one of the most familiar and humble of mediums, paper, and embrace the delicacy and surface of paper as a material. All six painters use paper as a point of departure, ranging from a platform for performance to a preparatory exercise; paper is an integral part of their processes. While separately demonstrating a broad range of technical and conceptual approaches, together they promise a fresh take on the indispensable presence of works on paper in contemporary art.
12 PAINTERS. 12 HOURS.
Including work by artists Polly Shindler, Michael Brennan, Jason Stopa, Francine Tint, Will Hutnick, Angela Jann, Michael Hyder, Scott Malbaurn, Kelly Worman, Janean Hearn, Chelsea Mason, and Nat Meade.
Curated by Kelly Worman
September 1st, 6-9pmSeptember 2nd, 10am-7pm (12 Hours open to the public.)
Opening Reception: Thursday September 1st, 2011 6-9pm
Rogue Space Chelsea presents twelve painters working in the same twelve hours of the same day of the same city. Painters of different ages, backgrounds, and processes were asked to work in their own studios around New York on Sunday, August 21st between the hours of 10am – 10pm. The participating artists were free to start and end working anytime within these twelve hours, and were asked to keep note of these times. The work made during this time period is then shown in the exhibition. The show has been hung according to these times chronologically.
This happening invites an investigation into painting, performance, time, process, and practice. The exhibition, open to the public for exactly twelve hours, provides a space for the viewer to become part the equation.
Other Recent Curatorial Projects
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