May 28th - July 10th, 2010
Opening reception: May 28th, 6-8 pm

SUBSTANCE ABUSE
Curated by Colin Huerter

Works by:

Kadar Brock
Michael Brown
Carter
Julia Dault
Andrea Longacre-White
Adam Marnie
Ryan Sullivan
J. Parker Valentine
Ned Vena

Leo Koenig Inc. Projekte is pleased to present Substance Abuse, a group exhibition curated by Colin Huerter, featuring recent work by Kadar Brock, Michael Brown, Carter, Julia Dault, Andrea Longacre-White, Adam Marnie, Ryan Sullivan, J. Parker Valentine, and Ned Vena.

The title of this exhibition, Substance Abuse, is intended to suggest not only a mistreatment and breakdown of materiality, but also of the self and its relation to the world. Since the act of breaking down is a form of reduction, perhaps it is natural that the artists included here seem to gravitate toward Minimalism as a way to ground the questioning phase of their process. Whereas that earlier movement was concerned with emptying the object of image, of metaphor, of individual touch, of evident psychological and emotional expression in an effort to somehow purify (and maybe even liberate) line, form and color, this particular group of younger artists is more inclined to call attention to the subtle, expressive varieties of imperfection that seem to be embedded within the material, and thus context itself. For instance, in the buckled, warped, torn, cracked, scratched, and generally abused surfaces of the work on view, an argument is made for the un-sustainability of isolation, for the physical, visible way outside pressures manifest their presence and impose the consequence of systematic, institutional neglect. To continue with their argument is to acknowledge that in the thirty plus years since its heyday, Minimalism has come to symbolize the end of an era, of a singular, progressive, dominant way of thinking about history and the world. While being responsive without being prescriptive, the work in Substance Abuse, both individually and together, places vulnerability as perhaps its central concern - vulnerability of line, of hand, of material, of self, of history.

Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10-6 pm. For further information or visuals, please contact Elizabeth Balogh or Nicole Russo.

Leo Koenig Inc. Projekte
541 West 23rd Street
New York, NY 10011
projekte.leokoenig.com






TOTAL PICTURE CONTROL

Solo Exhibition

March 4th to April 14th, 2010

BLACKSTON
29C Ludlow Street
Between Hester Street and Canal Street
Tel: 212-695-8201
www.blackstongallery.com

Hours: Wednesday - Sunday
11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and by appointment

Blackston is pleased to present "Total Picture Control," Julia Dault’s first New York solo exhibition. On view from March 4th to April 14th, the show will comprise new sculptures and paintings.

Physical negotiations are paramount in Dault’s three-dimensional practice, particularly those between the recalcitrance of her industrial materials and her desire to marshal them into unexpected forms. Her sculptures, made from Formica, Plexiglas, wood, and aluminum, often have dents, scrapes, or jagged shards — testament both to the components’ previous life and to the sheer effort underpinning the finished works’ austerity. These sinuous forms are often anchored to the wall with bricklayers’ nylon string, which affirms the “control” Dault has managed to exert.

The sculptures exemplify the precise meeting point between their materials’ physical properties and the artist’s manual dexterity: unlike the works of Dault’s artistic forebears, which were often outsourced to production companies, to date she has always worked alone, creating a “performed” Minimalism in-situ. Of course, the “totality” of this control, as in life itself, is an illusion, and the sculptures’ solidity can never be fully fixed.

Achieving balance, often with unconventional, commercially available materials, is likewise central to Dault’s painting practice. The juxtaposition of athletic tape and imitation gold and silver leaf with more traditional oil and acrylic paints accompanies a formal equipoise between chastened grids and free-form mark-making. Her densely layered compositions, achieved through expressive gestures, the use of stencils, the imprinting of discarded palettes, uncontrolled drips, and other means, emphasize the détente between planning and risk so evident in her sculptures.