Two-person exhibition exploring themes of life and death through works on paper opens at Massey Klein

The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Thursday, March 28, 2024


Two-person exhibition exploring themes of life and death through works on paper opens at Massey Klein
Sarah Irvin, Breastfeeding Series, October 16 - October 17, 2014, Graphite on paper, 18 x 12 inches.



NEW YORK, NY.- Massey Klein is presenting The End & The Beginning, a two-person exhibition exploring themes of life and death through works on paper by Alice Gibney and Sarah Irvin.

Alice Gibney’s illustrations in The End & The Beginning are humorous explorations of humanoid and animal figures. Her characters twist, rise, dance, and praise; their movement captured through frames as if they were sequences in a stop-motion film. The charcoal, color pencil, and ink on paper drawings range in scale from 1:1 ratio of human proportions to small, intimate sketches.

Gibney’s works were created in response to a sudden and unexpected loss of a loved one. Her figurative drawings began to blur and erode as the artist’s emotional life and identity spread itself across the paper in a performative gesture of mourning and reflection. Celtic myths, slapstick humor, and Samuel Beckett became the beacons of light that shifted the artist’s perspective and made room for grief to evolve into a new tale. And so these characters were born to tell a new story: one wrought with paradoxes and clumsiness. They belong to a world that is not ours, but has the flavor of somewhere familiar. A tent, a child’s playtime sculpture, synthetic wigs, and exaggerated clothing cover their frames and become their bodies.

Gibney is a Canadian artist who lives and works in Berlin, Germany. This is her second exhibition with the Gallery.

Sarah Irvin’s graphite drawings on paper record the experience of new life and motherhood. At various times while breastfeeding, the artist created drawings that codified her daughter's action of eating. Loops go up with a suck and round down with a swallow, transcribing the unreadable language of a baby at the breast. Also while breastfeeding, Irvin used a digital program to track the start time, breast side, and duration of each feeding. From this immense amount of data, the artist created an interactive sculpture (see above) resembling a card catalogue that allows the viewer to not only review different sessions, but physically acknowledge the significant amount time and energy needed for an often unacknowledged task.

In the artist’s rocking chair series, the act of caring for a baby is codified as a form of mark-making. Pieces of graphite hung from the underside of Irvin’s glider rocking chair and created marks on a piece of paper attached to the stationary base. The series began when her daughter was born and was completed the day she turned one. Anyone who used the rocking chair during the first year of the child’s life participated in the creation of the works. In addition to the original works on paper, the Gallery will release a limited print edition of the first and last breastfeeding, rocking chair, and feeding log sessions as well as a small edition of blank breastfeeding record logs for the collector to “complete” on their own.

Irvin is an American artist who lives and works in Richmond, Virginia. This is her first exhibition with the Gallery.










Today's News

January 14, 2019

Tanya Bonakdar Gallery presents an immersive installation by Charles Long

Andrew Jones Auctions kicks off the new year with sale that includes over 500 lots

LX, a new art space, opens on 60th and Park Avenue

Sotheby's to offer The Collection of Anne H. & Frederick Vogel III

Exhibition presents New York's first solo show of self-taught, octogenarian American artist

Marc Straus presents a new series of work by Chris Jones

Animated film to spotlight bear that served in WWII

CUE Art Foundation opens a solo exhibition by Cal Siegel

Kaiser Wilhelm Museum presents selected works from the collection of the Kunstmuseen Krefeld

Exhibition at Skoto Gallery brings together the works of sixteen artists

Solo exhibition of new paintings and ceramics by Saira McLaren opens at Sargent's Daughters

Eduard Planting Gallery opens an exhibition of works by Astrid Verhoef

Abigail Ross Goodman appointed Consulting Curator at the Cornell Fine Arts Museum

Thierry Goldberg opens Snow Day, a group exhibition

5th Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art to explore concepts of Immortality

Exhibition at the Gallery of Everything presents the work of Olga Frantskevich and Ezekiel Messou

Two-person exhibition exploring themes of life and death through works on paper opens at Massey Klein

'A Prophet' creator takes on France's war in Algeria

Gildar Gallery opens its third solo exhibition by the artist William Stockman

Casemore Kirkeby opens a wide ranging exhibition of paintings and works on paper by Sonya Rapoport

Hindus gather in India for world's largest festival

Reelpolitik: India election films get Bollywood vote

Massive 'Iceberg' hits Garment District this Winter, illuminates Broadway pedestrian plazas

Elisabeth Wild's first solo exhibition with Carbon 12 opens in Dubai




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful