CINCINNATI, OH.- Country Club presents the group exhibition, Shapeshifter. Co-organized with Linda Schwartz, this exhibition features seven artists subtly manipulating concrete and abstract resources. These artists elevate mundane materials or employ traditional or simple processes to create objects that speak to a variety of complex issues.
Beth Campbell’s (New York) organic suspended sculptures exist as 3-dimensional psychological maps, offering a physical “model” of an essentially internal process. Conversely, Chris Radtke (Louisville) uses her physical body as the starting point to address this internal/external push/pull. Beginning with the specific dimensions of her own body, Radtke transforms materials into surrogates for her personal and psychological space.
Anthony Luensman’s (Cincinnati) eclectic investigations into the intersections of the natural and artificial worlds frequently lead him toward objects that suggest solid forms, a presence both elusive and powerful. Letitia Quesenberry (Louisville) presents a series of work that likewise waver between visibility and invisibility. In 2003 Quesenberry used a Polaroid camera to take self-portraits over a period of sixty consecutive days. Beginning in early 2009, she transferred the emulsion from the photographs onto an aluminum surface. This process yields almost otherworldly images, hinting at fragility and transitions. Stephen Irwin (Louisville) uses a reductive process to achieve similarly ethereal images. Irwin’s source material comes from vintage pornographic magazines that, by removing ink and the glossy page surfaces, are transformed into odd minimalist compositions.
Jimmy Baker’s (Cincinnati) source materials are frequently plucked from the Internet. This passage through a digital filter importantly allows Baker to stitch together images from multiple sources. These manipulations produce paintings that are almost imperceptibly “unreal”—landscapes that collide with subtle and spectacular phenomenon. Keith Benjamin (Cincinnati) exhaustively mines his day-to-day environment for unwanted items (cereal boxes, soda pop and beer cartons, newspaper) to create objects that reveal an elastic relationship between work and play/studio and home.
Artists included in Shapeshifter have exhibited at venues that include the Cincinnati Art Museum, Contemporary Arts Center, Speed Museum, 21c Museum, and the Whitney Museum of American Art as well as museums and galleries in Italy, Germany, Austria, France, Taiwan and Japan.
