‘Unearth’
Stacy Fisher and Liz Ainslie
Opening Reception: Saturday, January 25, 6 - 9 pm
Saturday, January 25 - Sunday, February 23, 2020
SARDINE is pleased to present ‘Unearth’, a two-person exhibition featuring sculptures by Stacy Fisher and paintings by Liz Ainslie. ‘Unearth’ opens with a reception on Saturday, January 25 from 6 to 9 pm and will run through February 23, 2020.
Throughout Fisher and Ainslie’s bodies of work, there are flickers of familiar forms--a crown of hair, the crests of waves, a bird’s beak, a plastic jewel--that reference our shared way of reading the world. ‘Unearth’ takes on a double meaning: Fisher and Ainslie present viewers with something unearthed, as in excavated, but also un-earth, as in “not earth”--a vision of the natural world altered through artifice and human design.
Plein air observations inform the structure of Ainslie’s most recent paintings, which are populated with what seem to be extracted chunks of landscapes--portions of lakes, rocks, fields, and skies that obey an alternate logic. Her abstract compositions become illusory puzzles, drawing you in with the promise of ordinary scenes that follow the laws of physics, yet ultimately floating back out to resemble tactile color relationships.
Fisher’s vulnerable mixed media sculptures carve out space for meandering, representing thoughts, experiences, or things we want to hold on to or kill. Peek underneath these rock-like “traps” as they invite with desire, superstition and potential danger.
In a counterpoint to the slick sterility of our digital worlds, the works in ‘Unearth’ document the complexity of human thought, the human hand, and the human urge to explore the unknown.
Liz Ainslie lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. She received an MFA from Tyler School of Art in 2004 and a BFA from Alfred University in 2001. Ainslie has exhibited solo shows at Transmitter, and Airplane in Brooklyn, Creon Gallery in Manhattan, and BCB Fine Art, and Cohen Gallery at Alfred University in upstate New York. Her work has been included in shows at Tiger Strikes Asteroid, SARDINE, Ground Floor Gallery, Orgy Park, Outlet Fine Art, Centotto, Norte Maar, Parallel Art Space, Small Black Door, and A.I.R. Gallery in Brooklyn; Valentine in Ridgewood, Queens; Station Independent Projects, Lu Magnus, Artjail and Spazio 522 in Manhattan; Vox Populi and Ice Box Project Space in Philadelphia; and Gallerie Kritiku, Prague, Czech Republic. Her work has been reviewed in Giornale Dell' Arte, ArtCal Zine, The GC Advocate, interviews with Ainslie can be found on blogs including And Freedom For, Pencil in the Studio, #fffffff Walls, and Standard Interview. Her work is included in the Pierogi Flat Files.
Stacy Fisher received a BFA from The Ohio State University. Artist residencies include the Edward F. Albee Foundation, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Chautauqua School of Art. In 2016 she was a participant in Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Process Space program. Her work has recently been exhibited at Marisa Newman Projects in New York City and at Left Field Gallery in Los Osos, CA. Other venues in New York include Real Estate Fine Art, Thierry Goldberg, Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Ortega y Gasset Projects, Jeff Bailey Gallery, 106 Green, Cleopatra’s and Regina Rex. In 2017 she had a solo exhibition at SARDINE. Fisher currently lives and works in Brooklyn and is a curatorial member of Underdonk gallery in Brooklyn.
SARDINE is located on the ground floor of 286 Stanhope Street between Wyckoff and Irving Avenues in Bushwick, Brooklyn, one block from the Dekalb L train and near the Knickerbocker M. Gallery hours are Saturday and Sunday from 1 to 6 pm when a show is in progress or by appointment. For more information, please visit sardinebk.com. Contact: Lacey Fekishazy at 914.805.1974 or sardinebk@gmail.com.
