post-magic symbiosis
Vernon M. Byron, Olivia Drusin, Daniel Giordano, Kathy Goodell, Gabriel Hurier, Elisa Lendvay, Matthew Mahler, Patrick Mangan, and Esperanza Mayobre
Curated by Lacey Fekishazy
April 8 - May 7, 2017
Opening reception Saturday, April 8, 6-9 pm
“A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.” ― Yoko Ono & John Lennon
Matteawan Gallery is pleased to present post-magic symbiosis, a group exhibition curated by Lacey Fekishazy of SARDINE gallery in Brooklyn. The exhibition features nine artists who work in various mediums, including sculpture, painting, and drawing. This is the fourth show at Matteawan Gallery to feature a guest curator in a continuing effort to bring new ideas and artists to the gallery and to build relationships with curators and audiences outside of Beacon.
Whether creating their own worlds or manipulating found objects from our physical surroundings, the artists in this exhibition search for transformation and wonder through their process. Drawing inspiration from a piece of honeycomb, a discarded strip of metal, or a pattern recognized from childhood, they allow themselves to be true to their own vision and mindscape. The works selected express the language of each artist, yet speak as a whole. The title post-magic symbiosis alludes to a context in which an engaged and inspired community of artists will hopefully find room for a playful exchange.
Many artists are working towards a more harmonious, inclusive future in these turbulent times. By searching for some magic in this post-truth world, the artists in this show are discovering grander meaning through the symbiotic spark around them. Sometimes introductions are ignition. Sometimes art is magic. Sometimes we all shine.
Vernon M. Byron’s practice centers on the intersection between sound, narrative, architecture, and object. Byron’s work is a response to the advent of virtual reality, where sound, environment, and other non-visual means are employed to alter the viewer’s perception of reality. His work has been shown throughout the Hudson Valley, including The Concourse Gallery A at the Albany International Airport, The Samuel Dorsky Museum of art, The Art Society of Kingston, Space Create, and The Chris Davison Gallery. He lives and works in Newburgh, NY.
Olivia Drusin received her BFA from The Cooper Union School for the Advancement of Science and Art. For the last several years she has concentrated solely on black on black paintings that push the boundaries of their optical presence by implementing subtle surface changes. Her latest works grapple with similar effects in color, moving the viewer in and out of deeply psychological and surreal spaces of her own design. These new paintings have been included in a group show, entitled Laurel, curated by Laurence Dujardyn, Tatiana Kronberg, and Rosemary Motley (Brooklyn, NY), and will be the focus of her first solo exhibition in fall 2017 at SARDINE (Brooklyn, NY). Drusin lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
Daniel Giordano co-directs Vicki, a curatorial project in Newburgh, NY. Focusing on sculpture because it collects dust in the most obvious manner, Giordano says his work is driven by an autobiographical mythology, with his brother as the focus of much of his work. Giordano has exhibited nationally and internationally and recently completed a residency at New Age Drinks in Flagstaff, AZ. He received his MFA from the University of Delaware and lives in Newburgh, NY.
Kathy Goodell is interested in consciousness and transformation, and her work investigates the links between sight and interior vision. She is an inventor of processes, often going to extremes to achieve a metaphysical effect. She rejects traditional methods of painting by burying canvases in salt, or floating them face down in pools of oil, pigment, and water. Goodell has exhibited both nationally and internationally and her work has been included in numerous museum exhibitions. In 2013 she was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship. Her work has been reviewed in numerous publications, including Hyperallergic and The New York Times. She received a BFA and an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and has taught at universities in both California and New York. She is currently a professor of art at SUNY New Paltz and lives in the Hudson Valley.
Gabriel Hurier was born in Cincinnati, Ohio and lives and works in Newburgh, New York. He has participated in numerous group shows in the New York area including Gallery 128 and ATM Gallery, and has also shown in Chicago, San Diego, Cincinnati, Zagreb, and Singapore. Hurier has had two solo shows at SARDINE (2012/ 2014), Bushwick, Brooklyn. He is currently exploring naturally occurring shapes and rethinking the inescapable cycles of life as a traveler and a father. His work often utilizes everyday materials leftover from years of realizing wall drawings for Sol LeWitt. He studied painting and printmaking at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.
Elisa Lendvay holds an MFA in Sculpture from Bard College and a BFA from the University of Texas at Austin and Bennington College. She has had recent solo exhibitions at Jason McCoy Gallery, New York, NY and Fred Giampietro Gallery, New Haven, CT. Her work has been included in group shows at Kansas Gallery, Asya Geisberg Gallery, Rare Gallery, Klaus Von Nichtssagend, and Lesley Heller Workspace in New York as well as TSA, Daily Operation, and Orgy Park in Brooklyn. Lendvay states, “I often alter and combine found objects eroded by the elements as a way of recycling and responding to narratives of the city, nature, consumption, place and memory. The materials influence the forms and color so that the formation of each piece is not a struggle against the medium, but a digging down into the essence of a physical moment.” She lives and works in Poughkeepsie, New York.
Matthew Mahler’s work generally critiques contemporary western culture though subject and process. His work has been exhibited nationally, including shows at Sardine, Centotto, and Brooklyn Fire Proof, Brooklyn; Denny Gallery, Lu Magnus, and Austrian Cultural Forum, NYC; THE REINSTITUTE, Baltimore, MD; and Klapper Hall Gallery, CUNY Queens College, Flushing, NY. In 2010, Mahler co-founded Small Black Door, an experimental art space out of a basement in his home neighborhood of Queens. He received an MFA from CUNY Queens College and lives in Ridgewood, New York.
Patrick Mangan’s recent abstract paintings are part of a series that explores geometry through simplicity of composition and a limited palette of the same seven colors. He has had solo exhibitions at OK Harris, NYC; ART 101, Brooklyn; the Marianne Desin Gallery, Chicago; and has participated in group shows at Centetto, OK Harris, The Painting Center, Momenta, Storefront TenEyck, Sideshow, Studio 10, and Sugar in Brooklyn, NY. Mangan lives and works in Beacon, New York.
Esperanza Mayobre is a Venezuelan artist who lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. She is the recipient of the Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship, the Lower East Side Printshop Keyholder Residency, the Jerome Foundation travel grant, the International Studio and Curatorial Program, the Smack Mellon Studio Program, the Workspace Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. She has exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston; La Caja Centro Cultural Chacao, Caracas, Venezuela; the Bronx Museum; Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Buffalo, NY; The Center for Advanced Visual Studies, MIT; the Art Museum of the Americas, Washington D.C.; the Contemporary Museum of El Salvador, the Incheon Biennial, Korea; and Smack Mellon, Postmasters, Momenta, TSA, and BRIC in New York. Mayobre’s work has been featured in Bomb, The Brooklyn Rail, Hyperallergic, Creative Time Reports, Arte al Día and Art in America. Currently she is preparing for her upcoming solo exhibition at Westchester Community College.
Lacey Fekishazy is the owner and director of SARDINE, a gallery in Bushwick, Brooklyn founded in 2011. Active in both the Brooklyn and Newburgh art communities, she recently curated the inaugural exhibition Silent Shout at The Gallery at Atlas in Newburgh, NY. As part of Newburgh Open Studios she organizes Glenlily Grounds, an outdoor exhibition now in its fourth year. Fekishazy is an artist as well as a curator, and holds a BFA in Painting from SUNY New Paltz, New Paltz, NY and an MFA in Art from Queens College CUNY, Flushing, NY. She lives in Newburgh, NY.
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