GROUP EXHIBITION
Seeking Engagement NSA
February 6 - 22, 2014
Opening Reception
Thursday, February 6th (6-9pm)
Seeking Engagement NSA, curated by Beth McNeil, explores the work of eight East End (Long Island) based artists, Jack Ceglic, Tom Dash, Tapp Francke, Julia Greffenius, Jeff Muhs, Nika Nesgoda, Darius Yektai and Gavin Zeigler that share an intense investigation of personal identities.
Whether entering this arena via perceived or projected indefinites, each artist draws upon popular culture as a reference point to communicate their interpretations of how they view themselves when juxtaposed to the subject matter. Whether it is literally looking into a mirror, or mirroring the community, each artist seeks to engage the audience by creating a personal dialogue that is both self-reflective and self-critical. And as with any self-examination, it directly affects those around you. Therefore, we want to know what engages you? Visitors are invited, and encouraged, to leave a personal response to the exhibition (or not) that we will share via social media.
Jack Ceglic approaches his work with immediacy, almost as an attack and yet he renders a tenderness in each piece. He creates candid and engaging life size portraits in oil stick and pastel on paper.
Tom Dash
uses mixed media techniques to comment on social issues, music and
popular culture. His collage and painted works in his "Pin Up" series
project women and our contemporary culture.
Tapp Francke's
latest mirror series engages the viewer in a process of
self-reflection. The neon word and mirrored background forces the
viewer to reflect upon the inherent personal meaning of what's being
conveyed.
Julia Greffenius
creates playful mixed media compositions of figures, landscapes, and
abstraction. By exaggerating the highlights and softening the subject,
her work appears illusory.
Jeff Muhs, known for his work as a painter, recently set on re-exploring his world championship background in sculpture, surprises us with "The Ol' Dirty Bastard". This highly realistic hand sculpted clay figure shouts hip-hop culture and iconography.
Nika Nesgoda's Virgin series is a photographic compendium that brings elements of church-commissioned paintings by masters such as Caravaggio and Rubens to large-format color slide cibachromes of porn stars as models for The Virgin Mary, serving as "perfect" reflective surfaces for fantasy, redemption, or both.
Darius Yektai
transcribes his feelings and memories into works on paper, canvas and
sculpture. Yektai's "Three Graces" reflects on the beauty, charm and
creativity of masters such as Botticelli and Raphael. His figures
appear ethereal as they are dropped into the abstracted composition.
Gavin Zeigler explores surface and color. In his Peep Show series,
Zeigler creates an interrupted playing field of figure, form and
pattern. He un-earths the beauty of the body under both subtle and bold
palettes, teasing his viewers both visually and emotionally.
Each artist currently lives and works on Eastern Long Island, New York.
Beth
McNeill is an independent curator and proprietor of McNeill Art Group,
based in Southampton, New York. Navigating the pool of contemporary art
on Eastern Long Island for over twelve years, Beth is an authority on
this rich historical geographic art region. Beth has curated
exhibitions, lectured on collecting contemporary art and built
collections for both private and public spaces including Tiffany &
Co., East Hampton, NY, The Tribeca Project Space, New York, Cantor
Fitzgerald, Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY and The School of Visual
Arts, New York, among others.
For more information, please contact:
Lyons Wier Gallery
542 West 24th Street, New York, NY 10011
Gallery hours: Tues - Sat, 11am - 6pm
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Darius Yektai, Three Graces, 2013, Oil, watercolor, charcoal and encaustic on paper, linen & canvas, 96 x 72 in / 243.8 x 182.9 cm
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