Simone Subal Gallery is very pleased to present We seem to still be moving, featuring the work of Lea Cetera, Derek Franklin, and B. Ingrid Olson. This exhibition was co-curated by Rachel LaBine and Simone Subal. It will run through August 2, 2013, and there will be an opening reception held Tuesday, July 9, from 6-8pm.
The diverse work on view examines construction and mobility as implied, yet fundamental requirements within the formation of narrative. Through a blurring of presentation with representation, these works question the perceived stability in the meanings attached to objects and images.
Lea Cetera assembles fabricated and found objects with disparate uses, connotations and connections. The separate parts attempt not to make a 'whole' or singular declaration, but evoke various possibilities for narrative amongst themselves. This sense of story is both emphasized and withheld from definition by video that is imposed over the sculptural elements of the piece. Cetera and others are shown moving about the same space in which the video is projected, causing a temporal shift to occur between documentation and firsthand experience. By presenting objects as varied as a fake boulder, a hologram, and a gravel-filled wire figure, Cetera covertly alludes to the inherent elasticity within the act of storytelling. Seemingly incompatible interests and values become related, their selection guided by a fascination with the emotional potency able to be carried by objects.
Derek Franklin creates installations of foam sculptures, fragmented stage sets, photographs and paintings. In these arrangements the spatial and pictoral relations between the objects are emphasized, rather than their presentation as discrete works. A prevalent concern in much of Franklin's work is the notion of translation between object, image, and document, and the replacement of older meanings through these translations, whether by chance or intentional presentation in a new context. Drawing from photographic documentation of sculpture that is scanned and distorted, he quickly creates three-dimensional "sketches" out of foam. The surfaces of these forms display varying degrees of finish, and are placed on the floor or incorporated loosely into the architectural pieces. This pointedly unfinished presentation speaks to Franklin's concern with temporariness and instability, both figuratively and physically.
The photographic image becomes a malleable screen between maker and viewer in the layered photo-based work of B. Ingrid Olson. Undefined spaces, gestures, line drawings, fragments of images and obscured figures are condensed in images that are often both descriptive and indeterminate at once: Olson, often pictured, shifts between a seen subject and a viewer herself. Intimate realities and exposed fantasies routinely coexist in unexpected ways. Her works document a kinetic, performative exploration of placing the self amongst representations and visual influences.
Lea Cetera has performed and shown work in New York at John Connelly Presents, Guild and Greyshkul Gallery, Poetry Project at St. Marks Church, Anthology Film Archives and participated in Portugal Arte 2010. Recent group shows includeCoded Conduct at Pilar Corrias Gallery, London, UK, Double Lifeat Sculpture Center, LIC, NY, and the New Wight Biennial, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA. She holds a MFA from Columbia University, 2012 and a BFA from the Cooper Union School of Art, 2005. She lives and works in New York City.
Derek Franklin, born 1981 in St. Helens, Oregon, has exhibited work at Rawson Projects and First Street Gallery in New York, and is a co-director of Soloway Gallery in Brooklyn. He holds a MFA from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, 2012, and a BFA from Pacific Northwest College of Art, 2009. He is currently based in Newark, New Jersey.
B. Ingrid Olson, born 1987, has exhibited at Andrew Rafacz Gallery, The Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago Cultural Center, and Heaven Gallery, Chicago, with an upcoming solo show at Document. She holds a BFA from The School of the Art Institute Chicago, 2010, and attended the Ox-bow School of Art in Saugatuk, MI. She lives and works in Chicago.
