PAIN TERO FLIGHT
January 20 – February 27, 2016
First Thursday reception February 4, 6:00 to 8:00pm
THE WORK
For this group exhibition, co-curated with Alicia Eler, participating artists were asked to interrogate the art, business and public persona of American pastoral painter Thomas Kinkade, who died in 2012. Kinkade rigorously maintained that the popularity of his work highlights the elitism in contemporary art world power structures, a position that may be less tenable in light of the last decade's growth in popularity of contemporary art experiences. At the same time, Kinkade's oeuvre continues to raise questions about the agency of the artist in a period of market dominance; the meaning of uniqueness and authenticity in an era of multiples and appropriation; and the endurance of the Romantic ideal of the artist. Download the exhibition guide here.
THE ARTISTS
Maria Bamford (b. 1970, Port Hueneme, CA) is a comedian, writer and actress best-known for her portrayals of her dysfunctional family and self-deprecating jokes about depression and anxiety. Named one of the 50 Funniest People by Rolling Stone, notable appearances include two Comedy Central Presents specials and Netflix’s Comedians of Comedy: The Movie.
Ray Anthony Barrett (b. 1980, Kansas City, MO) lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. Barrett holds an MFA in Visual Studies from the Pacific Northwest College of Art and BA from University of Missouri, Columbia. Using hand-written text and imagery, Barrett’s work is darkly humorous, often drawing from or referencing carefully chosen elements of pop culture.
Scott Marvel Cassidy (b. 1963, Philadelphia, PA) lives in Los Angeles and works primarily in painting, drawing, collage and sculpture. To create his highly-detailed paintings, Cassidy reproduces familiar domestic scenes and elements as elaborate sets, then works from careful observation.
Jeremy Couillard (b. 1980, Livonia, MI) lives and works in New York. Couillard makes 3D animations, kinetic sculpture, 3D and 2D prints, paintings and installations. He has a BA from Michigan State University and MFA from Columbia University. He is a New Media professor in Queens. Couillard collaborated with Jordan Rathus for the work included in this exhibition.
Rachel Lord (b. 1986, Washington, DC) lives and works in Los Angeles. She explores the connection between consciousness, confusion, and contemporary myth-making. Her "Angry Birds Paintings" use cultural appropriation in the context of kitsch and the sublime to illustrate the condition of the Western mind. She holds a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design.
Jillian Mayer (b. 1986, Ft Lauderdale, FL) makes work that spans media from installation to online interactions, investigating the tension between digital and physical iterations of identity and existence. Mayer exhibits nationally and internationally at galleries, museums and film festivals. In addition to her solo work, she is part of The Borscht Corp. collective in Miami, Florida.
Ralph Pugay (b. 1983, Cavite, Philippines) creates narrative paintings that juxtapose cultural norms and ideas that collide unexpectedly, in ways simultaneously playful and unsettling. Pugay holds an MFA from Portland State University and was a Skowhegan Resident in 2013.
Jordan Rathus (b. 1983, Princeton, NJ) recontextualizes storytelling formats like narrative film and reality television to humorously and critically examine our collective contributions to pop culture. Rathus holds an MFA from Columbia University and BFA from New York University. Rathus worked collaboratively with Jeremy Couillard for the work in this exhibition.