Aidas Bareikis January 10th through February 8th, 2008 Opening reception Thursday, January 10th, 6-8pm
“The pool of energies which constitute Myths, which man no longer embodies, is embodied by the theatre. By this double, I mean the great magical agent of which theatre, through its forms, is only the figuration on its way to becoming the transfiguration. It is on the stage that the union of thought, gesture and action is reconstructed. And the double of the Theatre is reality untouched by the men of today.” – Antonin Artauad
Leo Koenig Inc. is pleased to open the New Year with a solo exhibition of new work by AIdas Bareikis. In this exhibition, Bareikis presents a “theatrical spectacle devoid of entertainment.” Conceived in two parts, his installation is an operatic progression. The first “Act” will be entitled “Fancy Meetings.” This installation is vaguely inspired by a short story by Victor Pelevin where a ghost participates in a saturnalian ritual and meets a little girl, all the while unaware that he has passed to the spirit world. In “Fancy Meetings,” Bareikis articulates the confrontation between self awareness and alienation. The opulent creations not only do not recognize themselves, but they turn a blind eye to their own destruction.
At the end of February, Barekis will present the second act entitled “Easy Times.” For this installation Bareikis focuses his ebulliently nightmarish vision on the excruciating costs of sustaining the world’s leisure class. Here he posits a recognition of the burden that superficial grandiosity engenders; yet all are complicit in being somehow unmoved by that recognition.
Humanity’s struggle with its history as it leaps into the future is a pervasive aspect of Bareikis’ work. Contemporary anachronisms are collected and transformed into a tableaux of orchestrated chaos. Bareikis surveys the detritus resulting from consumer culture, environmental decay and decomposition alongside the philosophical and emotional limbo modern society can produce. The artist has confined his creations to a perceptual purgatory, between a world of excess and exploitation and one of conscience and intent. As well, Bareikis re-asserts that it is the artist role, not only to produce work that excites the eye, but also to expose the monsters created by the human condition.
AIdas Bareikis has exhibited extensively throughout the U.S. and Europe. Most recently his work has been seen in “Destroy Athens,” the Biennial of Contemporary Art, “Fancy Meetings,” Locust Projects, Miami Fl., “When Humor Becomes Painful at the Migros Museum, Zurich, Switzerland. He lives and works in NYC.
TONY MATELLI The Old Me January 10th through February 8th, 2008 Opening reception Thursday, January 10th, 6-8pm
Leo Koenig Inc. is pleased to open the New Year with a solo exhibition of new works by Tony Matelli. For his exhibition entitled The Old Me, Matelli focuses on the ideas of rebirth and reinvention. Known for his hyper realistic sculptures, Matelli often depicts characters, or things that are barely getting by; things nearly dead, hopelessly lost or otherwise, totally unwanted. His interest has always been in the underdog.
Serving as metaphors for our own social malaise and general struggle for survival, Matelli’s sculptures mimic inner states of desolation, panic, ambivalence and despair. These states are often associated with trying to locate ones self within our social world. Formerly his works have addressed an inescapable sense of doom. In this particular exhibition, however, Matelli has introduced a glimmer of hope.
With a nod to 17th century Vanitas painting, Matelli presents a double self portrait; two caricatures of the artist, seemingly made of vegetable parts (they are in fact painted bronze.) In one portrait the vegetables are fresh, and robust, while nearby they have rotted and collapsed. The image of the two figures is comically poignant, one contemplating its own inevitable demise. The glimmer exists in the form of some new growth sprouting from the rotted head. A resurrection. The other sculpture in the show is The Old Me. It consists of a few airbrushed headshots of the artist, placed on a table and burning. A classic Vanitas, The Old Me burns continuously throughout the course of the exhibition constantly reminding us that death always precedes rebirth.
Tony Matelli has exhibited extensively in the US and in Europe. His work was most recently seen in, “I am as you will be,” the Skeleton in Art, Cheim & Reid Gallery, and “Baroque Biology at the CAC Cincinatti, and currently in “Undone,” at the Whitney Museum, Altria. Tony Matelli lives and works in NYC.
