Curator's Office
1515 14th Street NW
Suite 201
20005, USA
Washington, DC
District of Columbia
North America
p: 1 202 387 1008
m: 1 202 360 2573
f: 1 202 387 1066
w: www.curatorsoffice.com
Eric Hibit, Display of Elements mixed media installation 144 x 108 x 17in, 2010
Special Candlelight Hours: The installation will be on view by candlelight at specified times during the exhibition. Periodic announcements to follow.
Curator's Office is pleased to launch the fall season with an emphasis on the baroque. Our first fall exhibition is Eric Hibit, Picture Cohesion, the artist' second solo show in the United States. Picture Cohesion explores how the urban environment and consumerism affect the process of making art. Using bold visual contrasts of color and texture, the artist presents a collection of made and found objects that are in conversation with each other. With a gifted eye for collecting and a deft hand at making, Hibit fashions a truly unique visual experience that could be categorized as a breed of NEW AMERICAN FOLK BAROQUE. The exhibition engages in raw, camp, kitschy, fruity aesthetics.
Known for his massive painting-constructions that protrude from the wall, Hibit presents a new series of sculptural paintings made from wire armatures. This signature technique is repeated throughout the artist's latest oeuvre, and becomes a substrate for further explorations in painting, collage, and sculpture. These works are displayed in an installation alongside a collection of consumer objects that informed them, all hung on a black wall. In addition to the installation is a large-scale sculptural painting emblazoned with the words "Times Square", which is also the title of the work. Full and active, it conveys a sense of energy that is characteristic of the location that inspired it.
The artist's impulse to embellish the work speaks to many artistic traditions that tend towards pulsating, all-over activity. Medieval reliquaries, art of the Mexican Baroque, Hindu Temples, and certain forms of obsessive folk art demonstrate a similar impulse to activate an object with ornamentation. Such pre-modernist comparisons point to the artist's sensibility.
The artist's preoccupation with boundaries is evident In this exhibition, boundaries between areas of culture are played with, and notions of good/bad taste and high/low class are conflated. Such instincts for cultural signs are played against an artistic practice that emphasizes process, craft, and the hand-made qualities of an object.
The exhibition includes:
*****A MASSIVE sculptural painting, depicting the mood of TIMES SQUARE, in a roiling display of color and texture, strung with gold!
*****AND an installation that includes:
- a ceramic plate hand-painted by the artist, inspired by SEA LIFE - a FROSTY glass of beer - some hand-made BOWS - a FABULOUS found painting: bio-morphic abstraction circa 1985 - a decorative wrought iron SWIRL - a sculptural painting resembling a lady's handbag encrusted with BLING - ANOTHER sculptural painting inspired by McDonald's - a selection of pretty shopping bags - skinny candles - colorful men's shirts
and much, much more!!!
*****ALSO, there are finely-crafted works on paper, showing:
- a D.I.L.F. - a bumble bee - a flower - a cellist - the pyramids - and the BELOVED BEAUTY KWEEN KATS!
*****LAST BUT NOT LEAST, on exhibit is a fantastic
-------- MONOCHROME SCULPTURAL PAINTING----------
- done up in silver leaf! - described by one imaginative viewer as resembling "a hubcap found by the side of the road"
but so much more!
COME ON OUT to see this fascinating display of objects both made and collected! You will NOT WANT for SOMETHING to talk about!!!! You will not be disappointed!!!!
Eric Hibit received his undergraduate degree from the Corcoran College of Art and Design and his MFA from Yale University. He has exhibited at Anna Kustera Gallery, Max Protetch Gallery, and Satori Gallery in New York. He has shown internationally in Giverny, France. Most recently, the artist exhibited this summer at Geoffery Young Gallery in Great Barrington, Massachussetts.
curator's office 1515 14th street nw suite 201 washington, dc 20005
+ 202.387.1008 tel + 202.387.1066 fax
www.curatorsoffice.com
gallery hours during exhibitions: wed - sat 12 - 6 pm and by appointment
location: 1/2 block north of Rhode Island on 14th Street NW, Washington, DC next to Studio Theater 2nd floor in the 1515 Art Gallery Building
