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CUE Art Foundation: Yayoi Asoma - Curated by Stephen Westfall | Marina Adams - Curated by Norma Cole - 16 Oct 2008 to 29 Nov 2008 Current Exhibition |
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Yayoi Asoma
2 Pondfield (View from the Breitches), 2007 Acrylic on canvas, 96� x 144� |
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Yayoi Asoma Curated by Stephen Westfall October 16 � November 29, 2008 (Opening reception Thursday, October 16, 6:00 � 8:00pm) �This is the house she grew up in, through and around which she wanders, or floats as if in a dream. The paintings draw the viewer�s full body into her dream, close to the literal scale of both the interior and exterior of a house viewed at the site and the concrete scale of the artist�s body making a painting across such an area.� Stephen Westfall The monumental paintings of New York-based artist, Yayoi Asoma, examine and resolve our memories associated with home. �Home is an experience as much as a specific place� Asoma says, drawing upon her personal memories of the places in which she has lived for her subject matter. Growing up, the artist spent her school years in the American suburbs and summers in Japan, consistently shifting between continents, cultures and homes. Perhaps it is this annual relocation that has made places of refuge so significant to Asoma. In her work, all the spaces are completely void of life, but there are hints of habitation throughout � open windows, sunken seat cushions and potted plants � placing the focus on the structure itself and the relics of everyday living that are so much a part of them. Much like the artist David Hockney, Asoma begins each piece by taking photographs of her subjects from numerous vantage points and then piecing them together, akin to what one would do when remembering something, forming an assemblage of the space. It is then taken a step further � translating the objective photographic documentation of the structures into emotive portrayals of three-dimensional space � through the use of painterly, lush brushstrokes, sharp perspectives and cool colors. The effect is that the objects depicted seem numinous, elevated from their past status to that of a greater significance, but just out of the viewer�s reach. They become more personal, despite their rather common and familiar origins. The sheer size of the works � many of them over eight feet wide � envelop the viewer within the canvas, making one feel as if they can almost walk right in. Yet, the disjointed perspectives and fragmented imagery serve as a reminder to the viewer that it is just out of reach. This unattainable, unreachable sensibility underlines the essence of memories � they are just that � impossible to replicate and never truly the same as that past reality which the memory attempts to define. On view at CUE Art Foundation, Asoma�s first solo exhibition in New York, will be 4-5 examples of her most recent work, including domestic scenes from both the United States and Japan. The viewer is invited to take in these scenes of personal recollection, providing a platform for salvaging one�s own memories of home. ARTIST�S BIO: Yayoi Asoma is an artist and educator living and working in Brooklyn, NY. She received her BFA in Painting from the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI and her MFA in Visual Arts from Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ. Recent solo and group exhibitions of her work include The Grass is Greener on the Other Side�So What?, Leo Fortuna Gallery, Hudson, NY; Artist As Teacher, The Studio, Armonk, NY; Passages, OSLO, Brooklyn, NY; Drawings, Agora Gallery, Knoxville, TN; Summer Exhibition, Peck Gallery, Providence, RI and her work has been reviewed in the New York Times. Asoma is an adjunct professor at Manhattanville College in Purchase, NY and teaches at public schools in New York City through Studio in a School. The exhibition at CUE Art Foundation marks Asoma�s first solo show in New York. Marina Adams Curated by Norma Cole October 16 � November 29, 2008 (Opening reception Thursday, October 16, 6:00 � 8:00pm) �The compositional puzzle, edges of lines without lines, comic foot, flip the camouflage� compassionate brushwork, masterful, humble, that is, proud exuberance. Brooding vocabulary of richness overlays uncommon commonness.� Norma Cole Stories of sensuality and passion play out on the surfaces of New York-based painter Marina Adams� canvases. Yet in addition to the visceral quality of her work, intellectual sentiments become apparent with patient contemplation. Much like an expert on the art of flirtation, nothing is ever overt. Expansive fields of flat, vibrant colors compete with one another, advancing and retreating like an abstract puzzle, bringing to mind images of camouflage. The ontrasting pigments shift from opaque to transparent, postponing the viewer�s clear comprehension of the figurative depiction underneath, requiring a certain sense of patience and focus from the viewer. What comes into focus are patchworks of delicate lines, insinuating the curves of legs, feet and hands, writhing across the canvas and melting into one another until they become indiscernible. Referencing Eastern erotic imagery, the paintings of Western Post-Impressionists like Matisse and the Camouflage prints of Andy Warhol, Adams� works are assemblages of divergent cultures, mores and aesthetics, underlining the old adage that opposites attract. While the incorporation of so many diverse visual elements could very easily lead to a formal chaos, Adams� work avoids such disjuncture. Through the initially perceived competition between the abstract color fields and figurative lines comes a sense of clarity and union. Much like the bodies coupling along the canvas, the two visual elements begin to meld and morph into one another, the patterns taking on organic forms and the figures blending into elegant abstract designs. Adams� work underlines the relational character of all bodies of thought and practice through the depiction of human relationships at their most basic, universal level. Having often collaborated with poets throughout her career, Adams� work shares a similar sentiment. There is an undeniable rhythm to her compositions and it is through this rhythm that such intellectual substance makes itself present. On view at CUE Art Foundation, Adams� first solo show in New York, will be 5-6 examples of her most recent work. That artist�s large canvases beg the viewer to take their time and promise in return a lyrical pleasure for both the eye and the mind. ARTIST�S BIO: Marina Adams received her BFA from the Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA and MFA from Columbia University's School of the Arts, New York, NY. Adams has lived extensively in Europe and had a one-person exhibition at Magazzino d'Arte Moderna in Rome, Italy. Her work has been included in numerous group exhibitions in the United States and Italy, including Roebling Hall, Brooklyn, NY; Exit Art, New York, NY; Art in General, New York, NY; Arte Architectura Moderna, Rome, Italy and Sala Uno Galleria, Rome, Italy. In 2007, she co-curated and participated in the group show, Sex in the City, D.U.M.B.O. Arts Center, Brooklyn, NY. She is an Assistant Professor of Art at the Borough of Manhattan Community College and has taught at Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT; Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI; Cornell University, Rome, Italy and Pratt Institute of Art, Brooklyn, NY. She has collaborated with the poet Norma Cole on the recent publication In Our Own Backyard and has a collaborative book with the poet Leslie Scalapino titled, The Tango (Granary Books, 2001). |
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