WHITE NIGHTS - MIDNIGHT SUN
June 12 - July 31, 2019
Online Exclusive Exhibition in collaboration with Artsy
Annelies Strba, NYIMA 404, 2009, Pigment print on canvas, 49 1/4 x 72 7/8 inches
Jason McCoy Gallery is pleased to present WHITE NIGHTS – MIDNIGHT SUN, an exclusive online exhibition in collaboration with Artsy that celebrates the weeks around the summer solstice in June, where in some areas of high latitude sunsets are late, sunrises are early, and darkness is never complete.
Overlapping with the so-called WHITE NIGHTS festival in St. Petersburg Russia, the exhibition focuses on the use of white as a decisive compositional device in an eclectic group of paintings, sculptures, drawings and prints. The featured works range from a crisp, black-and-white geometric abstraction by Leon Polk Smith to the highly saturated and digitally manipulated photographs of Annelies Strba.
For example, a small drawing by Bryan Osburn ponders a white crescent shape as it is swallowed up by layers of flesh-colored grays; known for her unusual combinations of materials, Elisa Lendvay fuses a sun-bleached bone with umbrella wires to turn it into a faux-ritualistic object; using white line on a deep blue ground, Luisa Rabbia provides the image of an immigrant with iconic stature; a warbler captured in all its characteristic details seems to be flying into the void or infinite possibilities in Kevin King; though made of horse hair, a delicate sculpture by Christiane Löhr is rooted in geometric principles, evoking both architecture and nature; using discs, Keiko Narahashi’s ceramic sculptures ponder the contrast of black and white and become symbolic of states of the lunar and solar cycle; in his latest works, Balint Zsako exclusively employs a black line and the white of the paper as means to create compositions with poetic implications; drawing inspiration from nature and poetry, Yvonne Estrada’s drawings succeed in combining a sense of intimacy that is akin to personal note-taking with a distinct structural clarity.
Pablo Picasso, Nu assis entouré d'esquisses de bêtes et d'hommes, pl. 10, from Le Chef-d Œuvre Inconnu, 1927, Etching on Van Gelder paper, 7 1/2 x 10 4/5 inches, 19 x 27.5 cm.
Meanwhile, mythology is addressed through a print by Picasso from 1927, which depicts a seated nude surrounded by sketches of beasts and men. It is part of a set of etchings that were inspired by the book The Unknown Masterpiece by Honoré Balzac. Inspired by literature as well, a limited-edition artist book by David Hockney illustrates fourteen poems by C.P. Cavafy that were chosen by the artist and celebrate homosexual love. In Glückskinder, Sandra Vasquez de la Horra continues her ongoing exploration of themes of violence, persecution, and sexual abjection. Published as a limited-edition artist book that also includes a text by Felicitas Hoppe, Glückskinder draws on female identity, religion, superstition, myth, as well as both human and beast-like creatures.
The exhibition features works by Yvonne Estrada, David Hockney, Donald Judd, Frederick Kiesler, Kevin King, Christiane Löhr, Keiko Narahashi, Elisa Lendvay, Bryan Osburn, Pablo Picasso, Luisa Rabbia, Leon Polk Smith, Annelies Strba, Sandra Vasquez de la Horra, Tamara Zahaykevich, and Balint Zsako.