Rare is pleased to present Wayward Bound, a group show featuring drawings by seven artists each of whom is exhibiting at the gallery for the first time. Visual artist and independent curator Aaron Skolnick has assembled an exhibition that explores, challenges, and pushes the boundaries of the medium, which includes works ranging from classically rendered silverpoint portraits to vividly colored abstract collages. Participating artists are Taylor Bowen, Clint Colburn, Amanda Kates, Letitia Quesenberry, Aaron Skolnick, Mark Stockton, and Leah Tacha.
Taylor Bowen's stylized illustrations of childhood symbols (e.g., Mickey Mouse) highlight the anxieties and pitfalls experienced upon the transition away from childhood. Bowen's characters are embodiments of addiction and hopelessness as they leave the world of innocence to become suspended in white voids with no reference to their previous carefree existence. The colorful collages of Clint Colburn explore the unknown and the subconscious. Taking viewers on an adventurous ride through his secret, coded world, Colburn works on multiple pieces simultaneously to allow his intuition to navigate freely through his layered visual language.
Based on precise moments in time, Amanda Kates' drawings act as the ultimate voyeur, capturing frozen or buffering images from the Internet - images that we are not supposed to see. Her works have the structure of a snapshot, retaining the patterns and buzzing surfaces from the original source material. Not able to resist popular culture, though a self-proclaimed Luddite, Kates draws her imagery from the successes and failures of "red carpet" celebrities and the unique stratosphere occupied by billionaires. Letitia Quesenberry's three-dimensional drawings continue the artist's exploration of memory and visual attentiveness. Mimicking the Polaroid SX-70 format, Quesenberry layers graphite, black gesso, and pools of tinted wax to create images that have the look of over-exposed snapshots - they seduce viewers into taking a closer, more intimate look while invoking nostalgia in their own history.
Aaron Skolnick's Jackie O series is a "tour" of the former First Lady before, during, and after the assassination of JFK. Through the process of repetition, the utilization of unusual mediums, and the deployment of a wide variety of techniques and aesthetic choices that reference art history, Skolnick's selections on exhibit at RARE deconstruct, rebuild, and recreate one particularly famous pose of Jacqueline Kennedy. In doing so, they give us a new series of iconic images of Jackie O for the 21st century.
Mark Stockton expands on his meticulous renderings of the famous and infamous with a new series of silverpoint drawings, New York, Net Worth, which captures the richest faces of The Big Apple. Sourcing Internet and other found images, Stockton attempts to locate an intrinsic American identity. Leah Tacha's mixed media collages focus on ideas of domestic life, athleticism, and raw energy. From a visual standpoint, they encompass both the aggressive and the delicate, utilizing a combination of precisely rendered collage elements and bold mark making. Appropriating images that imply "success" (such as those of grand homes or athletes captured in full stride during their prime), Tacha strips them of their individuality to develop non-linear narratives.