Ethan Cohen Gallery is thrilled to announce the solo exhibition of Isaac Aden entitled No Regrets: Bars and Irish Chains. The exhibition will occur at the Kube in Beacon New York.
Aden's exhibition features seminal canvases and monumental works produced between 2015-2018. Seeking to create an oscillation between the cognitive and senatorial faculties Aden's works simultaneously engage the optical possibilities of painting and reconsider the genealogies of abstraction in art.
Aden's works are sewn with industrially colored canvas. The works are painstakingly constructed by a process of ordered accumulation using traditional Amish quilting patterns. The works are stretched and hinged together forming triptychs. The order is interrupted by sweeping gestural intervention of neon tubes, masquerading as plastic these delicate twelve foot pieces of glowing glass complete the composition with symphonic elegance.
Aden's work operates in dualities, offering two simultaneously true possibilities for entry points. For example while the title Bars and Irish Chains, may conjure literary imagery akin to Oscar Wilde but terms both refer to patterns of Amish quilts. While Aden makes reference to history and philosophy and engages its cannon he seeks to reconsider its boundaries in a Post-Duchampian world by reconsidering the genealogy of minimalism to include the austere Amish formalism as wholly relevant and a precursor to Malevich. Aden's complex work makes references to Edward Munch, Jasper Johns, Daniel Buren, Rosalind Kraus, Daniel Buren and Post-structuralist theory and yet at the same time his work operates on a purely retinal level. The static color relationships creating optical interference and literal flickering which is enhanced by the neon's warm glow.
Isaac Aden is an artist and curator. In addition to being named chief curator for three art fairs, Aden has curated exhibitions at Sotheby's and the Bronx Museum.