City's Six
City College MFA Group Show
August 1st through 22nd, 2013
One Art Space Gallery
23 Warren Street (between Church and Broadway)
Opening Reception Thursday, August 1, 6-9 pm.
One Art Space Gallery is pleased to
present City’s Six, a group exhibition of New York City based artists
publicly showcasing their artwork together for the first time. The artists:
Sasha Cohen, Andrea Coronil, Gayla Martin, Shannon McBride, Katie Simpson Spain
and Alison White are the City College of New York’s MFA Spring 2013 graduating
class. Each artist relates to her materials differently, but seen as a group,
the work creates a dialogue based on viewer interaction and exploration of
environments.
Sasha Cohen, Gayla Martin and Alison White play with the idea of hanging and
draping in unique ways to explore space. Cohen’s paintings become three
dimensional objects with the inclusion of fabric and her manipulation of the
surface, while Martin’s hanging thread sculptures act more like simple line
drawings that portray an intimate attention to detail. White’s fabric
sculptures are complex compositions that evoke a sense of chaotic, yet ordered
beauty.
Shannon McBride, Katie Simpson Spain and Andrea Coronil invite viewers to
examine the plays with illusion in their work. McBride's sculptures seem at
first recognizable and familiar, like fruits or commonplace objects, but upon
close inspection reveal subtle distortions of reality. Simpson Spain, on the
other hand, develops invitingly warm spaces that remind the viewer of past
experiences: camping trips, Girl Scout troops, late nights, and explorations.
Coronil paints iconic images of boxers and organs, and imbues them with
personal narratives of loss and transcendence that are both transparent and
layered.
Together this group of artists compose varied atmospheres full of playful
inquisitiveness, reminders of past experiences, and an intimate attention to
detail. The curators celebrate and admire each of the artists and their work. City’s
Six is curated by Blake Ruehrwein and Stephanie Crawford, respectively a
graduate and a candidate from the Masters in Art History program at the City
College of New York. The exhibition is a launching pad for both the artists and
the curators at this stage in their careers.
