Korakrit Arunanondchai, Workshop for Peace/Cry Pan Cry (2018), via Clearing
Marking a particularly expansive approach, Clearing Gallery has invited a massive list of artists to fill the gallery’s expansive Bushwick exhibition space. Bringing together an expansive range of the gallery’s artist in a conversation around modern practices, aesthetics and concepts. Moving across a series of sculptural and painterly iterations that create a colorful and expressive whole, the show makes for a refreshing and exploratory take on the summer group show.
Meriem Bennani & Orian Barki, 2 Lizards (2020), via Clearing
With the range of artists on view, the show presents as a series of connections and interlocking aesthetic cues that unify the the gallery’s artists and curatorial vision. In one room, artist Korakrit Arunanondchai presents one of his signature hyper-loaded assemblages, a massive sculpture depicting a model of the United Nations awash in body parts, sticks and other symbols of a slow, subtle decay. By contrast, a comical video by Meriem Bennani & Orian Barki ties together the surreal and the every day with a pair of masked lizards discussing the current state of the world.
Loïc Raguénès, Telgruc-sur-mer Parade (2020), via Clearing
Other works emphasize the gallery’s regular investigation of the lines between design, sculpture and painting. Loïc Raguénès’s simple depictions of water, turned towards an interpretation of classical interior design tropes, for instance, balances against the warped dimensionality of Hugh Hayden’s Black walnut/white oak, a surreal realization of a chess board bound into the chairs used to play, and leaning towards the ground, a physical manifestation of the mental struggle inherent in the game. In other work by Daniel Dewar & Grégory Gicquel, the sculptural turns quite expressly towards furniture, realizing a new iteration of the art nouveau style twisted through through a distinctly psychedelic lens.
Hugh Hayden, Black walnut/white oak (2021)
As a whole, the show explores a range of concepts and materials in each work, taking a meandering path through the gallery’s artists as a striking introduction to its vision, or perhaps a welcome refresher. The show closes August 27.
Ryan Foerster, Coney Island (2021), via Clearing
– D. Creahan
Read More:
Often Vary Never Change [Exhibition Site]
