Highlight: Summer One

WILLIAM BUCHINA ELIZABETH COOPER TED GAHL JOHN KNUTH MAT T MIGNANELLI ERIC SHAW DEVIN TROY STROTHER

HIGHLIGHT S U M M E R O N E

CUR ATED BY PAUL EFSTATHIOU

HOLLI S TAGGART G ALLER I ES 521 W 26th Street 7th Floor NY, NY 10001 212 628 4000

As a second-generation art dealer, I grew up

or challenging our perception of art historical

surrounded by art and fascinated by the art world,

precedents. They incorporate a wide range of

and for the last thirteen years my brother Eric and I

techniques, from the use of flyspeck to smartphone

have worked as private art dealers. Recently I have

drawing apps to make art that is figurative,

begun venturing into curating my own shows and

abstract, or conceptual, reasserting painting as an

working closely with the artists in whom I believe.

art form that is alive and well and continuing to

It has always been my goal to curate an exhibition

evolve.

with a diverse group of talented artists, and this show is special because it is my first. Now feels like

The term “highlight” is the inspiration for the

the right moment to showcase these artists, some

show and what I hope will continue as a theme

of whom my brother and I discovered together

in a series of contemporary shows in the future.

through our love of art and collecting, and others

The common thread shared by each of these

that I have found on my own. It is an honor to be

artists is the way in which they have been

able to curate my first exhibition at Hollis Taggart

highlighted up to this point, through successful

Galleries. Hollis is a close personal friend who I have

solo and group exhibitions and outstanding press

worked with for many years and I am grateful for

coverage in publications such as The New York

the opportunity to share the gallery’s space and

Times, Interview magazine, Art in America, and

take part in its well-respected legacy.

Hyperallergic. Many of the artists have important forthcoming exhibitions in the U.S and Europe.

All seven painters featured in this exhibition are

All are gaining momentum and embarking on

emerging contemporary artists, based either in

an exceptional moment in their careers. By

New York City or Los Angeles. They draw

highlighting these seven painters, I hope to

inspiration from a variety of sources—from the

focus on their successes thus far and to emphasize

streamlined minimalism of warehouse architecture

their original contributions to the contemporary

to the haphazard freedom of childhood drawings,

art scene.

from occult rituals, to the new rituals of our digital age. The art is fun but sophisticated, touching on topics like race, satirizing the political landscape,

Paul Efstathiou

Elizabeth Cooper (B. 1972) Untitled, 2016 Oil and enamel on canvas 52 x 46 inches

Elizabeth Cooper’s paintings are exploratory and experimental and proof that gestural abstraction can still look fresh more than fifty years after the dawn of Abstract Expressionism.

Her paintings all begin the same way—a flat, monochromatic application of paint over the entire canvas, à la Ellsworth Kelly’s Specturm V at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Cooper then pours, splashes, and splatters paint onto the surface of the canvas, creating abstractions that straddle into the realm of representation.

This perhaps can be attributed to Cooper’s choice of palette—hothouse colors, which once poured, can take on the life of their own, like a Rorschach test coming alive on a candied enamel ground.

Devin Troy Strother (B. 1986) contemporary ikea part 1: nigga there’s abstraction, snakes, and bananas in here, and where the fuck is rauschenberg at?, 2016

Devin Troy Strother’s work is eclectic in its materials, references, and content. The artist comments on race issues, kitsch, and the exuberance of “high art,” sometimes all in a

Acrylic, oil, balsa wood, cut and painted paper in

single artwork. While Strother is serious about

Ikea frame

art making, he has a sense of humor about what

35 ¾ x 24 inches

he is doing. His pieces and their corresponding titles poke fun at race-related stereotypes, suggesting to the gallery goer that perhaps he or she need not take this art thing so seriously.

Strother well knows that critics and art writers cannot help but make comparisons between the artist’s work and that of his predecessors, and so he does the writers’ homework for them, often titling his paintings with explicit references to artists who have influenced that particular work.

William Buchina (B. 1978) Being Presented to an Elevated Judge, 2016 Acrylic on canvas 36 x 54 inches

William Buchina’s acrylic and ink paintings are a fusion of references and complex in their meaning. The works share visual similarities with Victorian etchings or even contemporary graphic novels, but close observation of their details reveal Buchina’s surrealist leanings. He creates dystopian narrative scenes, culling imagery from innumerable sources, building satirical montages. The process of finding the disparate source material is as significant to Buchina’s art making as actually applying materials to canvas.

At the intersection of his collection of found objects, old and new, Buchina builds layered compositions that challenge both the mind

Photo by Sam Monaco

and the eye.

Matt Mignanelli (B. 1983) Allegory, 2016 Enamel and acrylic on canvas 60 x 48 inches

There is a refinement to Matt Mignanelli’s paintings that comes from finding his niche and capitalizing on it. At first glance, his paintings are severe—stacks of brick-like forms that call to mind early video game graphics in clinical colors. The closer one gets to one of Mignanelli’s paintings, however, the more freehand and distinctive they feel. Mignanelli uses industrial materials like enamel and house paint, whose viscosity is made more apparent when dripping off the end of his brush and landing directly on the canvas—the artist’s playful, painterly inclusion. After observing the paintings in detail, the viewer should step back and experience the sensation of Mignanelli’s illusionism come to life as two dimensions become three.

Eric Shaw (B. 1983) Legerdemain, 2016 Acrylic on canvas 60 x 54 inches

Eric Shaw’s work is indicative of painting’s continued longevity, even well into the digital age. His paintings begin as drawings, but not in the most traditional sense. Sketching first on an app on his smartphone, he then translates the drawing from the small screen to the canvas in acrylic paint. Shaw’s paintings are energized by his use of punchy color, flat forms, and slick surfaces, making paintings that look like the work of a latter-day Pop artist with a funky digital edge. His application of large fields of paint in decidedly millennial colorways feels like a fresh take on his Pop predecessors like Roy Lichtenstein and John Wesley—bright, bold, and brilliant.

Ted Gahl (B. 1983) Commuter (Two Workers), 2015 Mixed media on linen 62 x 47 ¾ inches

It is a habit of the art world to chart an artist’s trajectory from an early period to a more mature one, and nodding to that, Ted Gahl is making a statement about his own artistic timeline. Often using drawings he made as a child, Gahl’s work announces the non-linearity of his own development as artist. It makes sense that Gahl utilizes artwork from his childhood. After all, isn’t early childhood a period when one feels most free, when one is most expressionistic in his or her art making and creativity? It is perhaps when the creative process is most intuitive. Gahl is tapping into that, creating works that are both abstract and representational and are as much about his sentimental education as they are about his maturity as an artist.

John Knuth (B. 1978) Solar Flare, 2016 Acrylic/Flyspeck on canvas 36 x 60 inches

John Knuth’s creative conjurings challenge traditional notions of art making, even in this millennium. His paintings engender extreme tension between the sacred and the profane, creating stunning works by way of indelicate techniques. Knuth’s mission is to take something traditionally regarded as base, and to make it into something magnificent, where the materials feel secondary to the radical result. Knuth’s approach is alchemical. Like an art world diviner, he conjures the elements, from making burn paintings with distress flares and metallic space blankets to using fly regurgitation to make the most incandescent, shimmering paintings. He has perfected his process using flyspeck, which might very well fall within the art historical continuum of the Pre-Raphaelites’ Mummy Brown or Chris Ofili’s elephant dung.

HOLLI S TAG GART GALLER I ES 521 W 26th Street 7th Floor NY, NY 10001 212 628 4000 hollistaggart.com