DARK PERCEPTIONS OF THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE
May 2nd - 7th, 2023
Special thanks to Ann-Marie Richard, Hongzheng Han, & Maria Figueroa; for without their support this exhibition would not be possible.
FEATURING THE WORKS OF
VALENTINA BERNOT
MATHIS FREELAND
CHARLOTTE GRÜSSING
CAROLINE HARRISON
CARLIE HOFFER
PHOEBE KONG
JET LE PARTI
ALEXANDRE SEGURA
Bicheng Liang & Yixuan Shao
Left Without the Means to Move, 2021 Lava rocks, anodized aluminum, bone conductors, pit-fired wild clay and sound recorded within, desert soil, amplified microphones, speakers, subwoofers, and other mixed media.
204" x 204" x 180"
Courtesy of the Artist.
Untitled (Notes from the Artists' Studio-in-Situ) 2021
Ink on paper
Courtesy of the Artist.
The experimentation-based and research-rooted works of Alchemyverse, an artist-duo comprised of Columbia University alumni Bicheng Liang and Yixuan Shao, evince narratives of personal memory, archeology, and geology to posit a stance regarding humanity’s interactions with the natural environment. Alchemyverse’s hybrid practice contingent on processed-based interactions with physical landscapes coalesces macroenvironmental concerns and the human dislocation of space with personal notions of alterity, otherness, and cultural difference. The creative output of Alchemyverse likewise possesses a somatic sense of activism, in which Liang and Shao foster collaboration with local communities and institutions for environmental betterment. Through the cultivation of viscid relationships between natural processes and human intervention, the works of Alchemyverse offer a distinct parallel between past and present conditions and human and natural histories. Left Without the Means to Move encourages viewer recollection of landscape deracination and brings to question the consequences of human extraction and displacement of natural materials
Untitled, 2022
Oil pastel, charcoal, & acrylic
20” x 30”
Courtesy of the Artist.
Fifth Avenue, Uptown, 2020
Resin, acrylic, & colored pencil
42.5” x 24”
Courtesy of the Artist.
The muted canvases of Turiya Adkins appropriate abstraction as a means of liberation to capture the true complexities of varying emotions, situations, and experiences that would otherwise be overshadowed with the application of traditional figuration. Adkins’ constructions elicit harmony between intimate truths and amorphous gesticulations to reveal perceptions of the Black American identity. Adkins’ Untitled and Fifth Avenue, Uptown traverse the juxtaposition of the logistics of visibility and invisibility that have accompanied Black identity in modern American society. Adkins’ conveying of the dramatic and fleeting nature of the Black experience was inspired by W.E.B. Dubois’ proposed “veil” in Souls of Black Folk, which described the inherent separation between white and black worlds and experiences. The conveying of the fluidity of the Black identity is reliant on Adkins' techniques of abstraction themselves, which serve to unite, yet highly personalize, the Black American experience.
Sacando a pasear a la memoria (Walking memory), 2023
Pencil, chinese ink on paper
8.3” x 11.7”
Courtesy of the Artist.
Paseo con Pajarreque (Stroll with Pajarreque), 2023
Pencil, chinese ink on paper
8.3” x 11.7”
Courtesy of the Artist.
Radiografia de Pajarreque (X-
ray of a Pajarreque), 2023
Chinese ink on paper
12” x 18”
Courtesy of the Artist.
The works of the Mexico City-based emerging artist Valentina Bernot harmonize imaginary themes with naturalistic visual cues from the landscape that surrounds her. Bernot’s creative output is unified through her enveloping of viewers into a flattened, fictional environment, in which there exists recognizable and repeating characters, landscapes, interactions, and themes Bernot’s fabricated world was necessitated by her experiences with an array of afflictions including alienation, stereotyping, estrangement, and pain caused by those surrounding her as a means of imaginary avoidance and escape, and to facilitate compassion and belonging. Bernot’s Stroll with Pajarreque, fashioned in response to Bernot’s bouts with solitude and withdrawal, coalesce idealist fantasies of partnership with imaginary acquaintances Walking memory emulates the mental resignation that accompanies thought intrusion and self-isolation, whereas X-ray of a Pajarreque speaks to Bernot’s struggles with body dysmorphia and self-criticization. The triptych-like works, united in their featuring of the mythical ‘Pajarreque,’ offer a means of self-projection, idealization, and escapism, their creation serving as a coping mechanism to combat the ruthlessness of the real world.
Light Baths: Skeleton, 2018
Inkjet print on Hahnemühle photo rag
13.5" x 18" / 19" x 23.5"
Courtesy of the Artist.
Light Baths: Marcel, 2018
Inkjet print on Hahnemühle photo rag
13.5" x 18" / 19" x 23.5"
Courtesy of the Artist.
Light Bath Video Compilation
14:52 min video consisting of (6) Looping Light Bath Videos
Courtesy of the Artist.
Jarid Blue’s photographic compositions are marked by an exploration of nude portraiture, characterized by a subject-led approach to creation and an emphasis on self-exploration and discovery. Blue’s works, deemed “Light Baths,” unite photographs with graphic design and digital art technologies to create images that swath the subject in projected light the end result appealing to motifs of transformation, revelation, and a coming-into-self. The inspiration for Blue’s “Light Baths” is highly personal: a product of his personal struggles with anxiety, body image, and self confidence. Intended to allow each subject to toil through inner disturbances, trauma, and emotions, Blue’s creative process renders him as a conduit to perseverance, strength, and overcoming. The collaborative union fostered within Blue’s compositions illicit healing and self-renewal for once tormented subjects, and provide them with the necessary means to conquer their afflictions and achieve cathartic relief on their own accord, thereby advancing their relationship to the self. Blue’s aspirations for his subjects following their sessions is that they continue to develop a relationship between their consciousness and physical body, and convert the energy of lived struggles into an outlet for self-realization and reverence
Acrylic on canvas
24” x 48”
Courtesy of the Artist.
Acrylic on canvas
24” x 24”
Courtesy of the Artist.
Acrylic and oil pastel on canvas
48” x 60”
Courtesy of the Artist.
Mathis Freeland is an emerging New York City-based abstract and self-taught painter, stylist, and photographer. His acrylic canvases grapple with his perceptions of identity and specifically reference a longing to define “artist” under his own terms. Freeland’s creative output is categorized by immense self-channeling a product of constant internal reflection, reliance on spirituality, and a necessity for self-clarity. Invoking deliberately unrefined and crude stylistic qualities, which are a consequence of a periodic revisiting of his canvases, Freeland’s compositions evince the ever-evolving state of the human mind in response to life’s dynamic nature. Dry Bones encapsulates Freeland’s vehemences of initial uncertainty and eventual revitalization and epiphany that he experienced upon moving to New York City from Alabama in 2021. Intimately intertwined with Freeland’s spirituality, Dry Bones reflects a Biblical narrative of prophecy and salvation that culminated with the enlivening of barren desert, thus mirroring Freeland’s artistic renewal and life redemption that he underwent upon his relocation to New York. Of this work, Freeland states, “Dry Bones captures the last two years of my life – which sincerely feels like a rebirth.” No Longer a Slave to Fear offers a continuation of his preliminary Dry Bones, forging an aura of organization that reflects his revitalized psyche and offers a pretense for his anticipated later works. Freeland’s most recent composition, curiously deemed Self Portrait, offers an introspection of the artist’s inner sentiments and intensities in response to current stimuli.
To Be Titled, 2023
Embroidered photo transfer on cotton, pegboard, & wood
20.5” x 20.5”
Courtesy of the Artist.
Firming Your Figure, 2023
Embroidered wood block print on canvas
9” x 12” x 3”
Courtesy of the Artist.
Charlotte Grüssing’s interdisciplinary compositions have been referred to as “soft sculpture,” intended to illuminate her experiences as a woman through the repurposing and synthesizing of objects from the domestic realm. Employing embroidery, quilting, and assemblage techniques, Grüssing’s works investigate the role of femininity in society and challenge its subsequent perceptions and gazes. Grüssing’s artistic output is likewise a direct response to her experience as a person living with dyslexia, in which the appearance of flaws serves an intrinsic function. Grüssing’s compositions rely on disjointed communication, spelling errors, worn seams, and fragmentary patterns to unveil her perspective of the world, which otherwise remains stifled and concealed in accordance with society’s rendering of disabilities as taboos, mistakes, and fundamental flaws. Grüssing’s Firming Your Figure engages with the historical contexts of embroidery to pay homage to the formulative, calculated, and ancient practice of hand stitching executed by communities of women, while simultaneously rivaling the traditionally feminine connotations of the craft and addressing the delicate and aesthetic presence of the “female” sphere To Be Titled references Grüssing’s fragmented and ambiguous sense of self-idealization, a product of lived illusory experiences.
No Sure Footing, 2023 Ink, watercolor, gouache on hot press watercolor paper
5.5” x 10.5”
Courtesy of the Artist.
Tell the Snow to Fall Faster, 2020 Ink, gouache on hot press
watercolor paper
9”x 12”
Courtesy of the Artist.
Phototroph, 2021 Ink, gouache, marker on hot press watercolor paper
12”x12”
Courtesy of the Artist.
Pastel//Anguish, 2021 Ink, gouache on hot press watercolor paper
12” x 12”
Courtesy of the Artist.
The intricate, heartfelt, highly personal, and illustrated compositions of the New Yorkbased Caroline Harrison evoke nightmarish desolace, recall periods of distress, and unravel that which lies at the very core of the human condition. Her body of work is unified through the unsightly and grotesque portrayal of the human body, juxtaposed by the introduction of vibrant colors and decorative embellishments. Harrison’s compositions offer a visual manifestation of struggles with isolation and anxiety as in Pastel//Anguish yet simultaneously reference persistence, resilience, and growth. Harrison’ stark, though aesthetically uniform, contrasts between ugliness and beauty are intended to elicit confusion and discomfort, however, likewise encourage self-contemplation and an empathy-based relationship between artist and viewer. No Sure Footing blurs the boundaries between the human body and the natural world, serving as a metaphor for harmonization through social and bodily withdrawal. Phototroph prevails Harrison’s ideations of bodily disembodiment within the naturescape to offer a juxtaposition between struggle and hope Harrison’s Tell the Snow to Fall Faster pays homage to a favorite childhood fairy tale ‘The Fairy’s Mistake’ by Gail Carson Levine in which a woman receives a reward from a witch that elicits the falling of flowers and jewels from her mouth when she speaks. The incorporation of tenacious alpine flowers offers a visual manifestation of imperceptible trauma, suggesting the body’s attempts to regrow new tissue following physical periods of distress. Of her own work, Harrison states, “I found myself looking at a lot of stuff that was a little bit more difficult to look at but in a way still extremely beautiful. I aim to balance the horrifying and the beautiful within the same piece of work.”
Dissociation No. 1 (“So it begins…”), 2020
Ink, sharpie, & paper, reproduction on acrylic glass
20” x 24.7”
Courtesy of the Artist.
Neutralizing Extremes, 2019
Acrylic paint, feathers, lithium, adderall, reproduction on acrylic glass
35.1” x 52.6”
Courtesy of the Artist.
Self Portrait No. 1, 2022
Medium format film & silver gelatin paper, reproduction on acrylic glass
10” x 10”
Courtesy of the Artist.
The mixed media and photography-focused compositions of New York-based Carlie Hoffer provide a visual manifestation of complex psychological realities that are coalescent with untreated mental illness. Roused by personal strife, Hoffer’s works emanate raw realities and convey a convoluted sense of self that reflect her bouts with anxiety, depression, trauma, and mood and personality disorders. Hoffer’s crude display of the effects of indecorous emotion possesses inherently resistive connotations that withstand notions of shame and weakness that are associated with mental suffering. Hoffer’s primarily blackand-white Dissociation No. 1 (“So it begins…”) is a contemplative product of self-dissociation and cyclical, obsessive thought that demonstrates emotional turmoil and tormenting extremes. As a requisite transition, Neutralizing Extremes aims to achieve the goal of its very name; constructed of authentic lithium mood stabilizers and prescription medication, the piece pays homage to the tribulations that accompany hypomania, bipolar, and depression disorders. Self Portrait No. 1 employs in-camera multiple exposures to convey the consequences of trauma. Hoffer’s incorporation of symbolic elements such as eyeballs to represent hyper-vigilance as well as shadows, monochrome, and disfiguration to evoke corruption and distortion contribute to viewer disorientation and discomfort, evoking precise emotions associated with her personal struggles.
I can only imagine how rude I must sound, I’ve neglected to ask you what lies on the ground., 2022 Oil & charcoal on canvas
67” x 67”
Courtesy of the Artist.
The Punies in Their Playground, 2023
Pastel, chalk colored pencil, charcoal on canvas
48” x 60”
Courtesy of the Artist.
The enthralling, active, and vivid compositions of Phoebe Kong are informed by the complexities of human relationships and the emotions that accompany the embraces and tensions of connection. Kong’s works seek to situate sentiments such as vulgarity, sensitivity, desire, conflict, fighting, loving, losing, rejection, satisfaction, and frustration within an aestheticized context to illuminate her own perceptions of personal relationships. Kong’s use of contrasting colors, intertwined figures, and overwhelming scenes create visual tensions that differentiate components of the work, while concurrently connecting them through physical lines or marks evidenced by Kong’s I can only imagine how rude I must sound, I’ve neglected to ask you what lies on the ground. While offering a reflection upon the ever-connected aspect of human communality, Kong’s compositions simultaneously reveal an expression of her innermost and multiple selves. Kong’s The Punies in Their Playground features a dark caricature, inspired by a lineage of artists who have created similar images as means of self-introspection, that serves as a manifestation of her personal reconciliation with internal and collective panic. The Punies in Their Playground expresses vulnerability and reflects upon a damaged relationship to the self, wrought with heartbreak, discomfort, desperation, and disturbance Of this body of work, Kong states, “These figures and faces are fantastical expressions of our innermost selves: the crude and desperate creatures that yearn and writhe within all of us.”
Oil, acrylic, ink, graphite, adhesive, mixed-media collage, oil stick, spray paint on canvas
68” x 50” x 3”
Courtesy of the Artist.
Acrylic, oil, ink, graphite, spray paint, wax crayon, oil pastel, on canvas.
48" x 36"
Courtesy of the Artist.
Jet Le Parti
Strategos, 2023
Oil, acrylic house paint, graphite, ink, wax crayon, charcoal, on canvas.
72" x 48"
Courtesy of the Artist.
The ominous, underground, and cult acclaimed works of multidisciplinary Jet Le Parti have established his reputation on the secondary market as a coveted red-chip artist The draw of collectors to Le Parti is a consequence of his reluctance to exhibit his work as well as his notoriety to refuse gallery representations, sales, and collaborations, and his almost exclusive exhibiting of his work at the clandestine Base 36. Le Parti’s outlook on the formal art world is adverse, evidenced by claims that art has become no more than a selfabsorbed commercial good that has lost all its relevance to culture, intended meaning, and aesthetics. Le Parti’s compositions explore synchronicities between physical science and personal, subjective experiences that unite his interest in various academic disciplines with his unapologetic worldview Characterized by intricacy and entanglement, Le Parti’s complexities coalesce personal expression, didactic information, and meticulous detail to construct tenacious visual fictions. Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of Le Parti’s practice is his intuition-led approach to creation, in which he synthesizes varying images, texts, designs, and sounds that are reminiscent of the emotional qualities that a given project ensues. The multi-dimensional understanding that Le Parti’s compositions achieve is resonant of the artist’s inner monologue, allowing viewers to be privy to the workings of the mind
The mixed-media To Be Hung comprises found elements from Le Parti’s life including journal notes, scraps of repurposed newspaper clippings, playing cards, hangman games, riddles, poems, and a mixture of grounded amphetamine salts to traverse motifs of serialization, melancholia, paranoiac ideation, accelerationism, alienation, escapism, media manipulation, hyperreality, nihilism. To Be Hung serves as a highly intimate metaphor for the objectification and recontextualization of Le Parti’s artistically conveyed, authentic lived experiences, which naturally accompany the growing demands of observers and consumers The composition is a direct product of the artist’s struggles with serialization and alienation, direct repercussions of successfully and authentically pursuing his practice. Of To Be Hung, Le Parti states, “My personal experiences are covered all over the work. It consists of literal scrapping from my past struggles coupled with a snapshot review of contemporary life and a warped vision of the future to come.”
Stripped of its original pale-skinned and vibrant imagination, Madonna Del Parture portrays an androgynous reimagination of the royally acclaimed holy mother fluctuating into a state of disillusionment in a melancholia state, composed of fragments of layered earth-toned paint that accentuates the work's natural aged surface. Suggesting the subsequent sobrieties of modern thought - existentialism, nihilism relativism, metaphysical nihilism, and solipsism - and inspired by by the Nietzschean confrontation with god's death, the contemporary Madonna reflects a once-glorified individual who has lost her fate Serving as a metaphor for our culture's worn and dystopian condition, the Madonna's present state is postpartum; once impregnated by the mystique of the unknown, she has birthed an unreconcilable relationship to knowledge.
Strategos features an abstracted commander-esq figure, decoded in blues & golds. Suggestive of inner power plays, Strategos reimagines the human attempt to express authoritative conditions and addresses the structures responsible for its institution
Charcoal on paper
19.7” x 25.6”
Courtesy of the Artist.
Le Commune, 2023
Charcoal on paper
25.6” x 39.4”
Courtesy of the Artist.
The charcoal, monochrome, works-on-paper of France-based Alexandre Segura are characterized by entanglement and imbroglio through the manipulation and enigmatic arrangement of figures. The striking facial features and often incomprehensible positioning of Segura’s constructed bodies create an atmosphere of dismay that reflect his internal perceptions of the world surrounding him. Employing the body as an instrument of expression, Segura finds inspiration in mundane scenarios, such as on public transportation or inside of restaurants, as evidenced by Commune and Serie Corps. Segura’s creative process offers the artist a lucrative means of self-inflection to interpret inner emotions, feelings, and thoughts to gain an increased relationship to the self Segura’s compositions are products of his interest in the human anatomy and the relationship between bodies in motion, whereas his medium serves to amalgamate his talents in drawing, typography, calligraphy, layout, and graphic design.
Amid the prevailing diversity of life and its circumstances, human beings remain united by “The Human Experience” that which simultaneously constitutes, upholds, and challenges the very essence of human existence. The Human Experience, as it has been traditionally interpreted, encompasses the reciprocal relationships between the physical, emotional, and spiritual facets of life, in light of the inherent subjectivity that exists between those sustaining them. While each individual’s life to the present day marks the culmination of the isolated encounters that have shaped and influenced their existence, it is the very transfer and sharing of these circumstances that constitutes the consolidated and collective Human Experience that Veiled Constructions aims to advance. In particular, Veiled Constructions seeks to situate life’s perils, stressors, and regressions within an aestheticized context to illuminate artists’ intimate relationships to their craft and the modern day. Simultaneously, Veiled Constructions intends to tether the practices of the artists themselves to one another under the broader context of a world interconnected and marked by collective experience and expression. The collection of work that comprises Veiled Constructions embodies responses to the darker facets of the human experience, shaped by varying personal, social, and political events of the twenty-first century.
Veiled Constructions aims to authentically address and exhibit pertinent issues be them societal or individual to yield a sanctuary for rumination, reflection, conversation, amelioration, and expression. An array of the featured artists' works grapple with the shared large-scale effects of global crises, societal conditions, injustices, and instability, whereas others are products of personal struggles with trauma, uncertainty, illness, and isolated experiences. Intended to illuminate the artists’ individual and diverse circumstances, Veiled Constructions forges forward a presentation that coalesces otherwise purportedly incompatible works in an unprecedented manner: using exhibition itself and subsequent perceived collective experience as instruments of coalition and unification. The motifs of the compositions that comprise Veiled Constructions encourage viewer resonation and remembrance, and their degree of influence relies on a partaking in collective self-reflection, confrontation, and mitigation. The complexities promoted by the works that encompass Veiled Constructions serve as a memento to personal strife and societal injustice, and preserve the influence of twenty-first century circumstances on the human psyche. Veiled Constructions permeates the very surface of what renders one “human” to consider the intricacies of sustaining and overcoming adversity, and to demonstrate art’s usefulness in conveying this collective, though inherently individualist, existence. Together, the compiled body of work is reminiscent of the sullen darks of humanity that serve to unite all people be it through trauma derived from societal mishaps, collective experience of ruinous times, personal turmoil, or a confrontation with the true meaning and privilege of being alive.
Angelina Diamante is a curator and art historian, whose research specialty is Italian Renaissance painting and sculpture. She has participated in the curation and development of exhibitions at the Museum of Arts and Design (Garmenting: Costume as Contemporary Art); and the Fordham Museum of Antiquities (Careful! It’s Fragile: Fordham Ancient Glass). She has held a number of positions at art institutions in the New York City area, including the Museum of Modern Art; ArtExpo New York; and Hollis Taggart Gallery. Angelina is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Art Business at Sotheby’s Institute of Art, where she works as a Graduate Assistant and Student Ambassador, and received her Bachelor’s in Art History from Fordham University
Carolina Audelo is an ex-corporate lawyer, freelance photographer, businesswoman, and independent curator from Oaxaca, Mexico. Developing an array of academic passions early-on in her life, Audelo has repeatedly returned to art, history, and anthropology as a means of self-expression throughout her adulthood She is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Art Business at Sotheby’s Institute of Art.
Kinda Ghandour is an independent curator, artist, and Master’s Candidate at Sotheby’s Institute of Art. Born in Lebanon to French-Canadian parents and raised in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, traveling and experiencing different environments are Ghandour’s main inspirations for her work. Through her curatorial endeavors and artistic expression, Ghandour embarks on a quest for self-discovery. Possessing a background in graphic design, Ghandour has previously held a position at an art gallery in Paris, which allowed her to examine the history of pieces and develop relationships with artists, collectors, and clients
Carlie Hoffer is a contemporary curator, artist, and Master’s Candidate at Sotheby’s Institute of Art. An alumnus from Dartmouth College with a Bachelor’s in Studio Art, Hoffer has become privy to the unique and personal intersection of curatorial practice and artistic methodology. Hoffer previously served as a Teaching Assistant and Darkroom Technician at Dartmouth, where she developed a keen interest in photography and exhibition arrangement.
Gin Lin is an art management professional with a demonstrated commitment to the art industry, having worked in various museums and art institutions. With an erudite background in corporate banking, she is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Contemporary Art at Sotheby’s Institute. Lin intends to combine her professional and artistic background by obtaining a career in Art Financing and Investment Lin possesses a deep passion for Modern and Contemporary visual culture and has carried this interest into various facets of her life, including project reserach, event planning, and public programming.