Figure Us Fancy at All Things Project

Published on June 02, 2009 by Christy Tennant

FIGURE US FANCY
An Exhibition Featuring Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni, Jonathan Cowan, Stephen Halker, Rosita Maldonado, and a late Ukrainian artist, Vanda Shamanskya.

June 3 – September 18, 2009
Opening reception: Wednesday, June 3, 2009, 7:00-9:00 p.m.
Gallery Hours: Wed.- Sat., 1:00-6:30 p.m. (By appointment after June 27)
Admission is free and open to the public
 
All Things Project @ NCGV
269 Bleecker Street
NY, NY 10014
www.ncgv.net
212.691.1770

ABOUT THE SHOW:

“All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the Lord blows on them . . .” (Isaiah 40)

“For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life . . .” (1 Peter 1:18)

All Things Project is pleased to announce FIGURE US FANCY, a group exhibition of five artists, for the summer months of 2009.

The human body is said to be not merely a subject (a person) or an object (a thing), but is the site for the abject, a third category which hovers between that which is familiar yet foreign. This self-consciousness is echoed in the Bible, especially as frail humanity contends with an all-powerful Creator-Savior. The exhibition presents five under-recognized and “outsider” artists of varying ages and cultural backgrounds, all of whom depict the human figure as subject, object, abject. Whether these artists are situated in commercial, instrumental, or plainly fanciful realms, their works suggest that corporeal life—and by extension, art-production itself— is at once a ridiculous and precious enterprise.

The exhibition’s opening night will feature a video presentation around the childhood paper figures created by a young artist, Samuel van der Swaagh. The gallery’s second floor lounge previews Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni’s (October 29) solo show in the fall, immediately at the heels of a solo show featuring Rex Hausmann (September 24).

FIGURE US FANCY is the fourth of six exhibitions curated by Samuel W. Kho for All Things Project in 2009. The curatorial appointment is made possible by a generous grant from the Mustard Seed Foundation, matched by individual gifts. All Things Project and its gallery are part of the Neighborhood Church of Greenwich Village, a house of worship that unabashedly supports cutting-edge visual practices, thoughtful lectures, as well as music and spoken word performances.