Image Courtesy of Aaron Miller
Fragments of Luxury
SPRING/BREAK Art Show 2020,“IN EXCESS,” NYC
Booth 1044
March 3—9, 2020
Curated by: Michael Gormley
Charlotte Kent
Artists:
Pablo Garcia-Lopez
Krista LaBella
Aaron Miller
Christopher Scott Marshall
Across photography, painting, and sculpture, the twisted morass of our cultural excess comes into play, mirroring a spoiled splendor born of a misguided and insatiable desire for the sensual and the sensational.
Fragments of Luxury takes Oscar Wilde’s famed quip, “Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess” as a pivot towards an ensemble of art works that reimagine baroque splendor on the brink of spoilage–a luxury fermenting and careening towards collapse. Across different media, the artists highlight positions and representations of historic, cultural power but show us something failing and falling. Power depends on appearances, but a grandiose vision here is undercut by the artists’ unerring gaze back at the extravagances wrought by an unrelenting desire for more. The sensual slips, splendor spills, and outrageous fortune comes undone. As these artists strip the veneer from structures that have enabled a longstanding profligacy, they reveal layers of material assumptions. Across photography, painting, and sculpture, the twisted morass of our cultural excess comes into play. There are no celebrations or answers here, but an acknowledgment of a decaying state that survives through the performance of ornate power.
About the Artists-
Pablo Garcia-Lopez, MFA, PhD, received his Sculpture MFA from MICA after completing a PhD in Neuroscience. He has published numerous scientific papers in international journals and been an artist in residence at Brooklyn Art Space, Franconia Sculpture Park, Sculpture Space, and Governors Island AIR. Currently, Pablo teaches courses about Science and Culture at SVA.
Krista LaBella received her BFA from Hartford Art School in 2010 and her MFA from Pratt Institute in 2014. Her work has appeared in various galleries and museums in New York and beyond, including Site:Brooklyn, The Wadsworth in Hartford, CT, Location1980 in Costa Mesa, CA. She had her first solo show, Fleshy Fruit at Random Access Gallery at Syracuse University in Fall 2018. LaBella is a multimedia artist who embraces the voluptuous, fat female body. She lives and maintains a studio in Brooklyn, NY.
Aaron Miller was born in Newcastle, WY in 1982. He graduated from Newcastle High School and went on to study at the University of Wyoming where he received a BA in graphic design. Following his undergraduate studies he went on to get an MFA in printmaking from the University of Arizona. He owns a custom woodworking business in Brooklyn and has been in New York for the past 8 years.
Chrisopher Scott Marshall is a Brooklyn based sculptor with a Master’s Degree from the New York Academy of Art in 2009. Academically trained as a painter, Marshall made the transition to sculptural media around 2010. Seeking out a more embodied methodology for his practice, sculpture became a revitalizing and dynamic vehicle to execute his concepts. He has been featured in solo and group shows in New York, Los Angeles, as well as internationally. Marshall has been awarded residencies in Germany, Iceland, Norway and the U.S. He will be a part of the Pouch Cove Foundation residency in the summer of 2020.