The Business of Aura is an exhibition hosted in two locations, Elga Wimmer Gallery and Broadway Gallery, curated by Kelsey Harrington. It includes painting, drawing, photography, sculptural prototypes, and installation.  The show examines the potential of studio processes to produce aura. In particular it considers sensual, conceptual, and psychological interpretations of aura and highlights the role aura plays in the buying and selling of art.

The Business of
 Aura

                                                                   

Elga Wimmer Gallery
526 West 26^th St NYC #310
August 12 – September 18

Closing reception Friday September 10 6-8pm

Summer hours Tuesday-Friday 12-6pm

Hours after Labor Day Tuesday-Saturday 12-6pm

Broadway Gallery

473 Broadway 7^th Fl, NYC
August 19 – September 10

Reception Thursday August 19 6-8pm

Hours Monday – Saturday 10-6pm

The Business of Aura is an exhibition hosted in two locations, Elga Wimmer Gallery and Broadway Gallery, curated by Kelsey Harrington. It includes painting, drawing, photography, sculptural prototypes, and installation. The show examines the potential of studio processes to produce aura.

Artists & architecturally trained designers at Elga Wimmer Gallery include - Helen Brough, Elizabeth Cooper, Cmmnwlth (Zoe Coombes & David Boira)-in collaboration with Timothy Saccenti, Kelsey Harrington, Lauren Luloff, Jon Meyer, Steve Orlando, Yuka Otani, Devin Powers, Matthew Schreiber, Snarkitecture, SOFTlab, Studio Mode, and yo_cy (Christine Yogiaman & Ken Tracy).

Artists at Broadway Gallery include – Myles Bennett, Jaqueline Cedar, Laura Greengold, Kelsey Harrington, Jeff Hutchison, Jeanne Jo, Amanda Lechner, Lauren Luloff, Jon Meyer, Jan Mollet, Yuka Otani, Devin Powers, Ryan Russo, Matthew Schreiber, Rebecca Sherman, Emet Sosna, and Christopher Ulivo.

The concept of aura has myriad associations in art and design history, from the Frankfurt School to New Age Spiritualism. All too often, however, the term is read in its narrowest sense – the aura that Walter Benjamin mourned the loss of in his famous essay Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, now 75 years old. Rather than taking up the terms of that debate, asking whether or not art today has lost its aura, this collection aims to reclaim a broader understanding of aura in contemporary practices today.

In popular culture, aura is generally defined as a symptom of altered visual or sensual states. Reflecting this, the current exhibition includes works that produce visceral affect-based responses. These works operate through material richness, surface tactility, striking geometry, animate form, and light. 

Also included are works that encompass an inventive reading of aura. In this context, the exhibition models creative studio practice as a general force that extends beyond boundaries and containers– the aura here is not so much a property of an object that can be sensed, but rather a conceptual ambition to start with the everyday and then expand beyond it, producing new structures, symbols, or social interactions.

Other works look at an interior aura – they focus on individual subjects who are lost in an environment, engrossed in their own world. Through narrative, these works look at the psychological potential of aura to produce new experiences of reality.

Linking the works is the “business of art - the buying and selling of designed objects located within a market”. As much as art relies on creating “otherness”, the art market is ultimately about the desire of the intangible, the aura of the work. The art business provides a stage for aura.

The exhibition is a testimony to a multitude of perspectives, showing that the Business of Aura remains as intangible yet present today as it was seventy-five years ago.

For further information or to schedule an appointment please contact the gallery or Kelsey Harrington

401.316.4303 - kelseyharrington@gmail.com

Elga Wimmer, PCC 526 W. 26^th St. #310 New York, NY 10001 212-206-0006

The Business of Aura group exhibition curated by Kelsey Harrington

Clockwise from entrance:

Matthew Schreiber Electric Chair, silver halide transmission hologram, 1993  

Helen Brough

Urban Movements; Ultramarine Blue,  oil on canvas, 24”x24”, 2010

Deliriously Urbane; The Great Lawn, oil on canvas, 24”x24”, 2010

Jon Meyer

Protractor with left, compass with right, simultaneously while wearing 3D glasses.,

ink on paper, 22 x 30", 2010

Snarkitecture

Slip Bench (Prototype) wood, lacquer, 18" x 86" x 18", 2009

Ghost Chair (Prototype) wood, lacquer, fabric, resin48" x 32" x 38", 2009

Steve Orlando

Addition, Subtraction, Greater than, and Less than, graphite on paper, 17” x 17”, 2010

Elizabeth Cooper

Untitled, oil and enamel on canvas, 36” x 48", 10” x 64", 2010

SOFTlab

Prototype 4a, plywood, acrylic, chipboard and mylar, 3’x3’x8’, 2010

Lauren Luloff

White (Angelica), oil on bed sheets, 78”x80”, 2009

yo_cy in collaboration with John Dolci, Cideng Sequence, 14 “Bleed”, felt, 2010

Studio Mode

Aether.SCS02, styrene, acrylic, micro controller, LEDs, electronic components, + custom circuit boards 80"x64"x42", 2010 

Devin Powers

It Is Better to Examine Your Own Mistakes Than Those of Others, acrylic on canvas, 20”x16", 2009  

Truth is Always New, acrylic on canvas, 42” x 30", 2009  


Yuka Otani
Sunlight Studies, light faded black construction paper previously on a broken window, 9"x12" series of 9, 2010

Cmmnwlth in collaboration with Timothy Saccenti

Garden of Unearthly Delights, photograph courtesy of Diesel Denim Gallery, Tokyo, 33.5” x 76.5”, 2009 

Masks: Garden of Unearthly Delights, painted SLA photoresin and horse hair (palomino pony tail), 
Display: sectioned plywood vitrine with hand blown glass dome, 12”dia 50”h, 2009

The Business of Aura at Elga Wimmer Gallery

 

 

     

Opening reception 8/12/10

  

Broadway Gallery 473 Broadway 7^th Floor New York NY 10012 www.broadwaygallerynyc.com

The Business of Aura curated by Kelsey Harrington 

August 19 – September 10, 2010 Monday-Friday 10-6pm

Front room - clockwise from elevator:

Jaqueline Cedar, Yellow Mod Sculpture, oil on canvas, 12”x16”, 2010

Jaqueline Cedar, Disappointment and Black Shadow, oil on canvas, 16”x12”, 2010

Jaqueline Cedar, Fitting In, oil on canvas, 9”x12”, 2010

Myles Bennett, Unsubstantial Territories 6 (8), ink, acrylic, and graphite on canvas and panel 20” x 20”, 2010

Myles Bennett, Unsubstantial Territories 6 (6), ink, acrylic, and graphite on canvas and panel 20” x 20”, 2010

Ryan Russo, Untitled, collage on post card, 4”x5.75”, 2009

Lauren Luloff, yellow, oil on canvas and bed sheets, 2010,26”x26”

Lauren Luloff, white (landscape), oil on canvas and bed sheets, 2010, 26”x26”

Lauren Luloff, white (clouds), oil on canvas and bed sheets, 16”x18” 2010

Emet Sosna, I am, oil and acylic on paper, with pea green frame, 31” x 42” 2009

Jeanne Jo, If a Mouth were to Whisper, installation dimensions vary, crocheted love letter, 2010

Amanda Lechner, Brontë(s) and Yellow Cake, graphite and gouache, 20:x30" 2010

Jeff Hutchison, Heavy Hands, collage, 8” x 10”, 2010

Jon Meyer Chickens by left, squares by right, simultaneously while wearing 3D glasses, ink on paper, 22” x 17" 2010

Ryan Russo, Shifting Frequencies, oil on panel, 17” x 14.75”, 2009

Ryan Russo, Collider, oil on panel, 16” x 11”, 2009,

Ryan Russo, Prelude, oil on panel, 16” x 18.75”, 2009

Christopher Ulivo, Look Behind You! 11”x11”, 2010

Christopher Ulivo, Kurt attacked in Dr. Frankenstein’s Laboratory, 9”x14”, 2010

Christopher Ulivo, Georgeous George vs Ghost Cat: In the House of Clocks, 11”x 14”, 2010

Christopher Ulivo, Georgeous George vs Ghost Cat: In the Villa of the Fawn, 11” x 14”, 2010

Jan Mollet, Untitled, cut vinyl on aluminum, signpost, concrete, 24”x24”, 2010

Jan Mollet, Untitled, cut vinyl on aluminum, (above elevator), 24”x24”, 2010

Jaqueline Cedar, Fam and Yam, oil on canvas, 40”x30”, 2010

Back room, clockwise from entrance:

Laura Greengold, Noon, oil on canvas, 12”x14.5”, 2010

Jaqueline Cedar, Scythe and Hangman, oil on canvas, 20”x16”, 2010

Rebecca Sherman, Brooklyn Waterfront Album Dedication 1 & 2, digital print of painting on vellum 11”x14”, 2010

Matthew Schreiber, Radiation, silver halide transmission hologram, 11”x14” 1993

Matthew Schreiber, Priest, silver halide transmission hologram, 11”x14” ,1993

Yuka Otani (overhead projector, water, bubbles) & Kelsey Harrington (glass spheres, water, drywall), 4’x4’, 2010

Kelsey Harrington, Stage & Aura (study), charcoal on paper, 26”x32”, 2010

Devin Powers, Still, ink on screen, 16”x22”, 2010 

The Business of Aura at Broadway Gallery

Opening reception 8/19/10

Geometry & Gesture -opens Thursday

Geometry & Gesture is a group show of emerging artists curated by Kelsey Harrington and Elga Wimmer. The exhibition brings together work with a sense of underlying geometry in a wide range of subject matter. The artists share common processes of experimentation and free play, which result in inventive representations of the world. The works consist of contradictory elements - geometric order and chaos, figuration and abstraction, the garish and the restrained, while remaining focused on qualities of formal material integrity. The show creates an open framework for painting, drawing, and video to allow the potential for new unexpected connections and perspectives.
“In the unity of the chaos and the diagram is the discovery of rhythm as matter and material.” -Gilles Deleuze

Artists include -Jaqueline Cedar, Laura Greengold, Kelsey Harrington, John Monteith, Sobin Park, Devin Powers, Peggy Tan, Eduardo Terranova, Victoria Usle, and Brian Zegeer.

Clockwise from entrance:

Devin Powers’ drawings are dense networks of symmetric lines that create intricate geometric systems. They appear to have infinite depth and detail. His imagery is both timeless and innovative, and surprisingly is produced without the use computers.

Brian Zegeer’s digital video deals with experimental aspects of imagery, space, and consciousness. Kral Majales is an analogue to the magical practice of "scrying" (or mirror-gazing), as well as the cut-up techniques practiced by William Burroughs and Brion Gysin. It was inspired by an extended stay in the derelict former apartment of Allen Ginsberg.

Laura Greengold’s Halfsleep series, paintings of infant sleep, offers exactly the type of renewal and authentic substance that the contemporary painted image needs. These subtle oil paintings play with gesture, as representation of layered space and time, giving the viewer an intimate experience of new life.

Jaqueline Cedar’s richly colorful painting Planetarium combines imagination and memory into inventive figural scenarios with a strong sense of form, space, and narrative.

John Monteith’s multi-dimensional watercolor pencil line drawing on drafting film -Criterion blurs the boundary between the figure and geometric space through fragmentation and environmental shifts.

Kelsey Harrington presents a continued exploration of light, pattern, color fields, and space, in the form of multi-media.

Peggy Tan’s Loose Association charcoal drawings depict everyday objects that are a hybrid of representation and abstraction through slight shifts in perspective views.

Victoria Usle’s painting Venasaltar is painted in association with her experience of rock climbing in Cantabria, Spain. It consists of ample gestures that are fluid and slip over a surface that is divided by fields of organic geometries and dark rotund blocks -fields of primeval character. Through her brushstrokes there is reference to natural patterns and activity, inviting us to join, saying: “ven a saltar conmigo”, "come jump with me".

Eduardo Terranova’s Light Boxes from his City Veil Series resulted from studies of architectural events and environments such as the NYC urban grid.

Sobin Park creates a strong calligraphic presence through dense patterning that suggests mythic figures and natural forces, using simple means of black pencil on paper.

A Group Show I curated at Elga Wimmer Gallery

OVERLAP -Extending beyond edges and boundaries in art & architecture

August 27 - September 19, 2009 (Tuesday - Saturday noon-6:00pm)

Opening Preview: Thursday August 27th 5:00-8:00pm
Reception: Wednesday September 9th 6:00-9:00pm

Elga Wimmer Gallery is pleased to present OVERLAP –Extending beyond edges and boundaries in art & architecture a group exhibition produced and curated by Kelsey Harrington and Christine Yogiaman. The show includes contributions from individuals with professional training in both visual art and architecture, who were asked to address the concept of overlap.

Art and architecture are often portrayed as distinct, even opposing fields, though they share many material and conceptual practices. The invited artists and architecturally trained designers share common interests in generating forms, pattern, and geometries through tactile material processes -whether hand crafted or through the use of computational technology. They often incorporate an awareness of codes or conceptual layers in their work as well as new generative methods and modes of production. The intent of OVERLAP was to begin with these commonalities, and provide space for indefinable qualities to emerge, hinting at something new.

The relationships between the material forms presented in the show start to reveal collapses in the boundaries between art and architecture. Myles Bennett and John Monteith responded to the concept by presenting works that address tactility, the body, and architectural space. Referencing similar haptic qualities, 4-pli created a hand-rail-like structure that spanned horizontal space between sculpture and architecture. Kelsey Harrington's process for a glass sculpture considered aesthetics of algorithm drawings created by Jon Meyer, and random patterns shared with yo_cy's bamboo construct. SOFTLab produced a series of sculptural wood forms with surface patterns that have a formal dialog with various works in the show. Ziad Naccache's failed stripe paintings express a connecting thread in the materialization of perfect imperfection. THEVERYMANY experimented with the translation of computer generated
parametric units into material casting techniques, producing an engaging installation with qualities of precise indetermination.

The participants in the show are 4-pli/Associated Fabrication, John Monteith, Jon Meyer, Kelsey Harrington, Myles Bennett, SOFTlab, THEVERYMANY, yo_cy, and Ziad Naccache.

For further information or to schedule an appointment, please contact kelseyharrington@gmail.com.

www.theoverlap.info