Exhibitions: Current Exhibitions
JANUARY 31 - MARCH 3, 2012
Artist Reception: Friday, FEBRUARY 3, 5 - 8:30 PM
Pentimenti Gallery is pleased to present two solo exhibitions: STATIONS OF THE CUBE, a solo exhibition of mixed media works & installation by STEVEN BARIS, and BUILT FUTURES, a solo show of works on paper & sculptures by KIM BECK.
Steven Baris
STATIONS OF THE CUBE
Mixed media works & Installation
Steven Baris is interested in spaces that are designed to be placeless. The artist explains, “In my paintings and projects I conjure a sense of space that is highly elastic and ambiguous. I aim to juggle and confound those key oppositions that underpin spatial coherence: those basic binaries such as close-distant, container-contained, surface-depth, and opaque-transparent.” His work attends to the consequences of structures we routinely pass by and only sometimes enter. Through his focus on space, Baris makes sense of his own biography—he grew up on Indian reservations and later moved to the most built-up area in the continent. Stations of the Cube consists of paintings, works on paper, and an installation.
The installation, entitled Exurban Archipelago, is located in Pentimenti’s Project Room. Exurban Archipelago investigates the connections between the built environment and spatial experience. The project centers primarily on one of the signature building types of what are variously called distribution centers, logistics or even fulfillment centers—large complexes that proliferate across the region, often within view of the major expressways. Baris asserts that, above all, the Exurban Archipelago project “explores the rigorous geometries of these imposing architectural forms and how they perceptibly and imperceptibly affect our experiences of the “floating’ spaces of this post-industrial landscape.”
Steven Baris received his MFA from Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. He studied at the Evergreen State College in Olympia and at Instituto Allende, San Miguel de Allende in Mexico. Baris upcoming exhibitions will be at the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts, Wilmington, DE and the Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, PA. His past shows are at the Abington Art Center, Abington, PA; Jeffrey Coploff Fine Arts, New York, NY; Butters Gallery, Portland, OR; Stonepress Gallery, Seattle, WA; Brickhouse Art Gallery, Sacremento, CA; Carnegie Mellon University Art Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA and The Drawing Center, New York, NY. His artwork was reviewed in: Art in America; Philadelphia Inquirer; ICON; Weekly Press and more.
Kim Beck
BUILT FUTURES
Works on paper & Sculptures
Through drawing and sculpture, Beck explores the relationship between desire, stability, and economic security. Beck’s large-scale drawings allude to impossible and compelling construction sites made of lumber, ladders, and windows. These architectural drawings (graphite and charcoal on paper, with or without cutouts) suggest an underlying optimism in the infinite possibilities of a forever state of becoming. The show also includes sculptures, which highlight the thin line separating architecture and the banality of the everyday.
Kim Beck received her MFA in Painting and Printmaking from the Rhode Island School of Design. She studied at Yale University’s Summer School of Art in Norfolk, and earned a Watson Fellowship for independent study in Europe, Australia, and Japan. Beck has had solo exhibitions at The High Line, New York, NY; Under New Management, Toronto, Canada; Mixed Greens, New York, NY and The Urban Institute of Contemporary Art, Grand Rapids, MI. She has been included in group shows at PS 1 Contemporary Art, Long Island City, NY; The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA; The Drawing Center, New York, NY; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA; Carpenter Center for Visual Arts, Harvard University, Boston, MA and Yale University School of Architecture, New Haven, CT.
The exhibitions open on January 31. The artist reception is Friday, February 3 from 5 to 8:30 pm. Stations of the Cube & Built Futures close on Saturday, March 3, 2012.
GALLERY HOURS: Tuesday by appoint., Wednesday - Friday: 11 AM - 5 PM, Saturday: noon to 5 PM
Pentimenti Gallery presents contemporary art by emerging and mid-career artists in a variety of media. For more information, please contact the gallery at +1 (215) 625-9990, mail@pentimenti.com or visit www.pentimenti.com