Soda Pop: Effervescence and Abstraction
Charles Dunn, Nicole Poko, Brendan Smith, Jeremiah Teipen

Curated by Cindy Rucker and Brad Silk

October 20 – November 6, 2011

numberthirtyfive gallery is pleased to present Soda Pop: Effervescence and Abstraction, a group show curated by Cindy Rucker and Brad Silk. This selection of artists explore relationships in playful movements of color: self v. society, pop culture v. intellectualism, technology v. reality.

Coming from the suppressive Midwest, Charles Dunn (b. 1969, Ohio) creates forms that awkwardly interact, swoop and move, try to connect and fail, exist on one plane and then fall back into another. Dunn’s work exists outside the sleek over-polished commercial city; a colorful allegory for the graffiti that usurps the idyllic suburban landscape. Similarly, his monochrome 3-dimensional works mimic the restricted movement and rustic elements of his homeland. Within these carefully treated surfaces and limited color palate, there is a chthonic presence, a surge of something unearthly bubbling right beneath the surface. It could be the ghosts of abstraction past, or the frustration that exists in all of us unwilling or able to break out of what confines us.

Nicole Poko (b. 1982, New Jersey) creates work through process, material, and documentary. Her work begins with the preparation of her materials. She freezes her medium into various molds and then allows them to return to their normal state on water-resistant paper. The surfaces she chooses to capture these entropic compositions lend to its topographical presence, allowing the pigment to pool into a relief map of a landscape that doesn’t exist. Poko is systematic in the documentation of her performance drawings. She documents the fleeting nature of her sculptural events in filming, photos, and in the finished product. Video and photographs accompany the finished piece. By studying these as evidence, she reveals patterns and conclusions that progress her future experiments.

With tenderness, excitement, and tension, Brendan Smith (b. 1983, Connecticut) covers his canvas in lyrical strokes. Smith loads his surfaces both figuratively and literally. Inspired by the full-bodied seduction of Rococo, his paintings are ornate, florid and playful. Delicate colors and curving forms wrap deep shadows and twists, snaking around the canvas in conflict and cohesion. His energetic brush stroke collects and drips, creating hills and valleys, the crevice of movement builds vibrant hills. Colors fold over each other in alluring forms, like bodies wrapped in the moment of climax.

Reminiscent of scientific models, Jeremiah Teipen’s (b. 1975, Indiana) installations blink and pulse in a sci-fi amalgamation of nature and technology. From the farthest reaches of outer space to the deepest depths of the ocean to the smallest particles, artists are now exposed to a plethora of visual stimuli that along with virtual imaging technology has changed how artists view their environment. Jeremiah Teipen uses virtual imaging technology to creatively map the places where virtual spaces extend into physical space, his work overlaps technological and biological form. Projected video, fiber optics, clicks and beeps take root in the gallery like a giant virus strand or DNA sequence.