Exhibits

Impossible Vacation

May 7 – June 4, 2011

Tommy Hartung
Thomas Helbig
Tony Matelli
Lin May
John McAllister
Scott Olson
Virginia Overton
Mitzi Pederson

Impossible Vacation attempts to assert the primacy of the artist, proposing a reduced curatorial role in mediating the interaction between art and its audience. Discarding any organizing construct and foregrounding discrete artworks, this exhibition urges each contribution's independent consideration, unencumbered by any edict or secondary scholarship. "Impossible Vacation" sees the gallery space as a simple machine for the transmission of art to the viewer, declining to contrive connections or contextualize the works on view beyond the terms defined by the artists themselves. In adopting this institutional distance, the artworks and the exhibition are freed from superfluous interpretation, cultivating fuller experiences of uncertainty and understanding without capitulating to expectations for articulated linearity, resolution, or codification.
 
Organized by Matthew Strauss
 
A free electronic catalogue for iPad is available for download here.

 

  • ImpVacay1
    • Installation view with works by (left to right) Thomas Helbig and Scott Olson
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  • ImpVacay3
    • Virginia Overton
      Untitled, 2011
      Poplar, 176 x 191 x 14 inches
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  • ImpVacay5
    • Installation view with works by (left to right) Mitzi Pedersen, Thomas Helbig, Tony Matelli
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  • ImpVacay2
    • Installation view with Tony Matelli (left to right)
      Jew Town, 2011 and Nina, 2011
      Enamel on mirror, 60 x 36 inches each
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  • ImpVacay4
    • Installation view with works by (left to right) Thomas Helbig, John McAllister, Lin May, Scott Olson
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  • ImpVacay8
    • Installation view with works by (left to right) John McAllister and Lin May
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  • ImpVacay7
    • Installation view with works by (left to right) Mitzi Pedersen, Thomas Helbig, John McCallister, Lin May, Scott Olson, Virginia Overton (foreground)
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  • ImpVacay6
    • Installation view of Virginia Overton
      Untitled, 2011
      Poplar, 176 x 191 x 14 inches
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  • Hartung
    • Tommy Hartung
      Still from The Ascent of Man, 2009
      Color video with sound, 15.36 minutes
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  • ImpVacay11
    • Lin May
      Slow Bird, 2011
      Steel, jute, coated and painted styrofoam mounted on board, 21.4 x 16.1 x 5.9 inches
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  • ImpVacay13
    • Scott Olson
      Untitled, 2010
      Oil on linen, 15 x 16 inches
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  • ImpVacay14
    • John McAllister
      Dusk Deserted Field Lights, 2010
      Oil on canvas, 19 x 16 inches
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  • ImpVacay12
    • Mitzi Pedersen
      Untitled, 2010
      Velvet, felt, and silver reflective paper, 22 x 13 inches
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  • ImpVacay9
    • Tony Matelli (left to right)
      Jew Town, 2011 and Nina, 2011
      Enamel on mirror, 60 x 36 inches each
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  • ImpVacay10
    • Thomas Helbig
      Liegende, 2008
      Wood, 9.45 x 12.99 x 22.83 inches
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  • ImpVacay15
    • Thomas Helbig
      Liegende, 2008
      Wood, 9.45 x 12.99 x 22.83 inches
      On MDF base, 45 x 83 x 12 inches
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  • ImpVacay16
    • Virginia Overton
      Untitled (Upended), 2011
      Digital print on vinyl, 154 x 154 inches
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