object'hood curated by Inna Babaeva and Gelah Penn (Galleries 1 & 2 )

object’hood
Curated by Inna Babaeva and Gelah Penn

Lesley Heller Workspace is delighted to present object’hood, an exhibition curated by artists Inna Babaeva and Gelah Penn, July 22 - August 21, 2015. Opening reception: Wednesday, July 22, 6 – 8 PM.

 

Front Gallery and Workspace:  In the past few years, there has been an exciting resurgence in sculpture. The reinvigoration of the medium has simmered quietly alongside a more public interest in painting. However, the current breadth, energy and sheer number of vibrant works being made in three dimensions call out for close examination.

For object’hood, Penn and Babaeva have selected artists who mine the depths of other disciplines in order to inform and enrich their work, resulting in a kind of revitalization through contamination. Referencing painting, installation, drawing, architecture, pattern and decoration, craft, design, video, photography and material culture, these artists have constructed pieces that are extraordinarily rich pictorially, thematically and materially. These “porous” objects reside in a complex locus of their own invention and speak to each other in strong, sonorous voices—lyrical, cacophonous, playful, anxiety-ridden—that command our attention.

Artists in the exhibition:
Rachel Beach, Katie Bell, Isidro Blasco, Nicole Cherubini, Martha Clippinger, Joy Curtis, Matthew Deleget, Peter Dudek, Kate Gilmore, Don Gummer, Mike Hein, Elana Herzog, Lisa Hoke, Christopher Joy, Harry E. Leigh, Elisa Lendvay, Doreen McCarthy, Sheila Pepe, Sarah Peters, Judy Pfaff, Don Porcaro, Elise Siegel, Kirk Stoller, Daniel Wiener, Letha Wilson

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Inna Babaeva is a visual artist born in Lvov, Ukraine. She received her MFA from Rutgers University. She was a 2014 Rema Hort Mann Foundation Grant nominee and is currently a resident at the Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program in Dumbo, Brooklyn. Her work has been exhibited at Anna Kustera Gallery, Brian Morris Gallery, Underdonk, Storefront Ten Eyck and Brooklyn Academy of Music (NYC). Babaeva’s work has been reviewed in ArtFCity, Sleek magazine and Artnews, and featured on “Gorky’s Granddaughter” and “Progress Report” video blogs. The artist lives and works in New York City.www.innababaeva.com

Gelah Penn’s work has been exhibited widely, including solo and group exhibitions at Lori Bookstein Fine Art, Foley Gallery, Smack Mellon, National Academy Museum, Sculpture Center, Jason McCoy Gallery, Lesley Heller Workspace (NYC); Carl Berg Projects (CA); Real Art Ways (CT); Clark University (MA); Brattleboro Museum (VT); Itami Museum (Japan); and Bibliotheque Municipale Louis Nucera (France).Her work is in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum, Cleveland Institute of Art (OH), Columbus Museum (GA) and Weatherspoon Art Museum (NC), and has been reviewed in numerous publications, including Art in America, The New York Times, The Brooklyn Rail and a feature in Sculpture Magazine. Penn has received fellowships from the Marie Walsh Sharpe Foundation, Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony. She is co-curating, with painter and writer Stephen Maine, the exhibition Diphthong at the Shirley Fiterman Art Center (NYC) in 2015.www.gelahpenn.com