Chris Cosnowski
“American Metal”
March 1 – 31, 2012
Artists’ Reception:
Thursday, March 1, 2012 (6-8pm)
Lyons Wier Gallery
542 West 24th St., New York, NY 10011
Gallery Hours: Tues - Sat, 11-6pm
Nearest subway: C,E @ 23rd St & 8th Ave
Trophies have played a critical role throughout history. Beneficiaries of these awards take pleasure in receiving them, not because the trophy has monetary value, but because it symbolizes success. Those that win them cherish the satisfaction and legacy that is associated with it, and revel within the symbolism of the prize itself, victory. Trophies are, and will continue to remain, a visible goal to which any competitor is geared, and harbor the unspoken sacrifices that victory so often demands.
In American Metal, artist Chris Cosnowski utilizes and exploits the intrinsic value and symbolism of these treasured keepsakes. His paintings envision a nostalgic no-holds-barred America. The works allude to the idealism of American values, yet somehow the narratives speak volumes about shifting ideals via the represented objects. What appears to be solid and significant is trumped by the discovery that the metal is an illusion. These beloved objects aren’t gold but merely spray plated plastic with no real weight - an apt metaphor for a country in economic turmoil due to its gratuitous and gluttonous pursuit of all that glitters.
Cosnowski's figurines exemplify different aspects of American society: the rodeo trophies illustrate our romanticized past and the wild west in all its rugged testosterone-soaked glory; the cheerleaders embody an obsession with sports, beauty and social standing; the motocross continues the sports metaphor and also typifies America’s love for speed, daredevils and gasoline; the bodybuilder pokes fun at the prevailing image of the country as mighty and heroic and evaluates its preoccupation with and perception of physical beauty; and the policeman, whereby the artist states, “I used this imagery to represent the need for excessive security just to live ‘freely’ today.” The artist goes on to say, “America is ostensibly a meritocracy, and I think we can all agree that hard work, talent, creativity and integrity should be rewarded. American exceptionalism, however, seems to have been largely replaced with greed and a craving for celebrity. American metal (mettle) used to mean something solid.”
Chris Cosnowski received his MFA in Painting from Northwestern University and his BFA from Columbus College of Art and Design in Columbus, OH. His work has been exhibited in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and London and has appeared in publications such as New American Paintings (Midwest Edition), American Art Collector and Chicago Magazine. Cosnowski currently lives and works in Chicago and has been represented by Lyons Wier Gallery since 2001.
For more information and images, please contact:
Lyons Wier Gallery
542 West 24th Street, New York, NY 10011
Tel: (212) 242 6220, Email: gallery@lyonswiergallery.com
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Thursday, January 19, 2012
"Resourced: The Influence of Photography in Contemporary Art" Group Exhbition
Exhibition Dates: February 2 – 25, 2012
Artists’ Reception: Thursday February 2nd (6-8pm)
Lyons Wier Gallery
542 West 24th St., New York, NY 10011
Gallery Hours: Tues - Sat, 11-6pm
Nearest subway: C,E @ 23rd St & 8th Ave
Lyons Wier Gallery is pleased to present Resourced, an exhibition of eight contemporary artists who use photography to create and sometimes inspire their art making. Each artist appropriates certain aspects and assets afforded by the camera, creating work that is referential but independent in spirit. The featured artists are: Ryan Bradley, Mary Henderson, David Lyle, Tim Okamura, Fahamu Pecou, James Rieck, Aristides Ruiz, and Cayce Zavaglia.
Although the advent of the Daguerreotype utilized and revolutionized the principles of the camera obscura by capturing images in the early nineteenth century, the use of the camera obscura as a preparatory tool for artists dates as far back as the Renaissance when in 1490, Leonardo da Vinci wrote the first detailed description of the camera obscura in his “Atlantic Codex.”
Resourced presents a contemporary look at the influences and inspiration borne from the platforms of photography, ranging from found vernacular photography to self-portraiture. Collectively, the exhibition reveals the inexhaustible possibilities of how an artist can appropriate and re-contextualize a photographic image into a distinct conceptual perspective through various other media.
The artists’ methodology of capturing a moment or finding inspiration is as subjective as their aesthetic point of view. Some artists choose to take a traditional approach by staging studio shoots that generate self-produced photographs open for creative transformation. This can be seen in Ryan Bradley’s digitally manipulated shots of muse Adi Neumann that result in ornate hand drawn deconstructions of the female figure, Fahamu Pecou’s painted self-portrait that evolves into a parody of contemporary media, Cayce Zavaglia’s intimate and striking portrait of her daughter, Abbi, that becomes a painstaking hand stitched embroidery on canvas, and Tim Okamura’s expressive and provocative oil portrait of friends that he intuitively situates within urban environments of New York and its surrounding boroughs.
Others artists seize captured moments from the past and present for re-contextualization, thereby transforming the original source material via personal and societal prisms into another place and time. David Lyle’s use of found vernacular prints and vintage photographs are cleverly reimaged and redefined within our contemporary zeitgeist, executed in his limited use of only black paint. Mary Henderson’s oil paintings source images from photo-sharing websites that she alters compositionally into an intentional public image executed in paramount technical detail. Aristides Ruiz’s hyperrealist ballpoint drawings metamorphose extracted shots of animated New York streets into baffling renderings of urban life. And finally, James Rieck’s appropriation of commercial advertising into deliberately cropped photo-realist paintings truncates contemporary culture to its essence.
As Lyons Wier Gallery specializes in “conceptual realism”, the common ground shared in Resourced is the realist platform that photography allows and the conceptual leap the artist affords.
For more information and images, please contact:
Lyons Wier Gallery
542 West 24th Street, New York, NY 10011
Tel: + 1 212 242 6220 / gallery@lyonswiergallery.com
www.lyonswiergallery.com
Artists’ Reception: Thursday February 2nd (6-8pm)
Lyons Wier Gallery
542 West 24th St., New York, NY 10011
Gallery Hours: Tues - Sat, 11-6pm
Nearest subway: C,E @ 23rd St & 8th Ave
Lyons Wier Gallery is pleased to present Resourced, an exhibition of eight contemporary artists who use photography to create and sometimes inspire their art making. Each artist appropriates certain aspects and assets afforded by the camera, creating work that is referential but independent in spirit. The featured artists are: Ryan Bradley, Mary Henderson, David Lyle, Tim Okamura, Fahamu Pecou, James Rieck, Aristides Ruiz, and Cayce Zavaglia.
Although the advent of the Daguerreotype utilized and revolutionized the principles of the camera obscura by capturing images in the early nineteenth century, the use of the camera obscura as a preparatory tool for artists dates as far back as the Renaissance when in 1490, Leonardo da Vinci wrote the first detailed description of the camera obscura in his “Atlantic Codex.”
Resourced presents a contemporary look at the influences and inspiration borne from the platforms of photography, ranging from found vernacular photography to self-portraiture. Collectively, the exhibition reveals the inexhaustible possibilities of how an artist can appropriate and re-contextualize a photographic image into a distinct conceptual perspective through various other media.
The artists’ methodology of capturing a moment or finding inspiration is as subjective as their aesthetic point of view. Some artists choose to take a traditional approach by staging studio shoots that generate self-produced photographs open for creative transformation. This can be seen in Ryan Bradley’s digitally manipulated shots of muse Adi Neumann that result in ornate hand drawn deconstructions of the female figure, Fahamu Pecou’s painted self-portrait that evolves into a parody of contemporary media, Cayce Zavaglia’s intimate and striking portrait of her daughter, Abbi, that becomes a painstaking hand stitched embroidery on canvas, and Tim Okamura’s expressive and provocative oil portrait of friends that he intuitively situates within urban environments of New York and its surrounding boroughs.
Others artists seize captured moments from the past and present for re-contextualization, thereby transforming the original source material via personal and societal prisms into another place and time. David Lyle’s use of found vernacular prints and vintage photographs are cleverly reimaged and redefined within our contemporary zeitgeist, executed in his limited use of only black paint. Mary Henderson’s oil paintings source images from photo-sharing websites that she alters compositionally into an intentional public image executed in paramount technical detail. Aristides Ruiz’s hyperrealist ballpoint drawings metamorphose extracted shots of animated New York streets into baffling renderings of urban life. And finally, James Rieck’s appropriation of commercial advertising into deliberately cropped photo-realist paintings truncates contemporary culture to its essence.
As Lyons Wier Gallery specializes in “conceptual realism”, the common ground shared in Resourced is the realist platform that photography allows and the conceptual leap the artist affords.
For more information and images, please contact:
Lyons Wier Gallery
542 West 24th Street, New York, NY 10011
Tel: + 1 212 242 6220 / gallery@lyonswiergallery.com
www.lyonswiergallery.com
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