Contemporary Art Daily

Artists: Jacob Kassay, Amir Mogharabi, Sam Parker

Venue: Front Desk Apparatus, New York

Exhibition Title: Jasmine

Curator: Amy Granat

Date: October 4 – November 21, 2009

Full gallery of images and press release available after the jump.

Images:

Images courtesy Front Desk Apparatus, New York

Press Release:

“These are (J) (A) (S) men. Jacob, Amir and Sam. Though all a generation younger, I believe their work to be wise and ageless. They continue a tradition of sculpture, painting and filmmaking that keeps me hopeful and inspired… makes the future smell sweet – like a fresh bouquet of flowers. I hope you enjoy the show.” – Amy Granat, 2009

Filmmaker Amy Granat (b. 1976) curates her first exhibition in New York. Situated in the context of Front Desk Apparatus, artists are producers while works are actors; responding to, reflecting, or negating the stage within they are set.

Questioning the working methods of formal abstraction, Jacob Kassay (b. 1984) proposes alternative solutions to arriving at a painting. Priming the surface of the canvas with acrylic, followed by an electroplating process that paradoxically eradicates and sentimentalizes the gesture – Kassay’s paintings are an echoed reflection of the context in which they find themselves. The monochrome surface simulates movement and enthusiastically responds to changes in light. The viewer’s presence renders Kassay’s paintings awake, where an element performativity enters and is in constant flux.

Amir Mogharabi (b. 1982) refutes exactitude in explanation. With an acute background in philosophy, a myriad of references hint at a disdain for indexicality and fixed definition. A gentle invitation into an open-ended discourse is brought by what appears to be analogous elements that rarely lands at an answer, but raises further question as to why. Works are composed, arranged and performed into physicality.

Sam Parker (b. 1988) collapses notions of material and time by challenging perceptions of the past and present. Oscillating between video and film, the physical surface of “Proud Mary” presents a history that is further complicated by period costumes and timeless uniforms. Through the sensitivity of film, and its strong sense of materiality, Parker suggests the importance, integrity, and ephemerality of emotion from the “performers”, depicted.