Electric Caresses curated by Diana Buckley

ELECTRIC CARESSES Curated by Diana Buckley
October 1 — 23, 2016

Joe Ballweg / Paul DeMuro

Margaux Ogden / Erika Ranee
Hosted by Deborah Brown, 324 Ten Eyck St, Brooklyn, NY 11206

Brooklyn, New York—Electric Caresses is a group exhibition featuring works by Joe Ballweg, Paul DeMuro, Margaux Ogden and Erika Ranee. In conjunction with Bushwick Open Studios from Oct. 1-2, 2016, and three weekends to follow, this exhibit explores highly nuanced electrifying imagery through large format paintings by artists that evoke an ability to speak to the present through electrifying metaphors. A contained and perhaps non-electric image can be obvious—(like an old still life found in a second hand store), and it can be subtle—(like a dusty portrait of a child painted in a flat mat hue). Yet the art of our time, as viewed in this exhibit, yields to re-contextualizing and re-framing our pragmatic use of things and the way we enliven them.

Joe Ballweg’s intellectual arsenal contains more scintillating image-data than an average person holds. His inquisitive and quirky formation is precisely painted and positioned around spackled multi color hues that he hand-mixes prior. These flamboyant colors allude to a digital 1980’s Gen X era, flowing elegantly amidst a masculine composition—this is a common trait found in Ballweg’s works. He produces, also, such images through developing sketches of the composition in his sketchbook, which shows an organized progression of one idea. By drawing varying stages of ideas, the method helps to avoid the risk of losing the concept entirely as it is transferred onto a significantly larger surface.

Paul DeMuro is inspired by a plethora of artists, from Judy Chicago to Georges Seurat. His massive 91 x 112 inch painting fixates the viewer through repetition of hand held mirrors. The encompassing diamond shaped vortex painted on the outer layer alludes to a pulsation, perhaps a base-heavy beat heard in trip-hop. Both Ballweg and DeMuro’s paintings alternate between an electrifying-metaphor that shares commonalities with their counterparts, Ogden and Ranee in this exhibit.

Margaux Ogden paints and writes directly on unprimed canvas reflecting an immediate and vulnerable intimacy.  Her text is drawn from everyday life referencing relationships, confessions, literature, jokes, numerical equations, observations and occasional nonsense. The resulting tone is reflected, or negated, by her sensuous color palette.

Erika Ranee is an urban archivist. She builds paintings layered with visual freestyle in the form of Energy-Tags. She collects discarded memorabilia – like magazine images of hip hop moguls, old hole-ridden sleep shirts, and snippets of conversations from eavesdropping ventures on the street, the bus, car or train. These urban artifacts are subsequently added to the mix and embedded in a metallic, viscous preserve of paint and shellac. Her painting is an exercise in pushing paint around to articulate a contemporary time capsule on canvas.

Diana Buckley is an independent curator based in Williamsburg, NY, working primarily with contemporary artists throughout the five boroughs. She earned her BFA with an emphasis in Art History Theory and Criticism from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and an MA in Art Administration from the University of New Orleans. She is the Director of Advancement for ProjectArt.org, a nation-wide social impact organization working to provide free access to arts education and studio space for emerging artists. Her curated group exhibitions include, I am What I am Not Yet, A Survey of Brooklyn's Moment, Madelyn Jordon Fine Art, 2015; The Space Between, Paul Kolker Collection, 2014; Schiller and Dream within a Dream New Century Artists, 2014; Shrink It Pink It, 80 Artists, Cathouse FUNeral Gallery, 2014; Persona, Colleen Asper and Amy Beecher, 7 Dunham, 2013; and It's Really Normaling, Brian Belott and Eric Hibit, The Greenwich House, 2013, among others.

Storefront Ten Eyck, the location of this exhibition, is located at 324 Ten Eyck St. in the heart of the Bushwick art community and is a former contemporary art gallery started by artist Deborah Brown to show the work of emerging Bushwick artists and to revisit the work of established artists. Since 2016, the gallery is transitioning wholly to Deborah Brown’s artist studio, and designated for select shows. Deborah Brown is a Bushwick artist, curator, arts activist and board member of NURTUREart, BRIC Artist Advisory Council and Community Board #4 in Bushwick.