Paul Branca
Carl D'Alvia
Kristen Jensen
Tatiana Kronberg
Michael Stamm
Opening reception: Saturday, January 9th, 6-8pm
In a house we have things. Things that recline or unfurl, things to cook or clean, things to part, things to groom, things to plump, and to smooth. In a state of fevered dream, these things elicit appetites. This Condition brings together works that subvert the objects and actions of everyday home life, inflecting them with desire and arousal. Presenting paintings and sculptures that invoke the surreal, uncanny and anthropomorphic, these artists discover echoes of the body within the domestic quotidian. Taking inspiration from a Lydia Davis poem of the same title, the works in This Condition reveal the pathos, humor and aphrodisiacal nature of the stuff around us.
Paul Branca's works in oil on canvas take sausages and disembodied eyes as their primary subject. The evolution of the sausage, which originated when early humans began stuffing roasted intestines into animal stomachs, spanned millennia before taking the diverse forms we know today, where we can buy it for pennies on the ounce (the most modestly priced canned Vienna style) or break the bank (the artisanal, Williamsburg variety). While the quality of ingredients and means of production vary, the basic premise remains the same: they're all made by stuffing one part of a carcass into another. The sausage thus provides an apt metaphor for popular culture and contemporary art, both of which are characterized to the nth degree by mashup and reconstitution.
A perturbing mixture of tenderness and irony permeates Carl D'Alvia's work, in which a minimalist gesture and a narrative approach converge, producing unusual, yet seductive sculptures and drawings. The synthesis of appearing and hiding gives place to paradoxical works: abstract and animal bodies are veiled, so that their identities can only be guessed and their dark comedy begins.
Kristen Jensen is an artist living and working in New York City. She received her BFA in printmaking from Syracuse University and her MFA from Hunter College in Combined Media. Jensen's practice is multidisciplinary, often taking mundane and domestic objects and reinterpreting them in mediums as diverse as porcelain, paper, and sterling silver. The artist's desire for control and perfection is challenged by both the unpredictability of the mediums and the traces of the artist's hand. This tension is reflected in the flaws, cracks, and subtle finishes that transform everyday objects into things both pathetic and poetic. She has exhibited domestically and internationally at Wallspace, Nicelle Beauchene, Norte Maar, and Bortolami Gallery among others.
Originally from St. Petersburg, Russia, Tatiana Kronberg is a New York-based artist. Kronberg's large photograms have received a flurry of positive attention, particularly during her solo presentation at NADA NY in May 2015. In 2014 her 2-person show at Essex Flowers with Anne Eastman resulted in an Art Forum review among other notable mentions. In 2014 she published a limited edition zine with Bunk Club, a Belgium-based independent publisher. A limited edition artist's book was published on the occasion of her one-person show at Cuchifritos Gallery, New York, NY in 2013. Her work has recently been exhibited at Shanaynay in Paris, France and Adds Donna in Chicago, IL, among other venues. Kronberg has an upcoming solo show at Joan, Los Angeles, CA in February 2016. She received her MFA from the ICP-Bard Program in Advanced Photographic Studies.
Michael Stamm is a painter based out of Brooklyn. His work deals with quotidian desires, negative affects and what people do when they are feeling way existential. He has exhibited at the Lincoln Park Cultural Center of Chicago, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Leroy Neiman Gallery at Columbia University and attended residencies at the Vermont Studio Center and the Wassaic Project. Michael received his BA from Wesleyan University, a MA in English Literature from Columbia University and is currently a MFA 2016 candidate at NYU.
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