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Esurient Eyes
9/14/2017- 10/15/2017


REGINA REX presents Esurient Eyes
Featuring work by

Kari Cholnoky, Jennifer Paige Cohen, Michael Mahalchick and Edward Salas.

Opening reception Thursday, September 14. 6-8pm

REGINA REX presents Esurient Eyes an exhibition of works by Kari Cholnoky, Jennifer Paige Cohen, Michael Mahalchick and Edward Salas. Traces of synthetic bodies or real flesh slither throughout the works in Esurient Eyes, creating an environment that evokes a craft-punk curiosity shop filled with fluorescent alien objects made from conventional, accessible materials. Visceral surfaces and handmade forms lure the eye into these seductive works, rejecting the polish of the screen in favor of the touch of a finger.

From Cholnoky’s bombastic reliefs in the vein of wildly embellished modular synthesizer components and Mahalchick’s latex-encrusted posters and found-object talismanic “sphinx” sculpture to Cohen’s cast torso’s and body parts enmeshed with patterned clothing and Salas’s jubilantly unhinged, oozing figures made from baked polymer clay—each artist manipulates common materials into maximalist assemblages anchored by the thick residue from the plastics and fibers of life unbridled.

Kari Cholnoky lives and works in Brooklyn New York. She is M.F.A graduate of Dartmouth College. Recent shows include Safe Gallery, Won Eh, Big Medium. She was recipient of The Fountainhead Residency, Miami, FL, 2017. In 2014 she was awarded the Mercedes-Benz Financial Services and Emerging Artist Award and was scholarship winner, Detroit Artist Market.

Jennifer Paige Cohen is a sculptor from Brooklyn, New York. Her works have been exhibited in public and private venues including Nicelle Beauchene, New York; White Columns, New York; Salon 94, New York; Circus, Berlin; The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY; Kate MacGarry, London; Rachel Uffner Gallery, New York; AMP, Athens; Denison University Museum, Ohio; and Creative Time, New York, among others. She is a recipient of a 2017 Pollock Krasner Foundation grant and recent fellowships include The MacDowell Colony, The Corporation of Yaddo, The Marie Walsh Sharpe/Walentas Space Program, and The Chinati Foundation. She has an MFA from Yale University and is represented by Nicelle Beauchene Gallery.

Michael Mahalchick lives and works in New York. He is represented by CANADA, New York and recently performed at the Kitchen, New York and exhibited in group at David Zwirner, New York, Kate MacGarry in London and the In Practice Program at the Sculpture Center in Long Island City. in 2010 he was recipient of the New York Dance and Performance Bessie Award for PURO DESEO. He has work in permanent public collections of Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, Alabama, and New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, Connecticut Awards. He received his MFA from the California Institute of Arts.

Edward Salas is NYC based artist exploring the intersections of constructed culture and authenticity. His work uses the language of religious iconography and Latin-American folklore, taking the medium of relief sculpture to create hybrid idols. In his colorful clay sculptures, he poses non-traditional narratives that complicate and reimagine tropes while questioning the idea of an authentic cultural object. Salas received a BFA from SUNY New Paltz in 2013. He has shown in various group shows in New York and was in residence at the Jamaica Arts and Learning Center in 2016. He is a currently recipient of the 2017-18 More Art Fellowship.





Kari Cholnoky
Manual, 2017
Faux fur, acrylic, collage and resin
27 x 48 x 5 inches



Michael Mahalchick
Felix Gonzalez-Torres, 2017
Mixed media
38 x 45 inches


Edward Salas,
Balance-Caliente, 2017.
Polymer Clay
13 x 9 inches



Jennifer Paige Cohen
Arm and Sculpted Interior, 2016
Shirt, plaster, lime plaster,
9.5 x 10.5 x 7.5 inches