Opening Reception: Friday, May 13, 2016, 7-10pm
Spinello Projects is pleased to present Cathedrals of Consumption, a curated group exhibition opening during Maison&Objet Americas international design fair. Exhibition will include works by Gabriele Beveridge, Andy Coolquitt, Kalup Linzy, Ad Minoliti, Bert Rodriguez, Amanda Ross-Ho, and Mika Rottenberg.
Cathedrals of Consumption transforms Spinello Projects’ main exhibition space into a quasi-home design showroom. The exhibition presents playful, yet considered works that use or transform found domestic articles into useless, occasionally absurdist, and sharply ironic permutations. These objects test and probe ideas of mass production, industrial design, consumerism and domestic ideology, straddling the border between applied design and contemporary art, but with a sense of self-awareness.
By recreating the spatial arrangements of a modern home, the exhibition identifies the cultural economics of domesticity, but further highlights the constructed idea of the home according to corporate and capitalist design paradigms. Cathedrals of Consumption, a term coined by sociologist George Ritzer, are places (the home, the mall, cyberspace) that enchant and entice us to stay longer and consume further. While recreating forms of display, Cathedrals of Consumption addresses the commodification and branding of the artist, alongside prescribed aesthetics of exhibition design funneled into mainstream methods of visual merchandising.
Artists
Gabriele Beveridge, Andy Coolquitt, Kalup Linzy, Ad Minoliti, Bert Rodriguez, Amanda Ross-Ho, and Mika Rottenberg
Cathedrals of Consumption is curated by Guillermo Leon Gomez. Exhibition will run through July 30, 2016.
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PROJECT ROOM 1:
Clara Varas – New Works
Common household items, which once contributed to our well being in some physical or emotional way, now find themselves as key players in compositions that expose the underbelly of painting. Staples, hardware, stretcher bars, even refuse, are as much a part of Varas’ work as paint itself. The work, neither painting nor sculpture, but both at once, invades the viewers’ space and demands their attention. Placements of bed sheets, crocheted tablecloth, and remnants of clothing stuffed or draped over stretcher bars are precise, but still include a sense of whimsical playfulness and a humorous sense of material mischief.
Exhibition runs through June 18, 2016.
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PROJECT ROOM 2:
Nicole Doran – Prick
Perched up like young birds, begging for mother’s breadth, Nicole Doran’s constructed phallus planters undoubtedly celebrate springtime. Their bases, sturdy, full, and firm, are containment vessels for self-assurance. Bulbous cacti, succulents, and airplants find homes in ceramic, biomorphic designs. Burrito Dick, Rocketship Dick, Cheese Dick, Snake Dick are Doran’s caricatures of the phallus. As we get lost in constructed, day to day personalities in a constant sea of competitors, these appropriated images remind us of the dangers of a post-modern ego. Doran’s towering impudent figurines solicit attention but when drawn closely always prick. Their utilitarianism is recognizable: an erect handle, two holders; they can easily become staples for the modern home. These pieces are a distinguishable visual contrast to her Bathroom Paintings which are hung upon the walls. Heavenly soft, these works draw reference from highly designed geometric patterns of contemporary linens. Graphic design and pattern design seep into today’s abstraction, as some would critique, but how can commercial business not source from today’s painters? This almost makes it difficult to determine what came first: the chicken or the egg. In a sense, neither matter as both are eventually commodified.
Exhibition runs through June 18, 2016.
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