Pierogi is pleased to present an exhibition of new work by Daniel Zeller. In his sixth exhibition at Pierogi, Zeller’s drawings continue to oscillate between micro and macro views of invented worlds and organisms. Using only graphite or ink and acrylic on paper, he explores incredible nuances of texture and structure that develop into powerful extensions of perceived reality.
 
The language of mark-making and imagery in his drawings to date has been entirely invented based on his interest in satellite images, topographical maps, electron micrographs, anatomical drawings, among others. Recently, Zeller has begun adding to this language elements referencing actual man-made structures and natural phenomena. In one work, “Vatican / al Haram,” his abstract marks surround and coalesce into the footprint of the Vatican complex with a river-like form leading to the mosque structure. In another, “Tar Sands Woodlands,” the organically shaped footprint of the oil sands mining operation in Alberta Canada, is juxtaposed to the rectilinear shape of the Woodlands Church Fellowship Campus, a mega-church in Texas. In each work an actual site is referenced but, as Zeller notes, fact and fiction merge to become something else, and of primary importance is invention through the drawing process.
 
All documents, images, and ideas grow increasingly fictitious with the passage of time and distance from their original context. Fiction, like most things, encompasses a scale ranging from wildly outrageous, to that which can seem indistinguishable from fact. We are inundated with information, virtually all of it containing an unknown ratio of fact and fiction. Each of these drawings incorporates features which have their origins in specific factual information, culled from a variety of sources, satellite imagery predominant among them. While the embedded information acts as something of a scaffold or a seed from which the work develops, the process of drawing remains central and is what ultimately determines the result. (Zeller, 2013)
 
Zeller’s process is direct — a fluid series of spontaneous choices governed by self-imposed rules and conditions. The main rule is to respect what has already been put on the page, not to cross or obscure lines already laid down. A tension between spontaneity and predictability is central to this process, allowing for its inevitable evolution.
 
“A spectacle can be created from the most modest means…. Daniel Zeller manages with just pen and ink, and sometimes just pencil. His drawings…are pulse-quickening, reason-defying wonders, testaments to the boundless potential of the human mind and hand.” He “…traces complexity itself, as a condition, a matter of connections, divergence, transitions and completions, the known and the imagined reconciled with extravagant finesse.” (Leah Ollman, The Los Angeles Times)
 
Zeller’s work has been included in numerous exhibitions and is part of the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art (NYC), the Whitney Museum of American Art (NYC), the Albright Knox Museum (NY), among others. He currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

vimeo.com/64899161

ROBERT GRENIER
“Language Objects: Letters in Space, 1970 - 2013”
May 18 - June 30, 2013
Reception for (& presentation by) the artist, Sunday, 19 May 4 - 6 PM
 
SOUTHFIRST is proud to present “Language Objects: Letters in Space, 1970 - 2013,” a retrospective exhibition tracking (via notebooks, holographic & published texts, archival materials and works on paper) the evolution from early typewriter-generated forms to more recent four-color drawing poems in the work of American poet Robert Grenier between 1970 - 2013. The show will be on view from May 18 – June 30, 2013.
 
On Sunday, May 19, 4 - 6 PM, Robert Grenier will introduce the ‘idea’ for the show, and speak to/read from & provisionally ‘interpret’ certain of the materials set forth in the room.
 
Over the past 40 years, poet/artist Robert Grenier (b. 1941) has constantly pushed poetry into new frontiers of practice and utterance. His handwritten poems, produced in the last two decades, cross the upper limit of inscription to be both writing and drawing. His works include Series (This Press, 1978), SENTENCES (Whale Cloth Press, 1978), Oakland (Tuumba Press, 1980), A Day at the Beach (Roof Books, 1984), Phantom Anthems (O Books, 1986), and OWL/ON/BOU/GH (Post-Apollo Press, 1997), as well as more recent online color drawing poem sequences like POND 1 and PENN SCANS. A graduate of Harvard College and the Iowa Writers‘ Workshop, Grenier has received two NEA fellowships for poetry writing and a 2013 grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. An archive of his work is housed in the Stanford Libraries’ Department of Special Collections. He lives in northern Vermont.
 
SOUTHFIRST, founded in 2000, is located at 60 N6th Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn between Wythe and Kent Avenues. Gallery hours are Fri., Sat. and Sun. from 1 - 6 PM and by appointment. Subway: L train to Bedford Avenue. For more information, please contact Maika Pollack at 718 599 4884 or info@southfirst.org.
 
SOUTHFIRST
60 N6th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11211
718 599 4884
www.southfirst.org

Studio10 is pleased to present The Devil Tricked Me, an exhibition of work by Matt Freedman. The exhibition is organized around the recent publication of Relatively Indolent but Relentless, a graphic journal Freedman wrote last Autumn.
In July 2012 Freedman learned that he had Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma, a rare and slow growing cancer. Treatment entailed thirty-five days of radiation and weekly doses of chemotherapy over seven weeks. Just before treatment, a friend gave Matt a blank notebook and suggested he should fill it up. Matt did complete the therapy and the notebook as well. He said, “It seemed like it would in the end give me the last laugh over my cancer treatment.” This exhibition serves to extend Freedman’s experience of his treatment, the subject of the journal, into the six months that have now passed between the end of treatment and this exhibition’s opening.
All thirteen works take as their subject bad luck. This idea is embodied in Freedman’s iconic constructions that portray folk admonitions. These signs seek to control bad luck by taking such precautions such as avoiding walking under ladders or opening umbrellas indoors. Another significant component of the show is the notion of disability. Freedman continues to feel side effects from his treatment as well as from the drugs he takes to quell those effects. Though functioning effectively, the fact that he should not drive because the narcotics would render him technically “under the influence” is for Freedman an objective marker of what he feels and knows to be true: He is not himself or at his best.
The idea of disability is communicated by hand written signs of explanation, which function as the conceptual framework for the exhibition. Freedman’s sign details the reasons for the restrictions he placed upon himself for the creation of the work: each work consists of totally “de-skilled” labor. He collected objects either from the street; broken umbrellas and cigarette stubs, or from his house and studio; A couch, a collection of pennies. He also allowed himself to use components from previous work repurposed for the show.
Matt Freedman is a sculptor, performer, writer and curator. He has exhibited with Valentine Gallery, Pierogi Gallery, vertexlist, Flipside, Fivemyles, The SculptureCenter and Long Island University. Venues of performances include PS 1 MOMA, The Brooklyn Museum, The Kitchen, Brooklyn Fireproof, Brooklyn Academy of Music at Fivemyles, Galapagos Performance Space. He teaches at the University of Pennsylvania and has taught at The University of Iowa, Parsons the New School for Design, The Pratt Institute, The Rhode Island School of Design. NEA Sculpture (1987, NYFA, Fiction (2000). Freedman has written for Art News, Review and Cabinet, among others. For more information and images, please contact Annelie McGavin at (718) 852-4396.