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Email PageForms of Opulence
November 15, 2007- December 12, 2007
Reception: November 15, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Suzi Matthews, Reinaldo Sanguino, Melissa Stern
Allen Gallery
547 W 27th StThe Allen Gallery is pleased to present: Forms of Opulence, an exhibition curated by Michel Allen and independent curator Heather Christensen. Opening Thursday, November 15 from 6 to 8pm. November 15, 2007 - December 12, 2007.
Forms of Opulence addresses the diversity of opulence and questions how sumptuousness and excess manifest in our consumer culture through the work of the artists, Suzi Matthews, Reinaldo Sanguino, and Melissa Stern.
Opulence has become a fiction in our culture as it is no longer the object itself that represents wealth or sophistication; but rather the designer label or brand which conveys status. The show touches upon a larger theme that standards of value are shifting, and consuming trends are changing, so the tradition of power, wealth and status are designated by a new set of rules.
Reinaldo Sanguino's sculpture directly addresses the notion that anyone can be "queen for a day" if they have the means. He utilizes recognizable luxury brand packaging as the foundation for a cartoonishly perfect ceramic crown and focuses on the truth that if you have the money to buy the brands, you will achieve a specific type of power and image.
Suzi Matthews' large numeric collages address obsession as a methodology. Curiously hypnotic currents of numbers shape each one of her works. She refers to these rhythms as "sound patterns out of context". They are perhaps more akin to the constantly pulsing soundtrack of our mass consumerism or the stock ticker at the bottom of our television screens. By creating a canvas brimming with numbers to the very edges, she inquires whether there is any space to be, and to think?
Melissa Stern's work tackles the question of excess in our society. Using images culled from Life magazine editions from the 40's, she demonstrates the rejection of opulence by the individual in a search for inner quietude. She explains that "Each work is a fragment of a story rather than its full text. I never "write" the endings; each viewer completes the script, bringing their own history, memories and feelings to finish the piece."
Books and DVDs related to artists in this show
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Allen Gallery was last updated: 2008-10-07
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