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Eco-Footprint: Contemporary artists address the current global environmental crisis

October 11, 2007- November 10, 2007

Reception: October 11, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Kim Abeles, James Gillispie, Joseph Phillips, Barbara Roux

Brenda Taylor Gallery

511 W 25th St

Since the beginning, human beings have been a species of endless adaptation. Our footprints have reached every corner of the globe and we have been able to thrive in even the harshest of climates. We have shaped and transformed our surrounding environment; harvesting its resources to suit our needs and desires. Consequently, we are slowly waking up to the reality that our great success in exploiting the planet will have to be drastically altered if we are to maintain the delicate balance we have with our ecosystem. The four artists in the exhibit Eco-Footprint use their work as a platform to open a dialogue with the viewer on a variety of environmental issues.

Kim Abeles is an artist who crosses disciplines and media to explore and map the urban environment and chronicle broad social issues. Data gathering, library research and experimentation with unconventional materials are her primary method of investigation. Since 1985, the artist has created many works concerning our natural environment with an emphasis on air pollution. In her series, the Smog Collectors, Abeles comments on the terrifying effects of the polluted air we breathe. The artist places stencil images on transparent or opaque materials and then allows them to be exposed to the particulate matter from the heavy air that falls upon them from the roof of her Los Angeles studio. When the stencil is removed, the smog that has collected forms the body of the image.

As a young man growing up in Houston, Texas, painter, James Gillispie developed an appreciation of nature and science from his step father, a geologist. Exposure to places like Big Bend National Park would have a profound effect in his work as an artist. While enrolled in MFA studies at Yale University, Gillispie was awarded the Gloucester Landscape Prize which allowed him to take up a painting residency in the near by historic Whale’s Jaw area; famous for the scenes that Milton Avery and Marsden Hartley completed there. The series of works Gillispie subsequently produced focus on a deserted cabin he used as a studio and the natural detritus of flora and rocks he would use as his subjects. In the diptych, Silence/Violence the viewer is exposed to the inside of Gillispie’s cabin and the contrasting order of a delicately stacked pile of rocks and the wildly haphazard bundle of jutting twigs and branches. Through a window, we see the relatively ordered trunks of the forest trees. This juxtaposition of interior/exterior, order/chaos, and of course, nature/humanity serve to show the viewer the dissociation the modern world often has with its natural surroundings.

The delicate gouache works on paper in Joseph Phillips’ current body of work are subtly satirical explorations of the artificial quality of utopian life. The works in this series depict pre-fabricated land units that could theoretically be dropped into their place in affluent suburban sprawl .They parody the privatization of previously public lands and riff off of commodified and formulaic communities which cater to the Uber- wealthy seeking refuge from their surroundings. Cross sections of glaciers, beaches, mountains, and fun parks are pre-packaged for the convenience of the buyer, but where the property line ends, so do all he elements.

Installation artist and photographer, Barbara Roux produces works that document the shrinking natural environment around her home town of Lloyd Harbor, Long Island. Her work is greatly influenced by her work in various conservation projects both in the United States and abroad. In the work, Fly Island Ecology, the hand of the photographer holds a piece of mirrored glass that has been cut into the distinct shape of a house. Reflecting back to the viewer is a dense, tree-filled forest. The message is clear enough – this natural environment will soon be encroached upon to build suburban settlements. Where there were once nature trails and habitats for a variety of animal species, will soon become cul-de-sacs and luxury housing developments.

Art Reviews of Eco-Footprint: Contemporary artists address the current global environmental crisis

Audubon Magazine November 1, 2007

Shawn Query

"...A person’s “ecological footprint” is his or her demand on nature for food, shelter, and consumer needs. In other words, it’s a measure of the balance between human consumption and the earth’s ability to supply the needed resources. The Eco-Footprint exhibit seeks not to make a political statement, says curator Lucas Natali, but to explore the concepts of the ecological footprint and human separation from the natural environment...."

Books and DVDs related to artists in this show

Location   Gallery Brenda Taylor Gallery Address 511 W 25th St, #401 New York (Chelsea) NY, 10001 United States Phone 212-463-7166 Hours Tue-Fri 10-6, Sat 10-5 Nearby: All 26 galleries at 511 W 25th St

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