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Stranger Than Fiction

March 3, 2007- March 31, 2007

Reception: March 3, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Andy Cross, Johnston Foster, Jean Pierre Roy

Rare

521 W 26th St


In RARE’s group exhibition entitled Stranger Than Fiction, three artists employ graphic and highly keyed imagery to unlock, explore, and amplify the motivations behind human behavior and its penchant for both good and evil.

Andy Cross’ most recent series of paintings, called In the Hour of Cowdust, a title appropriated from an Indian miniature he saw while traveling, was executed while living for the past two months in Pune, India. There he drew his inspiration from imagery that ranged from ancient religious mythology to current Bollywood posters to create narratives of a non-linear world that express the circular nature of human tendencies and are infused with the diversity of India’s rich cultural history. To quote Cross, "I had always been exposed to a visual vocabulary based on a Judeo-Christian mythology, but going to India changed all of that. All of a sudden, there is no longer a hierarchy and separation between God, Humans, and Animals; in India they all merge into one." Each image exudes a heightened color sensibility and is powerfully iconic while at the same time retaining intimate details that reward the curious viewer.

Johnston Foster’s installation, What the Flock!? (2007), is a large-scale collection of 100 seagulls in mid-flight, hungrily hovering in the air searching for food. What at first sight seems merely unruly proves to be more sinister upon further investigation. The work is inspired by the myth that seagulls will explode when fed Alka-Seltzer. Among the airborne cloud of birds, several can be seen in various stages of dismemberment with limbs flying every which way and entrails dangling here and there. The birds can be seen as symbolizing the ignorant masses, greedily consuming without question or concern for consequences. Contrarily, one might consider who would make a conscious decision to kill innocent creatures in such a violent and inhumane manner. Whether myth or scientific reality, the possibility of this scenario is testament to and fueled by the darker side of human capability.

Jean-Pierre Roy’s tight and meticulously rendered The Feast of the Bullgod (2007) captures what the artist calls "The New Sublime," or the divine overlap between creation and destruction, the terror and awe of the drama between nature and man. It is a 21st century response to the calls put forth by the European Romantic landscape painters like Casper David Friedrich, and the Luminists and Hudson River School painters. Their "God in Nature" paintings were nationalist propaganda designed to move Americans westward into the glories and wonders of our Lord in the Landscape. At once an attempt to sort through his own aesthetic legacy from ‘70s and ‘80s pop and genre culture, Roy’s paintings also are a product of the Cold War’s response to a newfound stalemate with our environment. What the very forces that Bierdstadt, Cole, and Church once saw as divine gifts of bounty are now pushing back against us with their cold, compassionless vastness.

Books and DVDs related to artists in this show

Location map  Gallery Rare Address 521 W 26th St New York (Chelsea) NY, 10001 United States Phone 212-268-1520 Fax 212-268-1523 Hours Tue-Sat 12-6 Nearby: All 7 galleries at 521 W 26th St

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