Jessica Silverman
Jessica Silverman
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SuperSet

SuperSet

Opening reception: Wednesday, April 18, 6-8pm
Curated by Jessica Silverman and Glen Helfand

 

“SuperSet” is a group exhibition that explores strength and fitness in all its guises – literal and figurative, physical and psychological, mental and bodily. To be fit is to be well, aligned, finely tuned—an ideal condition that is also tenuous and elusive. What is the nature of this quest? Is it a search for lucidity, endorphin highs, empowerment? Do we feel most alive when we push ourselves to the limit? And do we transform our inner selves when we sculpt a new exterior?

Photography figures prominently as a means of capturing the movement and exertion of the body. Eadweard Muybridge’s motion studies of a male weightlifter are in dialogue with Robert Mapplethorpe’s 1970s photographs of Lisa Lyon and Arnold Schwarzenegger. A moment of televised exercise in a 1962 photograph by Lee Friedlander suggests a gendered sense of exhaustion in the context of ominous armchair quietude.

Chris Finley’s glossy enamel paintings of power lifters’ faces capture the identity-shifting impact of extreme exertion. Paul Pfeiffer’s miniature video-sculpture, titled “Live Evil,” transforms Michael Jackson’s athletic dance moves into something strange and a little bit demonic. Standing with a skeleton on her shoulders, Marina Abramovic explores the edges of the flesh and death in a 2008 large-scale photograph. Mortality is also a theme in Eric Giradaut’s silicone sculptures, which are inspired by the sporting events of ancient Mayans, games that involved hard rubber balls and human sacrifice. Meanwhile Joshua Abelow paints androgynous witch-warlock figures who are, according to the artist, “running to keep up with the information overload that defines our culture in the twenty-first century.”

Lea Guldditte Hestelund’s combination of richly textured aluminum dumbbells against a background of vibrantly dyed fur has an oxymoronic pain-soothe quality that teases our senses and survival instincts. Libby Black’s sculpted boxing gloves explore weight – real and virtual – and the allures of consumer brands. By contrast, New York–based artist Summer Wheat squeezes her acrylic paint through mesh, a process that echoes the wringing out of the body being enacted by the stretching, contorted yogi she depicts.

Finally, Los Angeles-based Jennifer Locke’s six-channel video presents the artist enacting six sets of exercises, synched with post-production tools, creating a loop of activity that acts as an extended metaphor of endurance.

Click here, to download an essay by Glen Helfland.

Installation view
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Installation view
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Eric Giraudet
Movement studies, 2017
Silicon, pigments, steel
5 components, dimensions variable
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Joshua Abelow
Running Witch, 2014
Oil on linen
80 x 60 inches / 203.2 x 152.4 cm
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Joshua Abelow
Running Witch, 2014
Oil on linen
80 x 60 inches / 203.2 x 152.4 cm
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Summer Wheat
Shred N Tread, 2017
Acrylic on aluminum mesh, gold leaf, and resin
70 x 48 inches / 177.8 x 121.9 cm
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Detail
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Lee Friedlander
Atlanta, 1962 / printed later signed, titled & dated verso in pencil
Gelatin-silver print
Image: 12 1/4 x 18 1/4 inches / 31.1 x 46.4 cm
Sheet: 16 x 20 inches / 40.6 x 50.8 cm
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Paul Pfeiffer
Live Evil (Seoul), 2003-2017
Digital video loop, LCD monitor, DVD player, cast armature
Armature: 5 x 5 x 8 inches / 12.7 x 12.7 x 20.3 cm
Screen: 1.97 x 1.48 inches / 5 x 3.76 cm
Edition 3 of 6
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Eadweard Muybridge
Curling a 50-lb. dumbbell., 1887
Collotype
Image: 6 1/8 x 17 7/8 inches / 15.6 x 45.4 cm
Sheet: 19 x 24 inches / 48.3 x 61 cm
Plate 324
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Eadweard Muybridge
Lifting and letting down two 50-lb. dumbbells., 1887
Collotype
Image: 6 3/8 x 16 3/4 inches / 16.2 x 42.5 cm
Sheet: 19 x 24 inches / 48.3 x 61 cm
Plate 323
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Chris Finley
Lamp Trampoline 2, 2016
Watercolor on paper
21 1/4 x 29 1/8 inches / 54 x 74 cm
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Libby Black
Burberry Punching Bag, 2007
Paper, hot glue, and acrylic paint
9 x 9 x 15 inches / 22.9 x 22.9 x 38.1 cm
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Libby Black
Versace Water Bottle, 2007
Paper, hot glue, and acrylic paint
3 1/2 x 3 1/2 x 10 inches / 8.9 x 8.9 x 25.4 cm
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Libby Black
Chanel Barbell, 2018
Paper, hot glue, and acrylic paint
47 x 11 x 10 3/4 Inches / 119.4 x 27.9 x 27.3 cm
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Detail
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Libby Black
Gucci Boxing Gloves, 2007
Paper, hot glue, and acrylic paint
Each: 13 x 10 x 5 inches / 33 x 25.4 x 12.7 cm
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Robert Mapplethorpe
Arnold Schwarzenegger, 1976
Silver gelatin print
20 x 16 inches
#7/10
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Robert Mapplethorpe
Lisa Lyon, 1982
Silver gelatin print
20 x 16 Inches
#8/10
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Lea Guldditte Hestelund
Dumbbells (tools for survival), 2015
Aluminium and fur
19 3/4 x 13 3/8 x 5 1/2 inches / 50 x 34 x 14 cm
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Marina Abramovic
Standing with Skeleton, 2008/2016
Color chromogenic print
Paper: 80 x 71 inches / 203.2 x 180.3 cm
Framed: 81 1/4 x 72 1/4 inches / 206.4 x 183.5 cm
Edition 4 of 9 with 2APs
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Chris Finley
Drool, Snatch, Clean & Jerk #4, 2017
Sign enamel on canvas over panel
39 x 39 inches / 99.1 x 99.1 cm
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Chris Finley
Drool, Snatch #2, 2017
Sign enamel on canvas over panel
39 x 39 inches / 99.1 x 99.1 cm
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Jennifer Locke
Modulated Exercise Sequence, 2018
6-channel, 0:15 looping video installation
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