Mulherin + Pollard Projects is pleased to present two concurrent solo exhibitions for the month of December: STO, My Slow Called Life and Brian Novatny, picture fishing
Both exhibitions will run from December 1-31st. Please join us for a reception after we return from Miami on Thursday, December 8, from 6-9pm.
In My Slow Called Life, STO presents a tranquil, one room NY studio apartment scene as the backdrop for a variety of papier mache sculptures. Devoid of any people, we are left to ponder the objects on their own as we walk through the space. Leftover pizza on the table, old food in the fridge, a stack of books, some dirty socks, and a slop sink with paintbrushes as well as toothbrushes are just a few of the mundane objects recreated in chunky, lovable papier mache. There is a natural sense of whimsy in the limitations of the mache as a medium and it boldly reveals itself with rough textures and gobs of paint applied liberally. There is also a sense of comedy beneath the surface, as if the objects were laughing at their own meaninglessness and at us for needing them. These deadpan takes on quotidian objects question our common understanding of what is real and reveal the many ways that we are entangled with our possessions. By shining a spotlight on the everyday, these works evoke our own daily lives and slow us down long enough to take stock in what they really consist of.
Brian Novatny beautifully employs a sophisticated technique of light touch and seeming tentativeness to his engaging pictures. The vulnerable quality of the artists’ mark echoes the confused, preoccupied, or uncertain sense of the figures. In the same way that the people are disconnected from one another in their environs, they are frequently similarly disjointed themselves, as their bodies and heads may be alternately painted or drawn in contast to one another, or the scale of two people in the same space disproportionate. Yet, amid all this uncertainty, Novatny’s broken stories manage to engage and delight. Novatny’s drawings are colorful, intimate works that are disconcerting and oddly charming.
