Jeff Bailey Gallery is pleased to present Men and Materials, featuring works by Josh Blackwell, Chris Duncan, Todd Knopke and Michael Salter.
Combining everyday objects, vintage and new, coveted and discarded, craft and fine art materials, these four artists make work that embrace both utility and fantasy.
Josh Blackwell pins his gouache drawings to found vintage scarves, referencing and altering patterns, elevating the discarded (but well designed) clothing item into a new, modernist tableau. Utilizing the gallery’s patio space, Blackwell has installed embroidered plastic shopping bags that flap in the summer breeze.
Chris Duncan’s drawings and sculptures may combine tape, thread, house paint, putty, pencil, gouache and other materials. Ranging in color from hot pink to tan to black, and evoking nature, science and spirituality, each piece radiates energy.
Carpentry, vintage jewelry, denim and tulle are used by Todd Knopke to make sculpture and wall hangings. Used jeans are cut, rearranged and sewn together to make Blue Star, spreading in all directions. A hanging sculpture, Everything Is Beautiful Here, appears to be fretwork covered in glitter, and spells out this hopeful declaration.
Michael Salter’s Styrobots are made of Styrofoam packing materials. He transforms this ubiquitous byproduct of consumerism into playful, but menacing creatures: arms swinging, on the march and ready to roll.
Josh Blackwell has had solo shows with Galleria Alessandro de March, Milan, Kate MacGarry, London and Mary Goldman Gallery, Los Angeles. Chris Duncan has shown at Gregory Lind Gallery, San Francisco and will have solo shows this fall at Jeff Bailey Gallery, Nakaochiai Gallery, Tokyo and Motel Gallery, Portland. Todd Knopke has had solo shows at I-20 Gallery, New York. Michael Salter has had solo shows at Ambrosino Gallery, Miami, Lump Gallery, Raleigh and the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem and is scheduled for a solo show with Jeff Bailey Gallery in 2007.