Jeff Bailey Gallery is pleased to present Seth Koen, Wayward, an exhibition of recent sculptures.
At first glance, Koen’s sculptures could be characterized as lines in space. Meticulously carved from single pieces of wood and seeming to float on the wall or floor, their apparent simplicity belies their hard won forms.
The exhibition title, Wayward, refers not only to a material that can be hard to control, but also to the unusual and precarious shapes of the sculptures themselves.
Whipsmart stands at ninety inches tall and juts upward from the floor toward the ceiling, almost meets it, curves back down, the tip dangling just above the starting point. The base is an inch thick, tapering to an end point of a quarter inch. The tip may vibrate with nearby movement.
While Whipsmart is the largest work in the exhibition, Oculus is the smallest (.5 x 11 x 8.5 inches). Suspended from the wall and coated in graphite, each end seems to reach toward the other. In this way, Koen’s works have an anthropomorphic quality: bending, grasping, stretching. Enlivened by implied movement, the works’ minimal stance yields ultimately to strength and clarity.
This is Seth Koen’s first solo exhibition with the gallery. His work was included in the group exhibition, Simplest Means, in 2014. Solo exhibitions include Gregory Lind Gallery, San Francisco (2010, 2005, 2003); a two-person at C2C Project Space, San Francisco; and numerous group exhibitions nationally and internationally. He received his MFA from Mills College, Oakland CA (2002) and is the recipient of the Jay DeFeo Prize, He lives and works in Easthampton, MA.
Jeff Bailey Gallery is located at 127 Warren Street, Hudson, NY, 12534. Gallery hours are Friday - Sunday, 12-6 and by appointment. For further information or images, please contact the gallery at info@baileygallery.com or 518.828.6680.