February 3, 2014 – April 13, 2014
DISPLAY: MARKETING AS ART features works that illustrate, engage, and challenge the visual language of commercialism. It is both about the seductive nature of effective product display and a critique concerning last year’s record-breaking auction prices. A $142 million price tag for a work of art blatantly marginalizes the significance of the artist’s original intent. DISPLAY challenges the viewer to inspect the blurring of lines that separate art and commodity. This initial idea was developed from the overwhelming sensory experiences one has upon entering high-end stores such as Barneys, Bergdorf Goodman, or Madison Avenue’s elite boutiques.
The work of the five artists presented here echoes and appropriates the visual language and materials associated with fashionable product display to different ends. The artists fabricate their creative commentaries utilizing chrome fixtures and shelving, reflective materials and mirrors, various types of display panels, and colorfully packaged objects. Their works follow the rich tradition of removing an object or material from its normal context and putting it into an art specific context. The recontextualisation of everyday objects became a hallmark of the 20th century beginning with Picasso’s and Braque’s Synthetic Cubism, followed by Duchamp’s experimentations with “ready-mades.” Since then, the trend to employ found objects and embed them with new meaning has gone through numerous cycles. The seven installations presented here are part of that continuum, referencing art history while adding new perspectives.
Each of these sculptures employs images never meant to stand on their own, but rather to expand the iconography created by the artists to be incorporated into their more encompassing art content. Where Herman Miller’s iconic cubicles are transformed into un-enterable minimalist cubes, every work likewise includes and incorporates materialistic objects such as Noguchi lamps and modernist furniture.
This exhibition has been made possible through the generous support of Walbridge Capital and Kristi Ann Matus.
Featured Artists
Martin Basher
Gabriele Beveridge
Dike Blair
Josephine Meckseper
Mika Tajima
