Marinaro is pleased to present the group exhibition, The Case Against Reality. The works in the show explore the use of framing and cropping to direct a viewers’ perception of the image at which they are looking.
Ridley Howard and Josephine Halvorson zoom in to their subject so that the works take on abstract elements within the figurative image. Howard’s divided canvases present two separate images that reflect and influence each other. The rise and fall of mountains become a woman’s figure and curves and the abstracted background of the portraits avoid defining any time or space. Halvorson’s woodstoves elicit references to Cezanne’s painted mountains—the grays, blacks and reds of the smoldering ash read as pattern and shape in the cropped composition. Metals of the stove create bands of color that frame the work, as the painting oscillates from references to early and mid-century impressionism and abstraction to a contemporary form of figuration.
Chris Duncan’s shadowy windows portray ghostly panes. The fabric seems to bunch and flow over the stretcher bars. Upon closer examination, the flat surface is revealed, a sun bleached fabric that has been laid out over different objects for long periods of time. Eleanor Ray’s subject matter often focuses on the use of windows to highlight elements in an exterior or interior scene. The edges of the window become frames for new compositions and present viewers with a picture within a picture. The small scale at which Ray works forces a viewer to approach the painting in close proximity, which creates an innate intimacy between painting and viewer.
Milano Chow’s work depicts architectural elements that often have elaborate decorative elements. Chow uses tromp l’oeil to push and pull elements from the paper on which they are drawn. Details of the work that appear to be textural collage are actually meticulously rendered imagery while other elements are actual cutouts that are adhered to the surface of the work.
Presented together, the works highlight the constructed imagery of each of the artist’s pieces. Each work uses geometric borders to influence the reading of piece and beckons the viewer to attach their own narrative within the framed edges.
Milano Chow (b.1987) lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. She received her BFA from Barnard College and attended The Skowhegen School of Painting and Sculpture. Recent exhibitions include Young Art, LA (solo); Michael Benevento, LA; Mary Mary Gallery, Glasgow; and Wallspace Gallery, NY. She is in the collection of the Whitney Museum of Art and will have a solo exhibition at Chapter NY in Spring 2018.
Chris Duncan (b.1974, Perth Amboy, NJ) holds an MFA from Stanford University and a BFA from the California College of Arts and Crafts. He has had solo exhibitions with Romer Young Gallery, San Francisco, CA; Cooper Cole Gallery, Toronto, Canada; V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark; and Halsey McKay, New York, and East Hampton, NY. His work has been included in exhibitions at The Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, CA; Museum Of Modern Art, New York; and The Marjorie Barrick Museum at the University of Las Vegas Nevada. Duncan’s work is held in the collections of the MoMA, New York; SFMoMA, San Francisco, CA; The Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis, MO; and the Arsenal, Montreal, Canada. He currently lives and works in Oakland, CA.
Josephine Halvorson (b. 1981, Brewster, MA) received her BFA from the Cooper Union School and her MFA at Columbia University. She was the first American to receive the Rome Prize at the French Academy at the Villa Medici, Rome, Italy. Halvorson’s work has been exhibited widely, including shows at Sikkema Jenkins & Co, NY; Storm King Art Center, New Windsor, NY; Galerie Nelson-Freeman, Paris; MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA; Wexner Art Center, Columbus, OH; and the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA. In 2015 she presented a museum survey at the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston-Salem, NC. In 2016 Halvorson joined Boston University as Professor of Art and Chair of Graduate Studies in Painting. She lives and works in Western Massachusetts.
Ridley Howard (b. 1973, Atlanta, GA) earned his MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston in 1999 and his BFA in Painting from the University of Georgia in 1996. He attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2000. His work has been exhibited at numerous institutions including: the Museum of Fine Arts Boston; The Atlanta Contemporary; the Savannah College of Art and Design, Atlanta and Savannah, GA; the National Academy Museum, New York; the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; and the Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, TN. Howard currently lives and works between Athens, GA and Brooklyn, NY.
Eleanor Ray (b.1987) received her BA from Amherst and a MFA from the New York Studio School. Jerry Saltz included Ray’s first exhibition at SHFAP in his list of the Ten Best Art Shows of 2013. Ray has exhibited at the American Academy of Arts and Letters, NY; Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects, NY; Andréhn-Schiptjenko, Stockholm; Atlanta Contemporary, Atlanta, GA; Brennan & Griffin, NY; 106 Green, Brooklyn, NY; and The Landing, Los Angeles, CA.