calendario eventi  :: 

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17/11/2006

Two exhibitions

Jack Shainman Gallery, New York

Odili Donald Odita

Fusion

In his first one-person exhibition titled, Fusion, at the Jack Shainman Gallery, Odili Donald Odita addresses a newfound complexity. Recent canvas paintings and wall paintings bridge many distinctive visual parts into a multi-faceted whole, while exploring color in all its multitudinal permutations. Within the context of installation, Odita continues his primary investigation of color through what the artist calls a third space.' The painting that gives the exhibition its title, "Fusion" makes its case evident. This painting, like a stitched or quilted textile, is a weaving of two different spaces, of two different times and temperaments brought together along a single vertical line made by the abutment of these two patterned fields. This invisible vertical line becomes the fissure that separates as it conjoins a flash point where two vibrant color fields become one.

For Odita, color in itself has the possibility of mirroring the complexity of the world as much as it has the potential for being distinct. In his large-scale paintings we see color interwoven and mixed, becoming an active agent in representing the essential power that light has in identifying the entirety of our world. To quote the artist directly from his statements on color: "What is most interesting to me is a fusion between cultures where things that seem faraway and disparate have the ability to function within an almost seamless flow. The fusion I seek is one that can represent a type of living within a world of difference. No matter the discord, I believe through art there is a way to weave the different parts into an existent whole, and where metaphorically, the notion of a common humanity can be understood as a real choice."

Odili Donald Odita was born in Enugu Nigeria and lives and works in Philadelphia and New York. Odita is currently an Associate Professor of Painting at Tyler School of Art, Temple University in Philadelphia, and from 2003-2005 he was a Visiting Critic in Painting at Yale University School of Art. In the past ten years Odita has exhibited extensively at some of the most important venues in the world. Odita currently has work on view in the traveling exhibition, "A Fiction of Authenticity," which inaugurated the newly designed Contemporary Art Museum in St. Louis. Recently, his work was featured in "Big Juicy Paintings and More: Highlights from the Permanent Collection", Miami Art Museum, Miami, FL, "Ordering and Seduction," curated by Dorothea Strauss at the Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich, "The Shape of Colour: Excursions in Colour Field Art, 1950 2005," curated by David Moos at the Art Gallery of Ontario, "Surface Charge," curated by Gregory Volk and Sabine Russ at the Anderson Gallery, Virginia Commonwealth University. In 2004, Odita represented North America at DAK'ART, the Dakar Biennale of Contemporary African Art. Odita received the Thami Mnyele Foundation Residency Grant in Amsterdam for African Artists in 2004; a Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant in 2001; an ArtsLink Collaborative Projects Award in 2000, and a Penny McCall Foundation Grant in 1994.

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Martha Camarillo

Fletcher Street

The Jack Shainman Gallery is proud to present Fletcher Street, an exhibition of photographs by the artist Martha Camarillo. The works in Fletcher Street document life in a horse-racing neighborhood that is located in the heart of Philadelphia.

Dating back to the early 1900's, Fletcher Street has had horse stables where thoroughbreds were raised. Now an African-American community maintains the stables, having built a whole way of life around this activity. Many of the stables in or around Fletcher Street were built on small plots of inner-city land, in former factories and warehouse spaces and sometimes in abandoned townhouses. Martha Camarillo's photographs capture this underground, urban phenomenon portraying the men and boys of Fletcher Street, their special bond with their horses, and the way through which this unique tradition has provided a sense of belonging to an entire community. "Camarillo's work is valuable not only because it illuminates a fascinating new aspect of culture, but also because it challenges those who see it. Her photographs force viewers to confront their own pre-conceptions of sport as representative of social status, and race as a demarcation of class. The power of Camarillo's exploration of this underrepresented community is based on the strength of the men themselves: urban horsemen who have ridden away from the hood and toward a better future."

Kathy Dobie Martha Camarillo is an internationally known photographer whose portraits often expose hidden aspects of urban culture. Her work also focuses on the subject of identity through portraiture. Her previous project, Remote Photos, a collaboration with artist Avena Gallagher, was an in-depth look at the identity of teenage male and female models, made by giving the models themselves disposable cameras to be used however they saw fit. Originally born in Texas and currently living and working in New York, Camarillo's work has appeared in The New York Times, The Telegraph, Numro, Journal, i-D, and many other publications. Work from her Remote Photos project resulted in a book published by Janvier. Camarillo was the winner of the Hyres Festival 2001 and the 2002 Art Director's Award. Coinciding with the exhibition Powerhouse is publishing "Fletcher Street", featuring the full series of photographs by Camarillo.

Image: Odili Donald Odita, Parallel, 2006

Jack Shainman Gallery
513 West 20th Street - New York

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