It is with great pleasure that we kick off the fall season by introducing ”Graduates 2017” – an annual recurring exhibition concept we have been looking forward to presenting. For the third consecutive year, we have carefully selected and handpicked six razor-sharp, talented graduates from the renowned New York Academy of Art (NYAA). The high demand for the latest and most innovative trends emerging on New York's vibrant art scene is increasing and our collaboration with NYAA gives us the opportunity to announce six promising young artists within our own curatorial framework from which their talent can really blossom.
In close collaboration with Peter Drake (Dean of Academic Affairs) and Wade Schuman (Director of Painting) from NYAA, we have invited Benjamin Craig, Jessica VanDenburg, Jorge Vascano, Lilla Dent, Rebecca Orcutt and Sarah Szabo to conquer the Brown Meatpacking District with well-crafted perspectives, solid color palettes and clever figments. Not only does "Graduates 2017" show an extract of what is trending in New York right now, but also, six different visual realms merge together and unfold before our eyes. A mutual underlying melancholy draws us in as well as urge us to enter seemingly recognizable scenes from everyday life. But underneath the surface, something is smoldering.
Contrasting and polarized relationships are ongoing themes in the exhibition. Particularly naturally occurring contrasts are the main premise of Benjamin Craig's two pieces, where the manual and intellectual, the clear and the dark, predictability and arbitrary arise from a subtle veil, covering a brutish raw story, left for the viewer to decipher.
Jessica VanDenburg and Lilla Dent both operate with a temporal approach, characterized by nostalgia and despair. VanDenburg’s Americana series, created by iconic and symbolic American images, are memories fused with brand name image of an emerging American culture of the time. The working class is no longer seen as a heroic monumental figure, but a struggling social class set against a post war time era. What happened to the American dream?
Dent's magical, nostalgic, even uncanny space, transfers us back to our childhood bedroom - simultaneously of great familiarity and dawning strangeness, as we distance ourselves from the past. But do we ever fully leave it behind?
The focal point of Jorge Vascano's series of portraits is a persistent curiosity and fascination with the beautiful complexity that comprise a human being. Through a variety of expressions, materials and personalities, he explores the ambiguous inner qualities that make us unique. His portraits become personalized channels through which both Vascano and we can find traits of our own reflected in theirs.
Rebecca Orcutt’s five oil paintings depict absurdity and failures of daily life, particularly in the relationships between individuals. In different pathetic situations, these figures seem destined to fail, but they still try to find meaning and therefore sink into a hopeless infinite waiting position.
In Sarah Szabo's canvases we continue to experience people placed in isolated environments. With silky brush strokes, Szabo masters to create a surreal landscape of visualized science, in a color scale that make them appear divinely delicate.
Bid a warm welcome to our six emerging talents from The Big Apple and grab the opportunity to follow them right from the start!
The exhibition consists of 16 dazzling paintings on linen, panel and metal sheathing.
The artists will be present at the opening on Friday August 18th from 5-7pm.
Contact the gallery at info@gallerypoulsen.com or tel. + 45 33 33 93 96 for further information.