Multiple shows open at Artspace Thursday evening

Artspace
50 Orange St, New Haven, (203) 772-2709
Phil Lique: Traces of Things That Are Alive and Dead
Susan Meyer: Together
Anna Daegele
Kim Salerno: White Sea
John Judge: Story Lines
Wes Heiss: Under Contract
Jan. 14—Feb. 20, 2010
Public Opening: Thurs., Jan. 14, 6—8 p.m.

Press release

Artspace announces six new solo exhibitions for 2010. Beginning Jan. 14, the galleries will be filled sculpture, painting, drawing, and site-specific installations produced by artists from New Haven, Massachusetts, Colorado, and Pennsylvania. These exhibitions are on view Jan. 14—Feb. 20, 2010. A public reception with artists' talks will be held on Thursday, Jan. 14, 6—8 p.m. Additional public programming is forthcoming.

Engaging in the ongoing debate about the nature and production of contemporary art within and beyond our geographical borders, Artspace is also participating in the 2010 DeCordova Biennial, organized by the museum's contemporary curator Dina Deitsch.

Located in Lincoln, Massachusetts, The DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park will showcase the work of seventeen artists from New England, including those of New Haven-based artists and Artspace alums, Christopher Mir (Web) and Phil Lique. The works on view reflect a broad range of current practices ranging from painting to social intervention, and the exhibition is the result of conversations between artists and curators from multiple art venues across New England, including Artspace.

Functioning as both an independent site and alternative space for the Biennial, Artspace will present a solo exhibition of New Haven artist Phil Lique in Gallery 1, whose work reflects the broader themes presented in the show. In his solo exhibition in Gallery 1 at Artspace, Traces of Things That Are Alive and Dead, Phil Lique binds his sculptural and paintings practices together, producing an aggressive body of work that comments on consumption and excess, and the nature of warfare and political apathy.

Notions of failed utopias and environmental and cultural decay are also expressed in the works on view in galleries 2-7. Utilizing geometric forms, hardware, and synthetic materials, Susan Meyer (CO) (Web) creates a sci-fi inspired installation with lurid abstract sculptures in Gallery 2.

Exploring the beauty of decay, New Haven-based painter Anna Daegele (Web) extends her painting surface to lids, tins, and environmental materials such as dirt, lint, and debris from everyday use and activity. Her work will be on view in Gallery 3.

Through elegantly cut-paper constructions, Rhode Island-based artist Kim Salerno (Web) will install a series of sculptures in Gallery 4 that mimic sea creatures and other biological forms that border on extinction.

In Gallery 5, Massachusetts-based painter John Judge (Web) presents a series of new drawings that capture voyeuristic, despondent, and curious moments between groups of people inhabiting the same public and private spaces.

Reacting to the gallery's raw and industrial architecture, Pennsylvania-based sculptor Wes Heiss (Web) works with the ventilation system in Gallery 7 to create a new site-specific installation that only becomes fully activated when a viewer enters a space.