Gray Contemporary is pleased to announce two exhibitions, in the Main Gallery a group exhibition including
Jonathan Anderson, Matthew McAlpine, Jose Carlos Naranjo, Dmitri Obergfell, Gregory Ruppe, and Kamila Szczesna and in the Second Gallery a solo exhibition featuring works by Altoon Sultan. Both exhibitions open Saturday, September 8 from 5:00 – 8:00 pm, and will continue through October 13, 2018.
Main Gallery
Jonathan Anderson, Matthew McAlpine, Jose Carlos Naranjo, Dmitri Obergfell, Gregory Ruppe, and Kamila Szczesna
In the Main Gallery is a group exhibition of local, national and International artists who display varying approaches from sculpture to painting. While together this exhibition is mostly eclectic, each work shares a slightly vague connection rather through the subject matter involving the figure or through the raw, reductive approach to the material in which they work.
About the Artist:
Jonathan Anderson (b. 1977, Scotland) has exhibited widely throughout the United Kingdom. Groups shows include ‘Terra’ Jerwood Art Space London and ‘The Tale’ Torquay Museum. Recent solo shows include ‘Coal Face Buddha’ Art Lacuna London and ‘Pylon Totems’ Oriel Mwldan Cardigan, Wales. Recently commissioned to make a sculpture for ‘The Age of Coal; A European History’ Ruhr Museum, Germany. Currently lives and works in Swansea, UK and Trondheim, Norway.
Matthew McAlpine (b.1994, Australia) is an interdisciplinary artist based in Whadjuk Noongar country (Perth, Western Australia). His practice aims to explore the complexities and problems of celebrating colonial legacies. He graduated from Curtin University in 2016 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours). McAlpine has exhibited in a range of public and artist run space across Australia including the Fremantle Arts Centre, QUT Art Museum and c3 Contemporary Art Space. This is his first time exhibiting in the United States.
Jose Carlos Naranjo (b. 1983, Spain) he graduated MFA Art, Idea and Production in the University of Seville and BFA Painting Program in the University of Fine Arts in Seville, Spain. His most recent solo show has been at SCAN Projects Room in London in 2018. He also exhibited solo show in Galería Birimbao in Seville and Yusto/Giner Gallery. Also has exhibited work at the CAC Málaga, Unit 1 Gallery London, New Gallery Madrid, Griffin Gallery. His paintings has been Shortlisted in the Dentons Art Prize and Columbia Threadneedle Prize in London. Selected in the Contemporary Visions V in Beers London and in the XIV Call for Young Artist. Luis Adelantado Gallery in Valencia, Spain. He won the First Prize in the Griffin Art Prize Iberia, Griffin Gallery in London, the 28o BMW Painting Prize in Madrid and Figurativas ́ 11 in Barcelona. He currently lives and work in London, UK.
Dmitri Obergfell (b. 1986, Denver, CO) has exhibited nationally and internationally. Some recent group exhibitions include Supastore Human-We are the product at Dikeou Collection Pop-Up curated by Sarah Staton, Redline 10x, curated by Cortney Stell at Redline, Mi Tierra: Contemporary Artists Explore Place at the Denver Art Museum, Drone of Perseus at Hilde Gallery, and Back to the Future at Casa Maauad in Mexico City. Recent solo or two person shows include Man is a bubble, Time is a place at Gildar Gallery, Forever is Never Enough (w/ Zach Reini) at Montoro12 in Brussels, and Go Home Bacchus at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art.
Gregory Ruppe (b. 1979, Houston, TX) is an artist currently living and working in Dallas, Texas. He cofounded Fort Worth-based artist collective Homecoming!Committee (2011-2014), and experimental project space CULTURE HOLE with frequent collaborator Jeff Gibbons. He received his MFA from TCU in Fort Worth, Texas. Selected exhibitions and performances include Apples, Brooklyn, New York; Réunion Gallery, Zürich, Switzerland; Riverside—Space, Bern, Switzerland; Hiroshima Art Center, Hiroshima, Japan; The Glasgow International at The Modern Institute, Glasgow, UK; Vilma Gold, London, UK; The Berlin Becher Triennial, Berlin, Germany; Le Sud Bébé, Marseille, France; Museo de la Ciudad de Querétaro, Santiago de Querétaro, Mexico; OFG.XXX, Dallas, TX; galleryHOMELAND, Houston, TX; The Nasher Sculpture Center, and The Dallas Museum of Art.
Kamila Szczesna (b. 1974, Poland) is an interdisciplinary artist working in various media and formats including sculpture, drawing, and installation. In her work she explores the complex interactions between body and mind. She earned her MFA degree at the Academy of Art and Design in Wroclaw. Her work has been nationally and internationally exhibited and is held in public collections in Poland, Japan, Spain, Taiwan, Korea, and Germany. Her most recent exhibitions and projects include: “Visual pathology” at Galveston Arts Center, Galveston, “Process 2”, a solo show at Centre of Polish Sculpture in Oronsko, Poland; Gyeonggi International Ceramic Biennale in Korea; European Triennial for Ceramics and Glass, Mons, Belgium, “Objectives”, Artpace in San Antonio Her project “Urban Mutations “a series of sculptures created as a result of self-directed residency in Wroclaw, Poland, has been permanently installed in multiple locations within the city.
Szczesna is a recipient of multiple awards, including, Grant Award, “Wroclaw – Backyard Door”, European Capital of Culture Wroclaw 2016; Assistance League Houston Celebrates Texas Art 2014 and 2012, second and first prize; “Contemporary Ceramics CERCO-09” Saragossa, Spain – First Prize; “8th International Ceramics Competition Mino 2008”, Tajimi City, Japan; Bronze Award. She participated in artist residencies Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, Houston; Centre of Polish Sculpture, Oronsko, Poland, Project New Atelier House Hilmsen, Hilmsen, Germany, XXXIII International Ceramics Symposium “Porcelain Another Way”, Porcelain Factory “Krzysztof” in Walbrzych, Poland and Young-Jae Lee’s Ceramic Studio “Margarethenhöhe”, Essen, Germany.
Second Gallery
Altoon Sultan
In 2005 I learned the technique of rug hooking, not to make art, but to make rugs for my old Vermont farmhouse, but that changed: I had recently seen a beautiful show of Tantric drawings at the Drawing Center and the very simple, powerful, deeply emotional images had stayed with me; thinking of this work inspired me to make a small wall textile based on one of the drawings, and that in turn led me to realize that with this technique I could explore abstraction, not in paint, but in wool, with loops of wool acting like brushstrokes. I greatly admire the minimalist abstraction of the 20th century, but I am a painter of images, of things of this world. I love that a handicraft originally developed to make something useful out of scraps can be transformed into art, into a continuing homage to reductive abstraction.
About the Artist:
Altoon Sultan was born in Brooklyn, not far from Coney Island. She was educated in the borough, getting her BA and MFA degrees from Brooklyn College, where she studied with Philip Pearlstein and Lois Dodd. Summer painting programs at Tanglewood and Skowhegan encouraged her to take her art work seriously. Her first painting exhibitions, in 1971 and 1973, were at a co-op gallery in Soho, but soon she was represented by the prestigious Marlborough Gallery, where she had her first show in 1977. She went on to have many solo shows in NYC, at Marlborough and at Tibor de Nagy and throughout the United States over more than 30 years. She is currently represented in New York City by McKenzie Fine Art. Sultan’s work has been included in numerous group shows including many at museums such as the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Philbrook Museum of Art, the Hood Museum, the Fleming Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Art, and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
Sultan’s awards include two National Endowment for the Arts grants, an Academy Award in Art from the American Academy, and a medal for painting from the National Academy of Design, where she was elected a member in 1995. Her work is in many museum collections, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York: the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; the Yale University Art Gallery; the Library of Congress; and the Fleming Museum of the University of Vermont.
