Gray Contemporary is pleased to announce a two installation exhibition, Jack Pavlik 10 Waves in the Main Gallery and Louis Watts On Today in the Second Gallery. Exhibition opens Saturday, September 9th from 5 – 8 pm, and will continue through October 14th, 2017.
Jack Pavlik:
My work engages the idea of modular sculptural objects working in and out of rhythmic movement. Chiming sounds punctuate the variations in movement coming from a complex body of angles and curves. In this merging of flexible, organically, moving material and geometric mechanical structures I am posing a larger question for the audience: have we become part of the machines in our world, or have the machines become part of us?
About the Artist:
Jack Pavlik (b. 1967 St. Paul, MN) lives and works in Minneapolis, MN. He received his MFA from Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 2012. Recent exhibitions include: The Soap Factory, Minneapolis, MN (2016); ArtFutura, Espacio Enter, Spain (2015); BEAM Festival, London, England (2011); Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN (2009); Kinetica Museum, London, England (2008); Galerie Rachel Haferkamp, Cologne, Germany (2005).
Louis Watts:
On Today is an open-ended program. It originally consisted of 64 individual drawings of a single, predetermined composition, which were created using a layered charcoal powder technique. The drawings were completed on a daily basis over the course of several months in 2016, and were driven by exploring questions about factory art production methodology, the idea of transcendence through quotidian labor, reflections of power dynamics, ideas of structural, or “object”, drawings, attention to secular mysticism and drone philosophy, as well as speaking to the vernacular of repetitive band posters in urban environments.
After the initial idea coalesced, I collaborated with Austin, TX based theological scholar, Dr. Gary Slater, who began considering the philosophical implications behind the project. We worked independently, both following our own thematic possibilities and conceptual concerns simultaneously until the 64 drawings were complete and a long-form essay had been drafted. After an exhibition of the drawings and accompanying essay in Raleigh, NC, the project continued to develop. The next iteration of On Today was the creation of a full-room installation consisting of an infinitely looped animation of the 64 original drawings. The scale shift and darkened environment necessary for projection added another potential context for and interpretation of the work.
The project has continued to morph and shift in environment, form, and approach. In this iteration, 20 of the original drawings are being shown. The ability to alter the number of drawings shown at a time allows for a direct relationship between the drawings and the environment. The two rows of ten, 19 x 24 in. charcoal drawings on bristol, hung directly on the wall, proportionally relate to the surrounding architecture of the Second Gallery at Gray Contemporary and serve as a numerical counterpart to 10 Waves by Jack Pavlik in the Main Gallery. As each day’s particulars affected the original creation of the drawings due to the sensitivity of process, new venues and contexts continue to offer alternate opportunities for On Today’s exhibition and interpretation.
About the Artist:
Louis Watts (b. 1984 Little Rock, AR) lives and works in Carrboro, NC. He received an MFA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2017, and a BFA from Arizona State University in Tempe in 2007. Recent exhibitions include, Gutter Box, Raleigh, NC (2017); Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill, NC (2017); Allcott Gallery, Chapel Hill, NC (2017); Anchorlight, Raleigh, NC (2017); LUMP, Raleigh, NC (2016); Boswell-Mourot, Little Rock, AR (2016); The Historic Arkansas Museum, Little Rock, AR (2016); Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AR (2016); Truck/Art, Bentonville, AR (2015); Watts was recently featured in New American Paintings, South #124 (2016).
