143 Reade Street – New York 10013

143 Reade is a private gallery in a residential building in Tribeca.

“Blow Up”

Dike Blair
Carey Denniston
Shoshana Dentz
David Gilbert
Dario Robleto
Carrie Yamaoka

July 1 – September 30, 2013
By Appointment

In the classic 1966 Antonioni movie Blow-Up, a murder is inadvertently recorded on film by a fashion photographer while innocently taking pictures in a London park. At first glance the dramatic event is invisible to the naked eye but through the process of enlarging the background over and over, the presence of a gunman and victim are revealed. Given the open ended structure of the film, the metaphor presented through the film’s narrative continues to inform discussions about the construction of meaning by a subject, emphasized by the photographer’s trust of the mechanical, representational memory of his camera over the non-representational memory of his own perceiving body.

There is no crime scene in the fourth exhibition organized by Lucien Terras at 143 Reade Street but a shared inquisitive attitude towards the process of representation and the perception of the represented. The six artists, through painting and photography, question the ideas of realism inherent to their practice and the act of looking itself.

Dike Blair presents gouaches and pencil on paper of windows opening to either a serene blue sky or a gray snowy outdoor. The compositions appear off-centered, as if it were at the periphery of another scene where the action is taking place. Their photo-realist quality brings the viewer back to his or her own similar experience of observation or quiet moments of contemplation.

Carey Denniston’s photographs, which are printed on both sides of the frame, are a close examination of the objects the artist encounters around her. Denniston uses her custom made frames to crop and partially conceal her images, further obscuring our observing of anything physical. Her work investigates notions of perception and interpretation as she diverts the viewer away from reading her photographs as being representational.

Shoshana Dentz’s small oil on canvas works are based on the close and prolonged observation of modest sculptural assemblages set on her studio table. Colors, textures, and distortions of perspective depart from traditional ideas of realism, a term that the artist prefers to figuration, by placing the process of scrutinizing details at the core of her practice.

David Gilbert also stages sculptural assemblages made of crumpled papers and other common materials that he photographs repeatedly under carefully controlled light. Their representation in very large prints pinned directly to the wall turns the insignificant into the unexpected. Gilbert resists the cliché of monumentalizing the mundane as the prints maintain a balance between the staging and the reality of the studio.

Dario Robleto’s prints, Untitled (Shadows Evade the Sun I and II) represent a collection of stage lights taken from fan-shot concert photographs. Once again the periphery of the main action becomes the subject matter.

Carrie Yamaoka works with mylar and resin and her paintings’ mirrored surfaces act as a cinematic frame of their surroundings. The reflections of the viewer and of the architecture are what turn these non-representational works into changing events. The high gloss of the resin adds an almost sumptuous dimension. In one large panel titled 68 x 32 (small bubble), the rubbing of bubble wrap creates a semi abstract pattern of marks that directly evoke the grainy enlargements found in Blow-Up, and their hidden promise of truth.

Dike Blair, well known for his writing, has been showing in New York since the late 70s and is currently represented by Gagosian Gallery. In 2009, he was the subject of a ten-year survey exhibition organized at the Weatherspoon Art Museum. His work is included in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.

Carey Denniston received her MFA from Hunter College in 2012 and her BA from the University of Washington in 2003. She recently exhibited a solo project at Kansas Gallery in New York and was included in the 2012 New Wight Biennial at UCLA in Los Angeles.

Shoshana Dentz received her MFA from Bard College in 2004 and has been showing in New York since the late 90s. Her work is included in numerous public collections, including The Jewish Museum, New York and JP Morgan Chase, New York. Shoshana Dentz will be included in a three-person show curated by Katherine Carl at the Graduate Center this fall, titled Modern Narratives.

David Gilbert lives and works in Los Angeles. He received his MFA from the University of California in 2011 and was a recipient of the 2009 Tierney Fellowship. His work has been included in numerous solo and group exhibitions. Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery in New York will open a solo exhibition of new work this coming September.

Dario Robleto lives and works in Houston. A ten-year survey of the artist’s work was presented in 2008 by The Frye Museum of Art in Seattle and later traveled to the Francis Young Tang Teaching Museum at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs. His work is included in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington D.C.

Carrie Yamaoka has been showing in New York since the 80s. She has recently held a number of international solo shows in London, Brussels, Zurich and Amsterdam. She began making her mirrored pieces in the 90s and is included in the collections of The Victoria & Albert Museum in London and the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, NY.

Lucien Terras.

143 Reade Street – New York 10013