Cueto Project is pleased to announce the first solo exhibition in New York of David Colosi: Imaginary Numbers and Other Calculated Fictions. Embracing the artist’s terminology of “Three-Dimensional Literature” to define his work, this exhibition assembles Colosi’s recent drawings and small-scale sculptures as a collection of short stories in the round. Just as a collection of stories may include some that have been previously published, in this exhibition those never before seen stand with those previously exhibited elsewhere. Psychographic drawings stand adjacent to analytical assemblages, and previous site-specific installations are reinterpreted to fit the new environment. The resultant exhibition becomes a cohesive installation of independent works reminiscent of a shared environment by Dr. Seuss and Bruce Connor.

In recent years, Colosi’s work has explored the intersection of mathematics and literature, following in the tradition of Lewis Carroll and Oulipo members like Italo Calvino and Raymond Queneau. In this instance, objectified math and grammatical symbols from The Proof – a project previously sponsored by the LMCC Swing Space program – have been repurposed to punctuate this installation. They appear between the cracks of the narrative objects presented here. Normally in this position arrows, parentheses, and equal signs would glue a relationship between the variables at their sides, invisibly performing service roles. Here they stand sculpturally independent as “syntactical objects” in and for themselves. In this dual reading, they serve to unite these disparate stories into a unified collection while telling a story of their own.

To accentuate the interdisciplinary relationship between art and literature, a series of events are planned throughout the exhibition. Colosi, joined by other artists and writers, will read novel excerpts, short stories, and discuss Three-Dimensional Literature.

David Colosi has read, performed, and exhibited in various national and international venues and most recently at Galerie Catherine Bastide in Brussels, the LMCC Swing Space program in NY, Art Statements in Art Basel Switzerland, and Art Basel Miami Beach. His poetry is collected in Laughing Blood: Selected Poems 1987-2003 and anthologized in From Totems to Hip-Hop: A Multi-Cultural Anthology of Poetry Across the Americas, 1900-2002. He lives in Brooklyn.