Chashama 266 Gallery presents Have a Nice Day, an exhibition by Johannah Herr.

My work is about the messiness of the human experience and the struggle of existence pushing forward, both physically and metaphorically, in its grit, pain, loss, pleasure, elation. I am interested in ceremony and sanctification, construct and innate impulse. Each piece revolves around abstracted narrative; impregnating form with metaphor, and using objects as hieroglyphics- magnifying the meaning in the mundane and turning trifles into talismans.

Raised by a family of storytellers who continually demonstrated the importance of collecting experience and bearing witness, I learned to revolt against impermanence and to through storytelling to bridge the gap between beings, albeit momentarily. As such, I use abstracted narrative through my work in an attempt to bridge that same gap.

For the piece “Have a nice day” I use the rickshaw as a metaphor (where the poor literally carry the rich) to address, explore and bring into consciousness the underbelly of New York’s work force- largely made up of recent (sometimes illegal) immigrants, who often get overlooked, undervalued, or even abused by an economic system supported by exploiting undocumented laborers.

- Johannah Herr

Johannah Herr received a BFA in Fine Arts from Parsons School of Design in 2009 and has exhibited both nationally and internationally in New York, London, Cooperstown, Seattle and Berlin. She is a former member of the Berlin-based art collective GRUNTWORK, and has shown at Envoy Enterprises, Platform Gallery, DADApost, Big&Small/Casual Gallery, Space Womb Gallery, and Greenpoint’s St. Cecilia Convent, amongst others. She lives and works in Brooklyn.