Zürcher Studio presents Habitat Interchange, a solo exhibition by John Hodany.

If one wants to know just who John Hodany is, he can be found at the point of contact between the man of art and the man of science. His work over the last ten years has developed in a way that owes nothing to fantasy, and everything to the rigor of a personal logic. Each of his exhibitions marks a stage in a “critical theory of evolution” whose neo-Darwinist principles lead in the direction of non-Euclidean applications. For the theory, one may refer to recent studies on animal segmentation, whose origins go back to the Cambrian diversification of 540 million years ago, with modular anatomical structures composed of identical units – a characteristic common to numerous species (including man) – which seem to find an echo in the machine-sculpture Lock Claw Skill Crane (2007-2008). But the first thing that comes to mind when considering Hodany’s representations on canvas or paper is the absence of the human figure. There are inhuman landscapes that suggest science fiction or comic strips – Last Inhabitants – Interchange two of 4, for example, where pigeons are the sole living presence on a deserted metro platform – but also, in their repetitions and discontinuities of architectural elements, Bernd and Hilla Becher’s photographs of industrial sites. These are desolate landscapes, limited to a few rocks beside a lake, and inhabited by animals whose presence is more generic than real: fragmented, repeated figures of a swan, a beaver, a weasel (First Inhabitants – Interchange one of 4). Hodany uses a distinctive method that combines the techniques of painting – and its particular tactile sensibility – with a process similar to the “Cut & paste” of computing. The point is to transform images obtained by “fractal compression”, where the principle of segmenting source figures leads, by subtraction, to the creation of further identical ones. Rocks, animals and other objects are subjected to the “motif” treatment. Hodany cuts into the painted surface, painstakingly transporting fragments to new locations so that, disappearing and reappearing within the same composition, they give the illusion of having moved.

And there is another characteristic that is closely related to this mode of representation: fractal objects are structures linked to the notion of scale. Choosing that of 1:1 for his recent works – as in the cold, majestic, life-size figure of a seal (Venus in Antarctica), or, in his latest composition, a bar counter as a direct invitation to human presence – Hodany alludes to the conception of an icon, with a mirror effect that gives the viewer an indirect form of access, like an avatar in his representation of the world. – Bernard Zürcher

John Hodany (born 1974 NY,NY) currently lives and works in Berlin and New York City. He received his M.F.A. in 2002 at de Ateliers 63, in Amsterdam and his B.F.A. from Cooper Union. John Hodany’s solo shows include: 2009, “Holy Rollers” at Galerie Lena Bruening, Berlin, in 2007, “Works on Paper” at Galerie Loyal, Stockholm, and in 2003, ”That In-Between Time” Galerie Fons Welters, Playstation, Amsterdam. Hodany’s group shows include: 2009, “Wild Feature” curated by Brian Belott at Zurcher Studio, NY/ Galerie Zurcher, Paris, and in 2008, “Precurse” curated by John Hodany, Nationalmuseum, Berlin, “They Told the Future Backwards” Nationalmuseum, Berlin, and, “Caetano de Almeida, John Hodany, Michael Lazarus” Eleven Rivington Gallery, New York. John Hodany’s work is a part of MoMA’s permanent collection.