Number 35 Gallery is pleased to present re:CONTEXT curated by Brad Silk. This show inaugurates our new larger space at 141 Attorney Street at Stanton in New York City.

Social constructs unjustly define our reality—dependent on the false claim of innate ideas or shared history. It is the experience and memory made by the individual that determines existence. A web of connections play out before every new experience to mark personal affirmations of reality. After-all, “beauty in things exists in the mind which contemplates them.”[1] re:CONTEXT gathers five artists, in varied media, who manipulate object, image, and text and question the validity of collected perception.

Steven Cossman’s works play in the overlooked and the unnoticed. His videos and collages are assemblages that rearrange the way we see the world. Composing videos from the pixilation of images, Cossman questions their digitalization as well as our method of seeing. In Crusher (16mm film Loop with sound composed by Daniel Caldas) an image is digitalized and the sequence of pixels acts as each cell of his film reel. Accompanying this video is a selection of collages that use the flow of fabrics from fashion photography in a gestural dance of color, form and pattern. Both Cossman’s videos and collages fluctuate from rhythmic moments to chaotic bursts of energy, creating a passionate play of color and form.

Joy Drury Cox focuses on the discarded moments that weave together our cultural structure to give them presence. Her drawings of birth certificates, job applications, fines, and death certificates omit any information that these forms usually request, leaving only the empty spaces. Her methodical measurements give the forms life through a new relationship – no longer the confusing and time consuming requirements, Cox’s drawings allow the viewer to breathe, to rest, and to contemplate rather than create the frustration these forms often cause. The selected works were chosen to further expand new relationships by telling a story, grouped as moments that measure our lives.

Matthew Craven re-imagines history through the appropriation of cultural patterns and found historical image. Craven works with a personal artistic vocabulary. Veiling civil war figures in meticulous patterns, Craven develops bizarre narrative that blends influences ranging from Baldessari and Ray Johnson to 80’s cartoon icon Cobra Commander. Matthew Craven’s work is crafted with honesty, shifting from the brute to the careful.

Wyatt Kahn’s work is cerebral yet grounded. He bridges action and still paintings; creating structures only to diminish them through gestural washes and then confines these patchwork washes within a geometric structure, framed by cut-outs revealing the untreated surface.. Following these structures, a virtual landscape reveals itself – engulfed in storm of color and tint. In this desolate landscape, there are moments of meditation, searching, as well as enjoyment of Kahn’s knowledge and skill in his medium.

Jeremy Jacob Schlangen’s work is visceral yet ephemeral; it greets the viewer without force. Schlangen’s work seems to propose that the viewer reassess their perception of actual and conceived. He reflects on the constructs within our personal history – religion, class, identity – that determines our perception. Working in collage and found objects, he applies a new history with disassembled prized text, creating an altar from debris, and claiming objects as archeological evidence of imagined cultures. Schlangen challenges assumptions by manipulating the memory of objects.

Number 35 Gallery is located at 141 Attorney Street at Stanton in New York City. Gallery hours are Wednesday through Sunday, 12 – 6 pm and by appointment. For more information, please contact Cindy Rucker at [email protected] or Brad Silk at [email protected] or 212-388-9311.

Please note that the gallery will be open by appointment only December 23, 2010 – January 4, 2011 for the holidays. We will resume regular business hours Wednesday, January 5th.

[1] David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature