SOUTHFIRST is proud to present “THE BALLOON,” an exhibition of new paintings, sculptures, and works on paper by Jess Fuller, Zak Kitnick, Hanna Sandin, and Mark Schubert. The show is on view from 11 February – 13 March. There will be a reception for the artists at the gallery on Friday, 11 February, from 6-8 PM.

“THE BALLOON” is named after a short story by Donald Barthelme. In both the story and the exhibition, a deceptively straightforward, formal approach towards materials (words, metal, canvas, objects, letters) opens up into something unexpectedly connected to narrative, humor, or an investigation of the elliptical logic of language. Things that seem like material facts transform into playful propositions about how we understand the possibilities of a medium.

Jess Fuller’s large-scale dyed and frayed canvas paintings resolve from crafty diptychs and four-piece works to words, the inclusive “us” among them. Hanna Sandin’s mobiles balance ordinary objects into syntactical structures. Her interest in organizing found objects into sets relates to lexical database computer programs, but locates its semantic relations in sculptural qualities. Mark Schubert’s aluminum wall sculptures, cut from canoes and painted in car enamel, present an abstraction which opens onto a psychologically rich, even nostalgic take on materials; his biomorphic floor sculptures from found objects wrapped in resin are convoluted lumps of autobiographical content. Zak Kitnick’s works on paper repeat the appropriated stamped letters VVAM and HWEX. Originally intended as a commercial identity protection product to render text unintelligible, these indelible stamps become first legible as the subject of the works, then illegible and pattern-like through repetition and one-thing-after-another composition.

Jess Fuller, from Maine, has shown at Canada, the Journal Gallery, and has an MFA in painting from the University of Iowa. Hanna Sandin has shown at Clifton Benevento, PS1, and will present her work along with choreographer Nancy Garcia at Sculpture Center on February 17th. Mark Schubert was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, and has shown recently at Monya Rowe and at the Green Gallery in Milwaukee. Zak Kitnick previously had a solo show at Southfirst and has exhibited at Cleopatra’s, Rachel Uffner, and PS1.