MINUS SPACE is pleased to present the group exhibition Neither Here nor There but Anywhere and Everywhere, featuring recent work by 7 artists: Vincent Como, Julian Dashper, Linda Francis, Michelle Grabner, Russell Maltz, Victoria Munro, and Carrie Pollack.

Neither Here nor There but Anywhere and Everywhere highlights reductive, primarily monochromatic works spanning or hybridizing multiple media. This includes objects that merge drawing into sculpture, print into painting, painting into ceramics, and more. Each of the 7 exhibiting artists takes a candid, probing approach to their chosen medium, unpacking its art historical framework, examining precedent artistic strategies, and subverting viewer expectations. A wide array of primary materials, such as paper, wood, fabric, ink, porcelain, and steel, are presented in the exhibition. Another key aspect in the works is color, which in most cases is not applied, but rather a given, originating in the raw materials themselves.

Although seemingly straightforward in appearance, many of the works on view – for example, Julian Dashper’s cut painting stretcher Untitled (2002), Vincent Como’s Sumi ink cube 4.5 Cubic Inches (Volume of the Inside of My Head), and Victoria Munro’s cast porcelain painting OR, THE WHALE – are not what they appear to be at first glance and require closer inspection by the viewer.

Vincent Como (b. 1975, Kittanning, PA; lives Brookyn, NY) works in a broad array of media, including installation, painting, printmaking, and artist books. The subject of his artistic practice is the color black, which he describes as “the pure and unrepentant mark of information…both the origin of recording thoughts and the fully saturated realization of all pigment as one”. His work draws on ideas from art history, color theory, physics, alchemy, heavy metal, religion, and mythology. Como has exhibited his work throughout the United States, including in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Illinois, Utah, and California, among others. He holds a BFA in Drawing from the Cleveland Institute of Art.

Julian Dashper (b. 1960 – d. 2009, Auckand, New Zealand) is one New Zealand’s most renowned reductive artists who produced a diverse and experimental interdiscipinary body of work during his lifetime. This included painting, sculpture, installation, audio, video, and performance. Much of Dashper’s work examines the history of Modernism and the connection between abstract art and popular culture. During his career, he mounted more than 140 solo exhibitions worldwide, including in Australasia, Asia, Europe, and the United States. In 2001, he was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to be an artist in residence at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, TX. A 25-year retrospective of Dashper’s work, entitled Midwestern Unlike You and Me, curated by Christopher Cook and David Raskin, traveled the United States during 2005-2006, making stops at the Sioux City Art Center, Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, and Ulrich Museum of Art. Dashper held a BFA from the University of Auckland.

Linda Francis (b. Bronx, NY; lives New York and Warwick, NY) is fascinated by the limits of knowledge. Her paintings and drawings investigate “the relational aspect of form, possibility as a variable of viewpoint, the paradox of appearances, and movement as form”. She has exhibited her work nationally and internationally, and has mounted solo exhibitions at MINUS SPACE, Nicholas Davies Gallery, Condeso Lawler Gallery, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, and Hal Bromm Gallery. Francis is the recipient of awards from the Terra Foundation, American Academy of Arts and Letters, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, and the New York State Council on the Arts. Her paintings and drawings are included in the collections of the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Nordjyullands Kunstmuseum, MIT List Visual Arts Center, Rogalund Kunstmuseum, and Kemper Museum of Contemporary, among others.

Michelle Grabner (b. 1962, Oshkosh, Wisconsin; lives Chicago, IL) works in a wide array of media, incuding installation, painting, drawing, and printmaking. She describes her work as concerned with “the process of busyness set within a studio condition contoured by metaphysical time and situational boredom. The result of this ‘doing’ is a collection of work that consists of identifying, indexing, and transposing familiar patterns”. Grabner has exhibited her work extensively, including in North America, Europe, and Australia. Her recent museum exhibitions include the Milwaukee Art Museum, Kunsthalle Bern (Switzerland), Musee d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean (Luxembourg), Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago), Smart Museum (Chicago), and Tate St. Ives (St. Ives, UK). In addition to her artistic work, Grabner and her husband, artist Brad Killam, founded and direct the experimental exhibition spaces The Suburban (Oak Park, IL) and The Poor Farm (Manawa, WI). She holds an MFA in Art Theory and Practice from Northwestern University, and an MA in Art History and BFA in Painting and Drawing from the University of Wisconsin.

Russell Maltz (b. 1952, Brookyn, NY; lives New York, NY) works in installation, painting, sculpture, and works on paper. His projects, examining issues of scale, density, documentation, and systemic progression, often utilize stacked and painted commercial building materials to establish formal and physical relationships with existing architectural sites, including college campuses, shopping centers, museums, and galleries. Maltz has exhibited his work in solo and group exhibitions internationally, including in Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Israel, and Mexico. His work is included in public and private collections worldwide, including The Brooklyn Museum, Yale University Art Gallery, Fogg Art Museum/Harvard University Art Museums, Museum Moderner Kunst (Ottendorf, Germany), and the Gallery of Western Australia (Perth). His work has been reviewed in publications, such as The New York Times, Artforum, Art in America, and Village Voice, among others.

Victoria Munro (b. 1975, Wellington, New Zealand; lives Staten Island, NY) works in a variety of media, including installation, sculpture, ceramics, and photography. Her recent cast pieces in glazed and unglazed porcelain work towards “understanding the rigorous dedication of painters to their materials and how the sculptural properties of painting can inform a work’s meaning”. Munro has exhibited her work in solo and group exhibitions internationally, including the United States, Australia, Mexico, New Zealand, The Netherlands, and United Kingdom. In 2011, Munro was commissioned by the New York City Department of Transportation to create a pubic art project for the new Grand Staircase at the St. George Staten Island Ferry Terminal. In addition to her artistic practice, Munro is Editor of SOAP magazine and has curated a countless exhibitions and projects, most recently the international group exhibition We Go Far…And Way Back at Show Gallery on Staten Island, NY.

Carrie Pollack (b. 1973, New York, NY; lives Brookyn, NY) works at the nexus between painting, photography, and digital media. She describes her work as “a catalog of her memories”, in which she examines “what we as individuals consciously or unconsciously choose to remember, and how our memories of people, places, and events degrade and change over time”. Pollack has exhibited her work throughout the United States, as well as in Germany, Belgium, and Mexico. In January 2012, Pollack mounted her first solo exhibition Witness at the gallery. She has been previousy awarded residencies at Yaddo, Jentel, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Vermont Studio Center. Her work has been discussed in publications, such as Time Out New York, Metropulse, and The Daily Beacon. She holds an MFA from the University of Iowa, an MA from New York University, and a BFA from Alfred University.