“The Fabric of a Space,” a new site specific installation by Trombly Rodriguez—a collaboration between Frances Trombly and Leyden Rodriguez-Casanova—will be presented in the main gallery of The Abrons Arts Center October 12 to November 18, 2012. “The Fabric of a Space” is a series of eight gridded walls integrated with blank raw hand-woven stretched canvases leaning and hanging throughout the structure. The installation pursues Rodriguez-Casanova’s investigations in the architectural language of the domestic environment and Trombly’s practice of hand making woven sculptures of mass-produced materials. The exhibition is a special collaboration between site95, Dimensions Variable, and The Abrons Arts Center.

The gridded sculpture is a basis for the making of fabric, the main component in Frances Trombly’s practice of re-creating and contextualizing mundane objects that are typically overlooked. Trombly’s hand-made canvases are a warp and weft that cross each other to weave a grid that tightly forms a flexible material. The minimalist canvas structures are left unmarked to reveal the delicate and labor-intensive inaccuracies as a reminder of where paintings come from and how they are made.

Inspired by the warp and weft of the canvas, Leyden Rodriguez-Casanova has created a site-specific gridded structure to echo the rhythm of the fabric grid. Rodriguez-Casanova’s interests in suburban mass produced materials is found in the use of 2×4 beams as vertical and horizontal supports. The gridded wall structures imitate the foundations of the walls as they curve congruently with the space. It further evokes the assiduous practice of the loom as participants move back and forth within the installation.

This is the second collaborative exhibition by Trombly Rodriguez after “Come Together” at the Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, Florida in 2011. Frances Trombly was born in Miami, Florida, where she currently lives and works. She received a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art. Recent solo exhibitions of her work include: “Not Paintings,” Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Santa Monica, CA (2011), “Everything and Nothing,” Goldie Paley Gallery, Moore College of Art & Design, Philadelphia (2011), “Paintings, Girls’ Club,” Ft. Lauderdale, Florida (2010), “A Point From Which to Start,” Galeria Casas Riegner, Bogotá, Colombia (2010), “Caution,” Socrates Sculpture Park, New York (2008) and “Thinking of Things” at David Castillo Gallery, Miami (2008).

Leyden Rodriguez-Casanova immigrated with his parents to the United States from Cuba in 1980. He attended the Ringling School of Art and Design and the New World School of the Arts where he was awarded the Frances Wolfson Endowed Visual Arts Scholarship. In 2011 he attended the artist-in-residence Ville de Paris-Cultures France program at the Centre international d’accueil et d’échanges des Recollets in Paris. Recent exhibitions include: “CIFO: Una mirada múltiple. Selections from the Ella Fontanals-Cisneros Collection,” Museo de Bellas Artes, Havana (2012), “An Uneven Floor,” Locust Projects, Miami (2010), “You might sleep but you will never dream,” David Castillo Gallery, Miami (2009), “An Inaccessible Gazebo,” Socrates Sculpture Park, New York (2008), and “InPractice,” SculptureCenter, New York (2008). Both artists completed residencies at the Capri Palace in Anacapri, Italy (2009) and the Vermont Studio Center (2007).

The Abrons Arts Center, part of the Henry Street Settlement, brings innovative artistic excellence to Manhattan’s Lower East Side through diverse, cutting-edge performances; exhibitions/artist residencies; classes and workshops for all ages, including pre-professional training for youth; and arts-in-education programming at public schools. Some of the most adventurous artists of the past century have trained, taught, or performed at Henry Street, including John Cage, Aaron Copland, Dizzy Gillespie, Martha Graham, Alicia Keyes, Alwin Nikolais, Jackson Pollock, Denzel Washington, and Orson Welles.

Dimensions Variable is an artist run exhibition space interested in advancing artistic discourse in Miami. Dimensions Variable focuses on inviting international artists to exhibit and discuss their work for the Miami community and also to present local artist exhibitions during important times of the year. Dimensions Variable has been providing a forum for contemporary art since 2009.

site95 is an alternative non-profit organization established to present exhibitions for emerging and established artists in temporary urban locations. Drawing upon available space in major cities, site95 will present over five projects per year, each extending up to two months. The impermanent sites create a platform for artists and curators to present innovative ideas in different contexts and allow viewers to experience new work not native to their location. Exhibitions will offer openings, educational talks and tours, screenings, and performances. site95 also features the online monthly Journal with contributions by writers, curators, and artists.

The exhibition was made possible through the generous support of the Knight Foundation and the Knight Arts Challenge Grant awarded to Dimensions Variable.