“I have always liked the idea of a room cluttered by beautiful objects sitting next to an empty room, with clean lines — both under the same roof.” -Leif Low-Beer

“For me there is a creative moment of excitement when I find the way two parts of different objects are going to relate to each other.” -Leigh Wells

Heap Gives Up Leigh Wells & Leif Low-Beer

October 18th-November 4th, 2012 Opening Reception: Thursday, October 18th, 2012 7pm-10pm

For our second show, Beginnings— is pleased to present two artists working on opposite sides of the country, object-gatherers who also create mysterious and beautiful objects. Both Leigh and Leif have a scientific approach to accumulating elements spread across different dimensions and sentiments and arranging them in the correct, harmonious way. The resultant collages and assemblages are elegant combinations of color, shade, and light. Study these images for a while and a growing complexity and depth is revealed: solemn weariness in Low-Beer’s whimsy; a ferocious charm in Wells’ gravitas. Easy on the eyes, but not always on the heart.

We don’t know about you, but we haven’t exactly gotten over modernity yet. For November in New York, we need to see work of this kind and feeling-empty of conceit, but full of life-at this season of this strange year, at this point of this exact decade, at the dawn of this particular century. It helps us deal with the onslaught of all those images, ideas, noises, and infinite forms that are thrown at us. Heap gives up, but you don’t have to.

Leif Low-Beer spent his childhood in Toronto, Canada and currently lives in Brooklyn. He has exhibited throughout the United States and in Canada.

Leigh Wells holds a BFA from the University of San Francisco, with further study at the San Francisco Art Institute, Crown Point Press, and Parsons/New School in New York. Exhibitions include recent solo shows at Gregory Lind Gallery and Ampersand International Arts in San Francisco and group shows at ZieherSmith Gallery, NY; and Guerrero Gallery, San Francisco.

About Beginnings—

Beginnings —s a small storefront gallery for art in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, with seven different curators presenting a program of contemporary work in a welcoming environment.

We are resolved to explore all the right ways that art can serve and support its audience and its creators—with thoughtful curation, best design practices and financial transparency. We are independent in politics and philosophy, but fully engaged in aesthetics, commerce and love.

Beginnings— is Anni Altshuler, Archie Lee Coates IV, Matthew Giordano, Caroline Hwang, Andy C. Jenkins, Matt Leines, and Joel Speasmaker