Lisa Cooley is proud to present the gallery’s inaugural exhibition – work by two artists, Frank Haines and Andy Coolquitt, who both deal with light, form, abstraction and energy. The exhibition is on view from January 20th until February 24th, 2008.

ANDY COOLQUITT’s work concerns the relationship between function and dysfunction of the domestic object. His works are both objects and environments, total sculptures defined by a poetics of conversation, process and transformation. For this exhibition, Andy has made abstract sculptures which also serve as light sources.

Lacking a proper studio at various times over the past few years, Andy used the street as both resource and workspace. He amassed a vast collection of discarded, colored metal pipes, as well as other abandoned domestic objects, including lamps and parts of chairs, elements which he recombined and would frequently leave wherever he made them.

As Andy refined his process, he began to run electrical wire through the sculptures and add lights, often as supports for the sculptures, or in dysfunctional ways suggested by the existing curvature of the pipes. Their structures were frequently inspired by “finding these connections in the street, for example where someone has repaired a broken broomstick or vacuum cleaner hose with packing tape or by globbing on silicone,”

As the light bulbs press directly against the ceiling, the wall, or the floor, they not only illuminate and support the sculptures, but also suggest maladaptation, fragility, discomfort, potential danger, energy transference, contemplation, beacons and wands.

Andy’s sculptures have a intuitive relationship with both the viewer’s body and the surrounding environment. By fully integrating the environmental information of everyday life, his sculptures pervert our historical baggage and conventional ways of viewing art and coexisting with it. As he says, “I’m interested in being with art, being next to it, or lingering in the light of it.”

FRANK HAINES’s sculptures and drawings distill metaphysical concepts into form. Fueled by alchemic texts, meditative concentration, theurgy, theosophy, Hermeticism, Eliphas Levi, Pythagoras, Yves Klein, John McCracken and early electronic music pioneers, Frank uses minerals, mirrors and geometry as metaphors for the primordial energy of the universe.

Quartz, pyrite and other naturally occurring substances represent cycles of elements, their various compound systems and the means through which they came into being. Tetrahedrons, octahedrons, icosahedrons and cubes represent Platonic solids – forms the philosopher intuitively associated with the four classical elements: earth, fire, water and air.

Frank transforms these ancient geometric forms of systematizing the universe into sculptures of grids, pyramids, arcs, mathematically segmented circles and unexpected angles, some of which stand alone while others are grouped on small shelves to create associative relationships.

By studying the fundamental forms of abstraction, Frank wishes to gain insight into the scientific, philosophical, psychological, aesthetic, and mystical laws of the universe. These basic, non-objective forms are the ideal means through which to consider the intangible, ineffable aspects of existence.

ANDY COOLQUITT lives and works in New York and Austin, Texas. He attended UCLA and the University of Texas in Austin, before taking a permanent leave of absence from higher education. Instead, he built a house from scratch, which was featured in the legendary and sadly defunct Nest magazine. He has exhibited extensively in the United States, including a collaboration with Derraindrop at Deitch Projects in New York and “22 to Watch” at the Austin Museum of Art.

FRANK HAINES lives and works in New York. He attended San Francisco State University. He has previously had solo exhibitions with Jack Hanley Gallery and Quotidian – both in San Francisco, Three Walls in Chicago, Illinois. His work was included in “Deaf 2”, a group exhibition curated by Peter Coffin at Frank Elbaz Galerie in Paris. In addition, Frank stages intense, mystical performances that are frequently timed to co-inside with celestial events. The most recent performance was an Autumnal Equinox Ceremony, inspired by a Victorian opera, The Arcadians. This event took place at Legion Barn in the Catskill National Park. Frank also performs music with Chris Kachulis as the duo Blanko and Noiry.