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A work of art being understood as something that embodies itself is perhaps the oldest myth in art. A painting or sculpture is a reflection; a documentation of a process. If transparency is possible in the production of art, acknowledging this condition is the first step. The second one is acting on it.
The Popular Workshop is proud to present Low Subject opening May 10, 2013, featuring new work by David Bayus, Kate Bonner and Nico Krijno.
Through an elaborate process of composite photography, abstract diorama-like assemblages, gyclee printing and meticulously rendered oil painting, San Francisco-based David Bayus’ work oscillates be- tween abstraction and representation, creating an uncomfortable and self-reflective tension.
Using a process of reduction and transformation, San Francisco-based artist Kate Bonner’s work with- holds explanation and proposes simple fictions. Made of degenerated photocopies, cuts, and MDF board, her structures value perceptual failures and contain real boundaries, literal walls, windows and frames that limit visual access.
Both staged and spontaneous, Cape Town-based photographer, Nico Krijno’s images frequently ref- erence their creation, establishing a new, parallel reality that puts our imagination and our objective perception at loggerheads.
The field of documentation, a popular subject of discourse in contemporary art, and specifically the subject of documentation as art is explored here by these three artists. Their work challenges both the notions of what it means to photograph a work of art as a starting point for a piece, the piece itself, and the following dialogue that ensues. Bayus, Bonner and Krijno’s work inhabits all three of these spaces simultaneously. When viewing any of these works, one finds themselves looking at shadows on the wall, with the “original” artwork somewhere hidden from our view behind a curtain, or perhaps not at all. In a sense, this body of work reveals the false promise of all images, that there was ever an original in the first place.
The exhibition opens May 10th, 2013, will be on display until June 21st, 2013 and is open to the public. Low subject was curated by Luca Nino Antonucci, Andy Hawgood and Nate Hooper.
Press: Daily Serving