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GROUP EXHIBITION MAYA STENDHAL GALLERY January 27-February 21 For Immediate Release- Maya Stendhal Gallery is proud to present REPETITIONS, a multimedia group exhibition featuring works by Jonas Mekas, Ken Jacobs, Bill Morrison, Bob Breer, Jeff Scher, Peter Tunney, Paula Scher, Orna Bradshaw and Martin Arnold. Repetition as a subject and not merely a technique has been important to the plastic arts since the advent of Modernism; it was in the latter half of the twentieth century that repetition emerged as the dominant aesthetic of urban consciousness. This exhibition traces the use of repeated imagery and text as both material and technique in recent painting, installation, and, most pronouncedly, in film, where it operates a subversive critique of Hollywood moviemaking. All New York-born or New York-based, the artists in this exhibition examine the play and consequences of repetition on experiences of the body, movement, political consciousness, and time. Techniques such as sampling, loops, manipulated velocities, and dialectical friction are at work here, often mapping the structured chaos of city life onto the personal. Repetitive structures in the urban quotidian are exemplified not merely by daily trajectories (the commute) but also by an everyday saturation of imagery from news and other media, and the omnipresence of repetitive computer logic, all of which contributes to the emergence of a persistent aesthetic in modern and contemporary painting, sculpture, installation, and film. On view: Jonas Mekas a prolific artist, filmmaker and writer, is the founder and director of Anthology Film Archives. His work deals with exile, memory, poetry, friendship, and a love of cinema. Mekas will show "Nam June Paik at Anthology, 1997” (1997, 4:30 min., video, color) in which the video artist Nam June Paik repeatedly crushes a piano. Ken Jacobs an artist and filmmaker working in what he has called "urban guerilla cinema" and known for his innovative use of light and optical effects, will show "New York Street Trolleys 1900” (1997, 10 min., 16mm, B/W) a film that examines the effects of light and frame repetition on movement, and "The Guests” (1999 ) an installation by Ken and Flo Jacobs (74 min. continuous cycle) based on Lumiere’s ENTREE D’UNE NOCE A L’EGLISE (10 sec. section). Bill Morrison is an artist and filmmaker whose work deals lyrically with notions of cultural erosion and decay. His film "Outerborough" (2005, 10 min., 35mm, B/W, Silent, Cinemascope) is a split-screen meditation on speed, repetition, and the Brooklyn-Manhattan commute. Bob Breer is an artist and animator whose interest in movement, humor, unconventional narrative techniques, and performance find roots in the paintings of Paul Klee as well as Pop and documentary traditions. Breer will show "Recreation" (1956, 2min., Animation) and "What Goes Up" (2003, 4:36 min., Animation). Jeff Scher is an artist and filmmaker working primarily in animation, known for his innovative Motion Portrait technique and for his blending of antique rotascope technology with a high-speed, color-saturated pop-art aesthetic. Scher will show three shorts, “Memento Mickey” (premiere, 2005, 2:50 min., Animation, Silent), “Sid” (1998, 4 min., 16mm, B/W), and “The Jacobsons” (2000, 3 min., 16mm, B/W). Peter Tunney is a pop artist working in photography, painting, multimedia installation, and performance, who began his career as a Wall Street investor; Tunney will show "Shakespeare I, Shakespeare II", fragments from Shakespeare sonnets stenciled on boards. Paula Scher is an artist, graphic designer, and Pentagram principal whose work is formally innovative and politically outspoken. Scher will show “News: 2001 - 2003” (2004), a series on paper that chronicles events in global news media through commix-style text explosions. Orna Bradshaw is a New York-based artist whose paintings aim to engage the viewer in dialectical polemics. Her series of twelve paintings "Iterations" (2005) juxtaposes images of women within an evolving system of binary conflicts. Martin Arnold, a filmmaker and installation artist, will show the film "Alone. Life Wastes Andy Hardy" (1998, 15 min., 16mm, B/W), which rearranges a Hollywood classic to reveal hidden subtleties behind a "cinema of repression." An Opening Reception will take place on February 3 from 6 to 9 p.m. Artists will be present. Maya Stendhal Gallery is open Tuesday-Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. For further information, or to arrange a private viewing, please contact the Gallery. MAYA | STENDHAL | GALLERY | 545 West 20th Street New York 10011 www.mayastendhalgallery.com tel. 212.366.1549
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