BRENNA MURPHY SunriseSequence, 2015 Archival pigment print mounted on Dibond 35 x 30 in. (88.9 x 76.2 cm)
BRENNA MURPHY SunriseSequence~inlet, 2015 Archival pigment print 28 x 30 in. (71.1 x 76.2 cm) Courtesy of American Medium
BRENNA MURPHY Daytime~Terrace, 2015 Archival pigment print mounted on Dibond 30 x 30 in. (76.2 x 76.2 cm) Courtesy American Medium
BRENNA MURPHY Daytime~Corridor Module, 2015 Archival pigment print mounted on Dibond 30 x 33 5/16 in. (76.2 x 84.6 cm) Courtesy of American Medium
IMAN ISSA Devotees (Study for 2014), 2014 Walnut and wood sculpture, text panel under glass, white plinth Overall: 67 1/8 x 23 5/8 x 34 1/2 in. (170.5 x 60 x 87.63 cm) Text panel: 11 x 17 in. (27.94 x 43.18 cm) Edition of 4 Courtesy Rodeo Gallery
IMAN ISSA Laboring (Study for 2012), 2012 Mahogany sculpture, text panel under glass, and white plinth Overall: 53 x 11 12 in. (134.62 x 29.21 cm) Text panel: 11 x 17 in. (27.94 x 43.18 cm) Edition of 4 Courtesy Rodeo Gallery
IMAN ISSA Fortune Teller (Study for 2013), 2013 Framed c-print and text panel under glass Photoraph: 20 5/8 x 31 x 1 1/2 in. (52.38 x 78.74 x 3.81 cm) Text panel: 11 x 17 in. (27.94 x 43.18 cm) Edition of 4 Courtesy Rodeo Gallery
MICHAEL RIEDEL Untitled (Form), 2014 Silkscreen on linen 90 1/2 x 67 x 2 1/4 in. (229.9 x 170.2 x 5.7 cm) Courtesy David Zwirner, New York/London
LEE MULLICAN Untitled, n.d. Oil on canvas 50 x 40 in. (127 x 101.6 cm)
LEE MULLICAN Chant and Dance, 1972 Oil on canvas 50 x 40 in. (127 x 101.6 cm)
PAUL LAFFOLEY Alchemy: The Telenomic Process of the Universe, 1973 Oil, acrylic, ink, and vinyl press type on canvas 73 1/2 x 73 1/2 in. (186.7 x 186.7 cm)
PAUL LAFFOLEY The World Self, 1967 Oil, acrylic, and vinyl press type on canvas with a magic mirror 61 1/2 x 61 3/8 in. (156.2 x 155.9 cm)
SHANNON EBNER Electric Comma Three, 2013 Archival pigment print 43 x 60 in. (109.2 x 152.4 cm) Edition of 5
MICHAEL PORTNOY Kalochrome 5A, 2014 Screen print on canvas 49 1/2 x 44 in. (125.7 x 111.8 cm)
SHANNON EBNER Electric Comma Four 2013 Archival pigment print 43 x 60 in. (109.2 x 152.4 cm) Edition of 5
MICHAEL PORTNOY Kalochrome 1A, 2014 Screen print on canvas 49 1/2 x 44 in. (125.7 x 111.8 cm)
KRIWET Comic Strip, 1970 Silkscreen print on PVC 230 11/16 x 39 5/16 in. (586 x 100 cm)
KRIWET Comic Strip, 1970 Silkscreen print on PVC 231 7/16 x 39 5/16 in. (588 x 100 cm)
KRIWET Comic Strip, 1970 Silkscreen print on PVC 231 7/8 x 39 5/16 in. (589 x 100 cm)
JOSH KLINE ThinkStrong, 2013 Blood doped with Welbutrin, cast-urethane, refrigeration elements, lightbox pedestal (fluorescent lights, wood, Plexiglas) 47 1/2 x 14 1/4 x 11 1/2 in.
(120.7 x 36.2 x 29.2 cm) Courtesy of 47 Canal
JOSH KLINE ThinkStrong (detail), 2013 Blood doped with Welbutrin, cast-urethane, refrigeration elements, lightbox pedestal (fluorescent lights, wood, Plexiglas) 47 1/2 x 14 1/4 x 11 1/2 in. (120.7 x 36.2 x 29.2 cm) Courtesy of 47 Canal
MARGARET LEE Lemons + (it is what you think), 2015 Alabaster, stainless steel, walnut verneer Dimensions variable Courtesy Jack Hanley Gallery
NONGIRRNGA MARAWILI Baratjula, 2014 Paint on board Each: 94 7/16 x 47 3/16 in. (240 x 120 cm)
GABRIEL SIERRA Untitled (Sketch for a Window), 2008-15 “Why do we make square windows if the sun is round?” Spray paint
ROMAN STETINA Untitled (Auditorium), 2014 Installation, digital print on fabric, metal constructions, black and white photograph Photograph, framed: 12 x 15 x 1 1/4 in. (30.48 x 38.1 x 3.175 cm) Curtain: 132 1/4 x 275 1/2 in. (335.91 x 698.5 cm) Edition of 3 Courtesy Polansky Gallery
ROMAN STETINA Untitled (Auditorium), 2014 Installation, digital print on fabric, metal constructions, black and white photograph Photograph, framed: 12 x 15 x 1 1/4 in. (30.48 x 38.1 x 3.175 cm) Curtain: 132 1/4 x 275 1/2 in. (335.91 x 698.5 cm) Edition of 3 Courtesy Polansky Gallery
DOUG ASHFORD Next Day, page A1, 2015 Inkjet print on paper Paper size: 37 x 23 in. (94 x 58.42 cm) Edition of 3 Courtesy Wilfried Lentz
DOUG ASHFORD Next Day, page A2, 2015 Inkjet print on paper Paper size: 37 x 23 in. (94 x 58.42 cm) Edition of 3 Courtesy Wilfried Lentz
DOUG ASHFORD Next Day, page A3, 2015 Inkjet print on paper Paper size: 37 x 23 in. (94 x 58.42 cm) Edition of 3 Courtesy Wilfried Lentz
DOUG ASHFORD Next Day, page A8, 2015 Inkjet print on paper Paper size: 37 x 23 in. (94 x 58.42 cm) Edition of 3 Courtesy Wilfried Lentz
DOUG ASHFORD Next Day, page A19, 2015 Inkjet print on paper Paper size: 37 x 23 in. (94 x 58.42 cm) Edition of 3 Courtesy Wilfried Lentz
DOUG ASHFORD Next Day, page A27, 2015 Inkjet print on paper Paper size: 37 x 23 in. (94 x 58.42 cm) Edition of 3 Courtesy Wilfried Lentz
James Cohan Gallery is pleased to present a group exhibition curated by Tina Kukielski entitled All Watched Over, opening on June 25th, 2015 and running through August 7th, 2015.
Richard Brautigan’s poem All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace, written in 1967 while he was poet-in-residence at the California Institute of Technology, anticipates an ecosystem where animal, human, and machine live in harmony with nature. Freed from the constraints of labor and balanced by cybernetic feedback mechanisms that regulate and sustain life, the humans in Brautigan’s short poem flourish in a naturalistic techno-utopia. Years later, acclaimed documentary journalist Adam Curtis appropriated Brautigan’s title when he aired a BBC television series under the same name in 2011. From the standpoint of the recent past, Curtis’s wide-reaching documentary analyses the vicissitudes of the postmodern techno-utopia Brautigan alludes to in his poem. In his signature style, Curtis argues that computers have failed to be the great liberators they were once purported to be.
With the promise of a cybernetic techno-utopia as its backdrop, this exhibition brings together a group of artists who apply systems to and in their work. Across a diversity of practices and cultures, the dominant theme in All Watched Over is art in the form of information processing and its diagramming. Set against today’s data-processed landscape, the artworks in All Watched Over transform data into hidden messages, unifying theories, complex diagrams, and personal or cultural cosmologies. As such, subjects of encoding and encryption percolate in a number of works on view; they manifest as algorithmic or systemic codes on the one hand, and through abstraction and the optical experience of language on the other.
Doug Ashford, Shannon Ebner, Iman Issa, Josh Kline, KRIWET, Paul Laffoley, Margaret Lee, Nonggirrnga Marawili, Lee Mullican, Brenna Murphy, Michael Portnoy, Michael Riedel, Gabriel Sierra, Roman Štětina
Click here for more detailed information on the artists.
Tina Kukielski is an independent curator and writer based in New York. Her recent projects include co-curating the acclaimed international exhibition the 2013 Carnegie International; Antoine Catala: Distant Feel (both at the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh); Ugo Mulas: A Sensitive Surface (Lia Rumma, Milan and Naples); and editor of the recent collaborative monograph of Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh and Hesam Rahmanian (Kunsthalle Zürich/Mousse). Kukielski held a curatorial position at the Whitney Museum of American Art from 2002-2010 where she organized solo museum exhibitions with artists Sadie Benning, Corin Hewitt, Omer Fast, Taryn Simon, and Sara VanDerBeek and wrote about the work of Gordon Matta-Clark and William Eggleston among others. Kukielski is also a contributor to Artforum, Mousse Contemporary Art Magazine and The Exhibitionist.
For press inquiries, please contact Cassandra Robinson at crobinson@jamescohan.com or at 212-714-9500.
