Reviewed by Emily Colucci for Art F City
A Must-See Summer Group Show according to Artnet News
Denny Gallery is pleased to announce The City & The City a group exhibition of Trudy Benson, John Dante Bianchi, Michael Flomen, Ghost of a Dream, Nicolas Grenier, Justine Hill, Erin O’Keefe, Caris Reid, Jordan Tate, Russell Tyler, and Amanda Valdez. The exhibition will be in our summer popup location at 150 East Broadway, on view from June 29th to August 6th, 2016.
The City & The City is a 2009 novel by China Miéville in which two cities occupy the same geographic space but are deliberately perceived by their denizens as separate. Besźel and Ul Qoma, the two cities, exist on top of each other and around each other, but the occupants have been socialized to “unsee” the other population and exist in their own respective cities. This plot has contemporary relevance in a society where political, economic, and racial divides can make it feel as though we live in in different realities, unable to perceive others. This also has literal parallels in a neighborhood such as the Lower East Side, where Chinatown, young gentrifiers, immigrant communities, a gallery district, and an entertainment district occupy the same space. The novel also evokes a fantasy of an unseen world, which could be seen with a more open mind and altered modes of perception. The artists in the exhibition make work that relates to one or more of the themes discussed above.
The exhibition includes six artists who are represented by Denny Gallery, Justine Hill (b. 1985, lives in Brooklyn), Erin O’Keefe (b. 1962, lives in New York City), Caris Reid (b. 1983, lives in Brooklyn), Jordan Tate (b. 1981, lives in Cincinnati), Russell Tyler (b. 1981, lives in Brooklyn) and Amanda Valdez (b. 1982, lives in New York). Trudy Benson (b. 1985, lives in Brooklyn) has been exhibiting extensively since 2010 and currently has a solo at Half Gallery, New York and Galerie Bernard Ceysson, Luxembourg. John Dante Bianchi (b. 1978, lives in New York City) has had solos with Thierry Goldberg Gallery, New York and Galerie Derouillon, Paris. Michael Flomen (b. 1952, lives in New York City and Montréal) has work in collections at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Norton Museum of Fine Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the National Gallery of Canada, and the Musee national des beaux-arts de Quebec, among others. Ghost of a Dream (a collaborative duo between Lauren Was (b. 1977) and Adam Eckstrom (b. 1974)) have shown in numerous cities and are represented internationally by Galerie Paris-Beijing. Nicolas Grenier (b. 1982, lives in Los Angeles and Montréal) is represented by galerie antoine ertaskiran in Montréal and Luis De Jesus in Los Angeles and was in the 2015 Bruges Triennial and the Biennale de Montréal in 2014.
Please join us for an opening reception on Wednesday, June 29, from 6 to 8 p.m. Denny Gallery East Broadway is located at 150 East Broadway in New York City. The hours are Wednesday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. For further information, contact Elizabeth Denny or Robert Dimin at 212-226-6537 or by email at [email protected] or [email protected].
