Voyeur Voyager Forager Forester is a continuation of Birnbaum’s practice of collecting obsolescent objects and repurposing these collections with whimsy and aesthetic rigor. The installation comprises more than forty used, wood-paneled mini-refrigerators stacked in totems of varied height, which will be positioned close together filling the main space of the gallery. The interiors of the fridges house micro-worlds of color-coordinated elements from Birnbaum’s collections and miniature objects he has fabricated. The viewer will be able to explore the interiors of the fridges, inviting an experience of voyeurism and discovery. The fridges will be plugged in and humming, moving the air in the space, so that the experience of the exhibition will not only be visual and tactile, but also aural and olfactory. Many of Birnbaum’s projects have featured domestic objects, and are thus informed by Birnbaum’s interests in design, consumer culture, and notions of private and public space. Birnbaum’s work engages with the legacy of Duchamp in his use of the readymade object, humor, and voyeurism, as well as Minimalism in his use of everyday materials, shifts in scale, and formal concerns.
Brent Birnbaum has exhibited previously with the gallery in the group exhibition Share This! Appropriation After Cynicism in 2014 followed by SPRING/BREAK Art Show in 2015, where Elizabeth Denny co-curated Birnbaum’s monumental installation of a sculpture of eleven painted, running treadmills. Voyeur Voyager Forager Forester is Brent Birnbaum’s first solo exhibition at Denny Gallery.
Brent Birnbaum was born in 1977 in Dallas, Texas. He lives in Queens, NY and works in Brooklyn, NY. He received his MFA in 2006 from the School of Visual Arts in New York City and his BFA in 2001 from the University of North Texas, Denton. He is the cofounder of Topless, a seasonal exhibition space in Rockaway Beach, NY, and has an extensive exhibition history, showing at the Abrons Art Center, NY; Casino Luxembourg, Luxembourg; Marta Herford, Germany; The New Bedford Art Museum, MA; Marianne Boesky Gallery, NY; and Regina Rex, NY. His work has been featured in The New York Times, Hyperallergic, New York Magazine’s Vulture, Artforum, among other publications.
PRESS
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Read review on Hyperallergic
Read review in Eyes Toward the Dove
Please join us for an opening reception for Brent Birnbaum.
