(Extra)ordinary: Reimagining the Everyday | Viewing Room
Works by NARI WARD, LOUISE BOURGEOIS, ISAAC LAYMAN, MALIA JENSEN, MARIO GALLUCCI, CLAIRE COWIE & LEO BERK
Elizabeth Leach Gallery is pleased to present (Extra)ordinary: Reimagining the Everyday, a group exhibition of artworks inspired by observations and reinterpretations of the familiar. The show features artists who challenge preconceptions of the commonplace through unexpected visual interventions in sculpture, video, photography and works on paper.
The exhibition includes an early Nari Ward sculpture, Woman, made of repurposed hoses that exemplifies his re-contextualization of found objects to confront social and political issues. Louise Bourgeois’ Autobiographical Series prints read like intimate notebook musings of daily life and motherhood through symbolic imagery and figuration.
NARI WARD
Nari Ward, Woman, 1993, Fire hose from abandoned fire station in Harlem, rubber hose, garden hose, screws, PVC pipe, 62 x 45 x 42"
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Woman, 1993 (detail)
Nari Ward lives and works in New York and is known for his sculptural installations composed of discarded material found and collected in his neighborhood. He has repurposed objects such as baby strollers, shopping carts, bottles, doors, television sets, cash registers and shoelaces, among other materials. Ward re-contextualizes these found objects in thought-provoking juxtapositions that create complex, metaphorical meanings to confront social and political issues surrounding race, poverty, and consumer culture. He intentionally leaves the meaning of his work open, allowing the viewer to provide his or her own interpretation.
LOUISE BOURGEOIS
French-American sculptor, Louise Bourgeois’ semiabstract sculpture employs many media, including wood, stone, plaster, metal, and latex, and has since the 1980s included installations encompassing room-sized environments. Characterized by organic forms, her sculpture is extremely personal, sensual, and symbolic, often dealing with female identity and sexuality. She has also created a variety of paintings, drawings, prints, and, beginning in the 1990s, textile works. In addition, she is known for her highly personal and often autobiographical writings. Virtually ignored for decades, Bourgeois was finally recognized in the 1980s and 90s and has influenced many women artists. Her work is in various museum collections, e.g., New York's Whitney Museum and Museum of Modern Art, which held a 1982 retrospective of her work, as did the Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia, in 2001.
Louise Bourgeois, Autobiographical Series, 1994, drypoint and aquatint, Edition 3/35
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New photographs by Isaac Layman and recent drawings by Mario Gallucci reflect on the domestic realm through scenes that reveal something transcendent inside the quotidian. Malia Jensen’s short video Python, is an uncanny, meditative elegy to a housefly, while Claire Cowie and Leo Berk’s delightful sculptural collaboration, Endless Hug, made from repurposed materials, was inspired by ancient Byzantine niches.
ISAAC LAYMAN
Isaac Layman is a photographer who consistently pushes the limits of how an image can be constructed while using his immediate domestic surroundings as subject matter.
MARIO GALLUCCI
Originally from North Carolina, Mario Gallucci is an interdisciplinary artist living and working in Portland, OR. He received his MFA from the Hallie Ford School of Visual Studies at Pacific Northwest College of Art in 2014. He is primarily known in Portland as a photographer for artwork documentation, but his personal practice includes painting, sculpture, and video as well as photography. His studio practice examines the everyday experience and how surface, form, material and texture influence our memories and relationships with objects.
Mario Gallucci, Rock Collection, 2021 and Shell Collection, 2021, gouache, acrylic, colored pencil and pastel on paper, 17.5 x 21.5" framed
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Mario Gallucci, Toy Tiger, 2021, gouache, acrylic, colored pencil and pastel on paper, 35.5 x 28" framed
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Mario Gallucci, Driveway Tree, 2021, gouache, acrylic, colored pencil and pastel on paper, 35.5 x 28" framed
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MALIA JENSEN
The footage for Python, 2022 was shot during Malia Jensen's residency with GLEAN in 2021. To view more of her work produced during that time, visit the GLEAN Annual Exhibition, opening January 21st.
CLAIRE COWIE & LEO BERK
Claire Cowie and Leo Berk, Endless Hug, 2021, repurposed and found objects / mixed media, 77 x 40 x 26"
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Learn about the making of Endless Hug in this video from the MadArt residency
ABOUT CLAIRE COWIE > AVAILABLE WORK > PRESS >
ABOUT LEO BERK >
Watch the video tour to learn more about each artist and their work:
AVAILABLE WORK
THE EXHIBITION