Read the reviews on this exhibition: Time Out, NY and Washington Post
Inside OUT is an exhibition that encompasses an aesthetic and abstract dissection of images, shapes, patterns and geometries captured from Lower East Side and the Essex Street Market locations in order to engage the audience in a dialogue with the surroundings. It proposes a visual recapitulation (or “Kodak moment”) of some of the inner elements that a visitor of the area might extrapolate via an inductive process that ensues from the immediate experience of the crossroads, streets signs, lights and of the food displayed inside the market. The works in this exhibition contains primal references to infrastructures, organs and animals that solicit a direct and visceral visual connection.
Graham Caldwell’s ethereal glass sculptures depict an organic microcosm that is both seductive and repulsive. His natural networks of interconnected vessels and backbones of mysterious species evoke narratives of human and mythical tales as well as forms interspersed through the market counters.
Wilfredo Ortega’s color saturated wall installation is inspired by a condensed bird-eye view of the urban grid. It exposes the idiosyncratic elements of the Lower East Side streets, colors and signs while emphasizing the architectural details of the gallery space.
Pawel Wojtasik’s Pigs (2006) explores segments of the mammals’ life through a pictorial and surreal imagery. Cyclical transformation of matter in an industrial farm is referenced along with issues of animal cruelty and food consumer awareness through very animated frames depicting eager and loud pigs unaware of their destiny.
Micaela Giovannotti is a NY based Independent Curator, Critic and US Correspondent for www.exibart.com. Born in Rome, she was US Editor of tema celeste contemporary art magazine from 2000 until 2006. She has curated exhibitions at White Columns, New York (2004), in Italy (Neo-Baroque! in 2005), in Miami Design District during Art Basel Miami 2006 and 2007, at White Box, New York (2008), and in Toronto, INVISIBLE CITIES video exhibition, for the Toronto International Art Fair (2008) among others. Giovannotti curated the Performance Art section and a Korean video project for tina b. 2007-The Prague Contemporary Art Festival and VIDEOCRACY, a video/site-specific/performance exhibition for tina b. 2008 at the Italian Cultural Institute in Prague. Most recently she curated PS: Parsing Spirituality at Affirmation Arts, New York and Living and Dreaming for the Bronx Museum Artist in the Marketplace program (AIM 29). In summer 2008 Giovannotti was Critic-in-Residence at the International Artist Residency, Art OMI, NY. Extensively published in international art journals, she co-authored a book, Neo-Baroque! (Charta, 2005) and has contributed to numerous other publications including IM02, L’Immagine Sottile, Galleria Comunale di Arte Contemporanea, Monfalcone, Italy 2007, Moving Layers: Contextual Video in Art and Architecture, Edilstampa, Roma 2006, Luoghi d’Affezione, Paesaggio-Passaggio, Bruxelles (2003).
Image: from left to right, Graham Caldwell, “Eyes,” Glass and steel, 2009–2010, Dimensions variable. Wilfredo Ortega, “Shifting Set” (detail) 2009, vinyl sheets and vinyl tape on wall. Washington Art Association, Washington Depot, Ct. Pawel Wojtasik, “Pigs,” 2006, Still from the video. Courtesy of the artists and Cuchifritos Gallery and Project Space.