Cuchifritos Gallery + Project Space is pleased to present Mass Mediations, a group exhibition featuring the work of four emerging artists based in different locations across the globe. Despite the various social and cultural environments these artists come from, what universally binds the logic of their artwork and personal experiences together is contemporary life’s saturation in mass media. Whether from Chicago to Moscow or Los Angeles to Manchester, mass media has opened the possibility for collective simultaneous experiences and a shared (but dissonant) global culture, consequently flattening cultural differences to a homogenous field.
The artists in this exhibition not only seek to respond to the forms that mass media has taken since it arose in the 20th century, but also portray how our participation in mass culture and mass communication influences a mass collective subjectivity. Taking sources and techniques from historical archives, televised news, photojournalism, or sports and advertising culture as their starting point, each artist in Mass Mediations manipulates mass media to explore how prevailing ideologies are embedded these outlets. Through subtle or overt alterations to the artists’ chosen appropriations, each reveal hidden mechanics and aesthetic attributes of the sources they reference. Beyond functioning as a species of ideology critique, the works in this exhibition also push the boundaries of mass media’s mode of presentation, which is often formulaic, conventional, and riddled with banalities. By conjuring up new narratives and modes of representation out of mass media’s pre-existing imagery, these works open up new spaces for critical reflection and intuitive experiences that are only held latently without the artist’s intervention.
Josh Bricker is a multidisciplinary visual artist based in Los Angeles, CA. He served in the U.S. Air Force guarding nuclear missiles as a member of a Security Forces unit and recently graduated from Parsons in New York, receiving an MFA in studio art.
Tatiana Istomina’s practice consists of video, painting and drawing. She holds a PhD in geophysics from Yale University (2010) and MFA from Parsons New School (2011). Her works have been shown in the US, Russia and Canada; she had solo shows in the US and received multiple awards.
Anna Elise Johnson earned an MFA from the University of Chicago in 2012 and a BFA in painting from Washington University in St. Louis in 2005. She is currently a Core Fellow at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston.
Thomas O’Grady gained his MFA degree from The New School in 2011. He has exhibited his work both nationally and internationally from New York to Manchester, Dresden to San Jose. In 2014 O’Grady will be taking part in a year long artists residency in the town of Silkeborg, Denmark.
Cuchifritos is FREE to the public and handicap accessible. Located inside Essex Street Market at the south end nearest Delancey.
Cuchifritos Gallery + Project Space is a program of Artists Alliance Inc., a 501c3 not for profit organization located on the Lower East Side of New York City within the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center. Cuchifritos is supported in part by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. This program is made possible by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. We thank the following for their generous support: Foundation for Contemporary Arts, New York City Economic Development Corporation and individual supporters of Artists Alliance Inc. Special thanks go to our team of dedicated volunteers, without whom this program would not be possible.