FURROW, a two person exhibition with artists R. Blair Sullivan and Kevin Lips. This exhibition at TURN Gallery will feature R. Blair Sullivan’s chemigrams and Kevin Lips’s sculptures.
R. Blair Sullivan’s chemigrams are meditations on the micro-organisms involved in the process of photosynthesis, cyanobacteria. Like a plant, a chemigram, which is a cameraless photograph, is dependent upon light for its creation. For R. Blair Sullivan, the "furrow" is his sculpting stage, set not with a tool, but rather human hands, where the growth process is encouraged and manipulated. Dents and grooves depict the harsh reality of the human effect on the fragility of our environment. His skill lies in his inherent ability to balance abandon and control, mapping the resist that reflects the unpredictability of human interaction with nature. R. Blair Sullivan questions our habitual manners, shared mythologies, and everyday attractions and actions.
R. Blair Sullivan has exhibited at Van DeWeghe, New York, NY; Marianne Boesky, New York, NY; The Journal Gallery, New York, NY; and MoMa PS1, New York, NY. His work is in the Reykjavik Living Arts Museum, Reykjavik ,Iceland.
In Kevin Lips's work, the mark of the hand is always evident - in fact, it is necessary. Devoid of decoration, his work is concerned with imperfect beauty where unhidden blemishes and traces are celebrated. Working with an economy and directness of gesture, Kevin Lips allows his use of clay to retain the movement of its making trusting that a sense of permanence can be conveyed through objects that lean toward the unfinished. His process, material, volume and accumulation of surface information reflect monuments and totems, religious relics and fetish objects.
Kevin Lips is the 2015 recipient of a Jerome Foundation emerging artist grant. His works have been shown at P.P.O.W., New York, NY; Interstate Projects, New York, NY; and at the Centre Céramique Contemporain, La Borne, France.