The following pix are from the latest installation from Plan B that opened at Ziehersmith Gallery on the 17th of April and runs through the 17th of May. The following text is from the press release.
In Karin Weiner’s new exhibition, her humorous vocabulary of survival and discovery spawns a combination of large scale sculpture and works on paper. In the latter, her signature collage elements are now attended to by impositions of paint and ink. Weiner shifts between animal and human narratives, as parallels unfold wherein the natural world mimics our daily antics and vice versa. Humans grow roots and houses sprout rainbows, while animals smoke cigarettes. In her universe of hordes and hoarding, the world seems to be inundated with itself but is never devoid of visual surprise and pleasure
view images from the exhibit The artist, recently removed from the urban bustle of New York City to the quiet of a rural Vermont studio, created the works while holed up against the forces of weather and informed by the constant radio static of dramatic world events far removed. In one installation, a tottering island is littered by ridiculous dwellings clinging for dear life to precarious crystal cliffs. Created from the accumulations of imagery and actual material of past bodies of artwork, the sculpture’s massive presence, drenched in an oily black, is lifted up by a halo of spouting rainbows. It has a range of implications from the artistic growth process to a universal desire for joy and salvation in a hazardous, morally ambiguous world.
In the main gallery, a full-size lifeboat lays run aground. Cobbled together from found wood and designed as a home for a single survivor, the piece has personal as well as political ramifications. In the artist’s own words:
When I was a kid, we would spend the summers with my father in Maine. We lived on his boat and were left alone at a very young age to mind ourselves while Dad went to work. It sounds criminal today, but to us it proved our father’s trust. In addition, we developed this incredible sense of freedom and adventure. We had a small dingy that we would row out into the middle of the bay day or night. In complete darkness, we would be amazed with the stars and the phosphorescence in the water that sent up an eerie glow when stirred by the oars. We would float around for hours, oblivious to danger and fear which should have been very real, before attempting to navigate our way back to harbor by way of the few lights on the houses. Therefore, boats have always been symbolic vessels for me. They embody something mysterious and wonderful from my childhood and even that incongruous sense of security remains appealing…
This ship is the artist’s escape pod in an upended world and represents the notion that in the end, one is left with oneself. The vessel is about her own personal salvation as much as her hopes for the future.
Karin Weiner has exhibited widely with recent solo exhibitions in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Portland as well as group shows in Boston, New York, and Vienna. This summer, she will be artist in residence at Belmont Mill in County Offaly, Ireland. This is her third solo show at ZieherSmith.
These are the latest photos of the new work being made for my show in New York in April. There are going to be two large sculptural installations and then a new group of collages to go along with the 3D pieces. Some of the collages can be seen in the newest post, but this is only a few of them.
The mountain sculpture is about 5 feet tall and is constructed out of carved foam and various found materials. All of which is then heavily coated with a homemade version of an acrylic aqua resin. The rainbows are constructed out of ply and wiggle board covered with paper mache and painted. The largest of which will appear to pierce the wall and come out on the other side in the main space of the gallery.
We've been replacing the old worn out straps on our vintage deck chairs with random bits of acrylic yarn we got at the Re-Store. A great local shop that re-sells craft materials that get donated by local businesses.
Here is a close up of the variagated yarn madness that is our chair...actually now my favorite chair to drag along to knit night or to take to the beach in warmer weather.
These fabulous (if I do say so myself) blankets are made from old jumpers that have been washed and chopped and reformed as beautiful brightly colored afghans. It keeps Barry busy, he revels in the free will to shrink our laundry. Taught him how to sew too!
This is the one that we are keeping... Its perfect for those late cold cold nights in Vermont, snuggled up on the couch in Vermont.
These six collages are the newest things to come out of the studio.Each one is around 11 inches to 13 inches square, so smaller than the recent collages shown on the west coast. The work is a bit darker than usual. Dealing with various themes having to do with natural disaster, extinction, awe and wonder in nature, human existance or dilemma, amongst other things. These works will be part of my upcoming solo exhibition at Ziehersmith in Chelsea this spring. Stop by the opening on the 17th of April at 6:00pm if you want to put back a PBR with the rest of us. Also please feel free to comment on or criticize the work, I am always open to suggestions and opposition to my ideas and images.
