Jason Reppert: Parlor Tricks
Oct 8 – Oct 30, 2011
Opening Reception: October 8th, 2011 7PM-10PM
Where Are you Going, Where Have You Been” 2010
The work being presented by Jason Reppert for his exhibition Parlor Tricks at Open Source is a group of narratively driven sculptural objects. Each distinct, yet interconnected formally and conceptually, together create a Meta narrative of their own. Materials from rubber to wood were used to construct these pieces, including the use of certain “found” and recognizable “real life” objects. Yet the work retains a loose formal continuity. Although he relies on his own phantasmagoria and poetics, the literary form of the short story has long influenced Reppert. He has said of American Author Flannery O’Connor “I am particularly interested in O’Connor’s work because of her use of the grotesque, through which she reveals the ambiguous and contradictory nature of ideas pertaining to good, evil, morality and mortality. Through her unflinching descriptions of the ugliness and decrepitude of the mundane, O’Connor exhibits a peculiar ability to display the physical as a reflection of the psychological”.
Unlike much contemporary sculpture, Reppert’s constructions are of modest scale and only achieve their full effect when mounted on the wall. The use of the wall to display these objects has an isolating effect, because it removes them from interaction with other environmental elements, thus leaving them to function on their own. Despite the fact that these objects are wall-mounted, often with painted surfaces and are generally abstract, they should not be interpreted as the now typical painting/sculpture hybrid. Their conflicted relationship to the wall with which they seem comfortable yet poised for escape, as well as their raw materiality, makes them something quite their own.
Reppert states “the work I construct is the result of a longstanding preoccupation with a visual expression of the pathos and anxiety underlying the values, aspirations and ideologies of American culture. I do all of this using a quasi-narrative approach. However, the construction of the work is a very fluid process. Even if I was inspired by a specific idea or event, it is through the process of creating a piece that reinterpretation occurs, which leads to digression, mixed messages, etc.”
Reppert is a cagey artist. His intimately sized, mildly grotesque forms most often leave the viewer with a nameless sense of mild discomfort. And that is the point. Reppert is not a social satirist or critic in an obvious way. Through his work he materializes the anxiety and dread he perceives and then with a little humor he feeds it back to us through a skillful manipulation of material and form.
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Community Garden by Ruth Kaaserer
November 12th, 7pm,
In the summer of 2005 I walked into a garden in Harlem. The people within informed me that it was a community garden for the neighborhood, and that anyone could visit there whenever the gate was open. I was struck by the discovery of a whole diverse world within the city, diverse not only in plants, but in amazing people and objects too.
For the next three years it became my habit to visit community gardens all over New York City with my camera and audio recorder.
Felipe Mujica: One Day This Will All Be Yours
Felipe Mujica solo exhibition at Open Source Gallery will open on April 7, 2012
The curtain “One Day This Will All Be Yours” was inaugurated on November 30th, 2011 and will be on view until April 2012 unless otherwise announced during certain exhibitions. (No viewing during Leigh Davis’ show: Jan 14th – Feb 8th)
One Day This Will All Be Yours is a winter curtain. A fabric installation specially conceived for Open Source Gallery. It’s main objective will be to serve as a heat insulator during the cold months of winter and also as a visual and conceptual background for other projects to be produced and displayed in the exhibition space during the winter of 2011-2012.
The piece is part of a series of works made out of fabric-panels that hang dividing and organizing space. Part of a larger and ongoing project these panels must be considered as a flexible and adaptable idea, one that materializes differently depending on the context in which it is set. The project focuses on the notion of temporary architecture as a critical and fragile fabrication of space. The situations Felipe Mujica create aim to catalyze encounters, moments of collaboration: between people, people and space, people and art objects and finally between people and systems of communication.
The title of this exhibition is taken from a song by the English band The Wedding Present and it has been used by Felipe Mujica in two previous projects, as the title solo exhibition in Chile and as a title of a piece in a group show in New York. The repetition of the same title is intended to create a unifying element for three different projects, which represent the three main bodies of work developed by the artist (wall-curtains, silkscreen prints and ephemeral sculpture).
on view now
Evan Robarts and James Moore: the caveFebruary 11th – Feb 28th, 2012 Opening Reception: February 11th, 7-9pm Even Robarts: from the series “popsicles” Open Source is proud to present Evan Robarts and James Moore. A collaborative installation opening on Saturday, February 11th, 2012. Responding to their environment, Evan Robarts and James Moore will be presenting two site specific works intending to [...]
upcoming
Sara Bouchard: The News: Monday-Friday, Parts 1 & 2
Karl Spörk, Another Meeting
BETWEEN MOUNTAIN
Felipe Mujica: One Day This Will All Be Yours
Patrick Cadenhead
past
Leigh Davis: The Burrow (H.H.)
Open Source 2011
Open Source Soup Kitchen
Borderland Collective
Jason Reppert: Parlor Tricks
Felipe Mujica: One Day This Will All Be Yours
James Leonard – 927 Days at Sea
Soap Box Derby
Naoe Suzuki and Dramahound Productions: Mi Tigre, My Lover
Associated
Raphaela Riepl: adorable steamed sea urchin
Allison Read Smith: Thugs
Open Source Gallery 2008-2010
Soup Kitchen 2010
Pirmin Hagen: First
Nobuko: wa
ORFI nyc: live gig 2010
Peter Feigenbaum “Trainset Ghetto: Streetsmart”
Images NYC
make Soap Box Racers for the Soap Box Derby
ONE BIG WINDMILL
Open Source Residency w/Austrian Artists
Patricia Watwood: Portraits 20/10
Cornucopias: Paintings by Rachel Youens
Ondrej Brody & Kristofer Paetau: Wang Bin Torture in Commercial Quality, High Quality and Museum Quality
Akiyuki Ina: Emitting Evanescent Beauty
John Coburn: Fairlane Marauder
Soup Kitchen 12.1 – 12.24
Sara Ching-Yu Sun: Nov 7th- Nov 30
Victoria Stanton and Christian Richer: Sat Oct 10th
Patrick May: October 3 – november 2
Christian Brown: September 5 – October 1
Urban Plant Research: August 15 – August 30
Make Soap Box Racers! July 13th-August 8th
Hubert Dobler: June 6th – July 1st
Gary Baldwin: May 2nd – June 4th
Second Saturday Event: June 13, 7-10pm
Scott Groeniger: March 27 – April 26
Sara Bouchard: April 4th, 8pm
MonsterBASH | July 4th – August 15th | Party July 4th 4-7pm
