Gedi Sibony continues to repurpose and recycle objects, but his new work moves considerably beyond the abject provisionality of earlier work. In Greene Naftali’s bunker-like new ground-floor space on W.26th Street, Sibony presents huge pieces of metal cut from a stash of decommisioned semi trailers. The logos and advertising text are painted out (redacted), and the metal flats are presented as traditional paintings, humbly hung on the wall like any other painting exhibition.
[Image: Gedi Sibony, Stumble Riser, 2014, aluminum semi-trailer, 120 3/8 x 90 1/2 inches
At first glance when I walked into the gallery, I thought Sibony, known for propping and draping slight objects in compelling arrangements, had opted for a more traditional route, exploring an unexpected combo of Abstract Expressionism and Minimalism akin to Jacqueline Humphries’s large-scale paintings.
all the nuts, bolts and rivets from their previous lives intact.
According to the press release, Sibony has been harvesting these
enormous metal slabs for the last five years–an undertaking which,
considering the labor, effort and storage costs involved, is anything
but casual.
“Gedi Sibony,” Greene Naftali, Chelsea, New York, NY. Through November 8, 2014.
Note: Kudos to Greene Naftali for the simpler, more straight-forward new website design. I never liked all those pop-up boxes!
Related posts:
By Any Other Name: Casualism at DODGE
The Casualist tendency
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Fantastic site, just discovered it.