PAST EXHIBITIONS:

GIA EDZGVERADZE, ROMEO DORON ALAEFF, HEATHER CANTRELL,  MICHELLE ELZAY, ROVER FEYER, PETER CRUMP

Opening Reception Saturday, November 23, 6 - 8 PM

Irena Popiashvili and Marisa Newman are pleased to announce SUITE 106’s group exhibition – My Father Told Me…. The show includes eight artists: Romeo Doron Alaeff, Heather Cantrell, Peter Crump, Martin Durazo, Gia Edzgveradze, Michelle Elzay, Tony Feyer and Gerben Mulder. My Father Told Me…links all these artists’ variations on the theme of family for this holiday season. Whether working in sculpture, painting, photography, drawing or video, these artists’ work uncover the mysteries behind each and every family.

The exhibition is titled after Gia Edzgveradze’s drawing of the same name. These words, which often preface paternal advice or recounting of family history, in Edzgveradze’s work preface a tale that is shocking, violent and one of the ultimate taboo. The content of the drawing parallels the theme of Thomas Vinterberg’s 1998 film “The Celebration,” but unlike this Dogma 95 film, Edzgveradze’s drawing is not to be taken literally. The piece resembles Eastern calligraphic drawings and his text merges with the line drawings conjuring up the Buddhist meditative aspect of his work. Gia Edzgveradze is a Georgian artist living and teaching in Dusseldorf. His installation at the 1997 Venice Biennale was also titled My Father Told Me… and this narrative and biographical theme continues throughout his work.

Romeo Doron Alaeff’s video Goin’ Down to Mexico is part of an ongoing project in which the artist documents his family, in particular the relationship between his mother and his younger brother. The 12-minute piece is captivating for its sheer sense of voyeurism. In this work, even the most mundane conversation about religion, identity and love turns into the most unexpected screenplay when discussed between his Jewish Israeli mother and her Christian Texan son.

Heather Cantrell’s triptych includes portraits of her divorced parents and the landscape outside her mother’s mobile home. The double-exposed portrait of her mother and the trailer contrasts her father’s figure sitting shut-eyed in lotus position. These two are separated by the desolate, gray landscape that stands as a metaphor for her parents’ current relationship. Cantrell, an LA based artist, made her New York debut in the Printed Matter’s The Worst of Gordon Pym continued….

Michelle Elzay’s intimate photographs of her mother were taken every morning during their summer vacation. Elzay’s fashionable mother is exposed to the camera’s harsh gaze. Stripped of her make-up, clothing and style, a timid, shy and vulnerable woman is revealed. The series includes one portrait for every day of the week and they were first shown in her solo exhibition in at the Kunstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin.

Gerben Mulder will show drawings from his Birthday series. These siblings, clad in their nightgowns and robes, emanate somber festivity as well as an extreme intensity that is characteristic of Mulder’s work. The emotions captured in the eyes, face and gestures of a boy with his sisters, forces us to confront the complexity of the child’s world. We realize this world is not as innocent, sweet and simple as we would like to believe.

Peter Crump and Martin Durazo’s sculptures refer to families indirectly. Families during the holidays come together around rituals of lights, trees, tables and gift giving. Durazo’s colored lit aquariums stacked on top of each other is the ornamented tree filled with fluorescent lights, hoses and debris. Peter Crump designed handmade chairs in different sizes and they sit empty in the gallery awaiting the family’s arrival.