Martin Basher | The Armory Show 2012
08.03 - 11.03
Starkwhite will stage a solo presentation by New York-based artist Martin Basher at The Armory Show from 8-11 March 2012. The presentation will feature new paintings and sculptures and will build on elements of recent sculptural projects including a recent Public Art Fund commission, titled MINIMAL CONSUMPTION / REFLECTIVE SUBLIME / ASPIRATIONAL SUNSET ART.
In this work, two-way mirrored sculptures appear solid and minimal by day, but turn into brightly lit display vitrines by night. By day the forms reference facades of security booths and office buildings, and nod to the legacy of Basher’s minimalist forbears. By night the cubes reveal themselves to be transparent, internally reflective, and intensely lit from within. The mirroring effect reveals the cubes as display units, reflecting their contents to infinity. Inside, plants, paintings and sculptures are propped on shelving units, display pedestals and clothing racks. Like an amalgam of 5th Ave couture and rundown bodega, or financial-district boardroom alongside Rite-Aid, the contents appear concurrently gorgeous and degraded, collapsing consumer desire and spiritual idealism between the architectures of corporate power and discount retail window.
For The Armory Show, Basher will exhibit paintings and sculpture furthering this investigation. The booth will feature panels of two-way mirror, stands, and arrangements of grid wall alongside a series of optically complex abstract paintings. Viewers will be able to see through some work and be reflected in others – almost as if they have stepped inside one of his mirrored display vitrines. Rather than merely passively looking in, the viewer will become an integral part of the piece, moving amongst grid and reflection. The work will allow viewers to look, and perhaps to also reflect, literally, and metaphorically, on the conditions of art, commerce, and desire.
Martin Basher (b. 1979) grew up in Wellington but has lived in New York for over a decade. He holds a BA in Fine Art and a MFA, both from Columbia University, New York. He has exhibited widely in New Zealand and internationally. Last year he completed a major new outdoor sculpture commission for The Public Art Fund in New York that was on view for 9 months at the MetroTech Plaza, Brooklyn. Other recent group shows include: Chinese Takeout, Art in General, NY (2011); Collected, Cuchifritos, NY, curated by Felicity Hogan (2010); Unspecified Objects, Thierry Goldberry Projects, NY (2010); Dancing Feet, 179 Canal, NY, curated by Colby Bird and Tova Carlin (2010); Heavier Than A Death In The Family, 25CPW, NY, curated by Per Bilgren and Shannon Smith (2009); Two Degrees of Separation, Gallery Satori, NY, curated by Eun Young Choi (2009); Autumn,Neiman Gallery, Columbia University (2010); and Reality Sandwiches, Artnews projects, Berlin, curated by Margherita Belaief (2009). Curatorial projects include: Dance Sons and Daughters Dance! An exhibition of emergent American positions in video art, Physics Room Christchurch, NZ (2009); and The Leisure Suite: Images of Domestic Malaise and Redemption, Leroy Neiman Gallery, Columbia University, NY (2008).