The INNOVATE Exhibit
A Group Show Presented by The Untitled Space
OPENING RECEPTION: September 12, 2021
VIP Preview 3pm – 5pm // Opening Reception 5pm – 8pm
The Untitled Space
45 Lispenard Street, NYC 10013
EXHIBITION ON VIEW
September 12 – October 2, 2021
COLLECT VIA THE UNTITLED BOUTIQUE
The Untitled Space is pleased to present The “INNOVATE” Exhibit, a group show opening on September 12th and on view through October 2nd, 2021. Curated by Indira Cesarine, the exhibition will feature artworks by more than 40 international contemporary artists investigating innovative mediums, narratives, and practices. In the midst of a challenging time as we grapple with the effects of a global pandemic, The “INNOVATE” exhibit explores in-depth themes of pioneering creativity with artists defying the odds to explore new frontiers with their work. The exhibition features a wide array of mediums, many presented in new and alternative ways, including painting, sculpture, photography, collage, fiber art, wearable art, performance art, digital art, audio art, and art using Augmented Reality.
The “INNOVATE” exhibit serves as a celebration of pioneering creativity, bringing together artists that continue to progress and evolve with artworks that forge into the future. The group exhibition presents a number of notable NFT artists who have pushed boundaries with their digital art, including Andreas Wannerstedt from Sweden, Alexy Préfontaine aka Aeforia from Montreal, Canada, and Yuge Zhou from China. London-based Greek painter Martha Zmpounou explores the line between abstraction and representation, while Italian artist and photographer Giulia Grillo, aka Petite Doll, reinvents herself into non-human forms in an effort to investigate beauty and the grotesque. Ukrainian photography duo Synchrodogs explore the interdependence of humans and nature and the digital world, while Haitian-American artist Watson Mere creates work pixel by pixel using Microsoft Paint that attacks themes of identity and racism. Brooklyn-based performance artist Asia Stewart embodies abstract sociological theories and transforms the language specific to studies of race, gender, sexuality, and diaspora into materials that can be felt and worn on the body, while interactive digital sculpture artist Jonathan Rosen uses language as a tool to ”create, question, imagine, empower, divide and destroy” with his latest work FUTURE from his Dream Machines series, created for the INNOVATE exhibition. Biofuturist designer Asher Levine navigates new technologies with his creations that explore CGI along with Augmented Reality, progressing beyond fashion into the realm of wearable art, while Texas-based fiber artist Cassie Arnold explores the unspoken and taboo topics connected to life as a woman encouraging an open and unashamed dialogue.
Exhibiting Artists: Alexy Préfontaine, Alisa McRonald, Andreas Wannerstedt, Angela Santana, Arielle Tesoriero, Asher Levine, Ashley Chew, Ashley Zelinskie, Asia Stewart, Cassie Arnold, Cath Orain, Chukes, Claire Luxton, Dance Doyle, Elena Chestnykh, Fahren Feingold, Greta Brat, Giulia Grillo AKA Petite Doll, Indira Cesarine, Isabel Beckenstein AKA The Love Whip, Jacob Hicks, Joanna Grochowska, Jonathan Rosen, Julia Curran, Junyi Liu, Kelly Shami, Kirra Cheers, Laura Kimmel, Leah Schrager, Lindsay Parker, Luigi Honorat, Marlies Plank, Martha Zmpounou, Molly Dario, Roberto Grosso, Shamona Stokes, Synchrodogs, Victoria Selbach, Watson Mere, Yuge Zhou, Zeynep Solakoglu
Curatorial Statement:
What does “innovate” mean to you? That is the question that I put forth to all of our incredibly talented artists featured in the “INNOVATE” Exhibit. As we grapple with the effects of a global pandemic, many artists have been forced to find new ways to stay creative, transforming their practice in order to overcome the challenges we have faced as a society. With the closures of the pandemic, we are experiencing a new emphasis on digital technology, with the new frontier of NFT Art, CGI, and Augmented Reality, as well as advanced technologies of digital painting and other creative programs. Artists are using their work to examine this new world as we now know it. This has been a time of introspection, reflection, and reprioritizing. Many artists have been inspired to expand their practice with new mediums and methods. Whether artists are working with traditional mediums in a new way, incorporating digital art into their practice, or re-addressing the themes of their work with a progressive interrogation, we are seeing a new wave of innovative exploration. Artwork featured in the “INNOVATE” exhibit explores the narratives of our contemporary culture while addressing prevailing themes of identity, language, cultural heritage, diaspora, the politics of other, quotidian life, the equilibrium between humans and nature, the celestial, the personal, politics, racism, the patriarchy, the environment, the afterlife, creativity, beauty, and balance. The “INNOVATE” exhibit showcases the groundbreaking work being produced by this diverse group of international artists from locations around the world, including France, Poland, Turkey, Japan, China, Ukraine, Lithuania, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Austria, Canada, United States among others. Each one of these artists has persisted in their artistic endeavors in order to bring into the world something new and inspirational for us to see, hear, and experience. – Curator Indira Cesarine
“The word innovate resonates with many aspects of my artistic practice. From an early age, I have had to be innovative. I was unable to talk until the age of five and had to create drawings and art in order to communicate. I still communicate with my art today to tell the perspectives of young people of African descent living in the world today. My main medium is Microsoft Paint with a mouse, and since this is an unusual way of making art, I have had to teach myself different techniques and methods to create my current works. The artwork I’ve been working on lately displays ancient African symbolism to speak to current black culture, offering an innovative piece to the already rich collection that is the history of African art.” – Artist Watson Mere
“The world is changing and some things it just makes no sense to ignore, they are only going to expand. Innovations in technology, cryptocurrencies, new kinds of art — all this in 10 years will be as usual as using mobile phones.” – Duo Synchrodogs
“Then came 2021, a bit of light fueled a great need for a reset. Yes, covid offered plenty of time for introspection. Yet there remained continual shock of all that divides us; who gives and who takes, the dystopian glare of red and blue, the politics of other, the family of man that sets upon its brothers. There was a daily awareness of all that makes us inexplicably different, even in our ability to contain an airborne menace. I chose, at least in my studio, to innovate my way out; to change everything, to put my head above water and breath. My motivation was the need to find what we share, what makes us who we are before the toxicants of culture.” – Artist Victoria Selbach
“The pandemic forced me to seriously reflect on the type of art that I was creating. Before 2020, I spent the majority of my time as a singer and actor working as a vessel for other individuals’ creative visions. When it was no longer possible for me to dart in and out of auditions and rehearsals for theatrical productions, I had to confront the possibility that my former work wasn’t as fulfilling as I had previously believed. When I recognized that I wanted to have greater agency as a director and creative, I began to devise and stage performances independently with whatever tools and materials I had available… Every performance that I stage allows me to return to myself. Inspired by personal and familial narratives, my conceptual art investigates topics such as internalized racism, respectability politics, compulsory heterosexuality, and sexual harassment.” – Asia Stewart
“As a woman, I aim to claim my own sexuality and express what I think liberation can look like. In a world that demonizes female sexuality, I use mixed-media art as an innovative means of normalizing it.” – Isabel Beckenstein AKA The Love Whip
“My technique is a unique synergy of digital and classical painting. I’m disrupting the traditional approach to oil painting: Each painting is initially created digitally in hundreds of layers by radical deconstruction and constant reinterpretation of the found image, also allowing digital anomalies to drench into my work… My practice is the embodiment of rejecting the classical, stereotypical depiction of women constructed by men.” – Angela Santana
“How can humans hope to transmit our cultural heritage into the future when we ourselves are impermanent, alive for only seconds when compared to the lifetime of the universe? Utilizing a post-New Media approach, wherein the media employed are merely vehicles in service of underlying concepts, I am attempting the process of translating our vast history into a universal language meant to stand the test of time” – Ashley Zelinskie
