Dylan Spaysky at Clifton Benevento

Artist: Dylan Spaysky

Exhibition title: Tacky Glue

Venue: Clifton Benevento, New York, US

Date: November 7 – December 19, 2015

Photography: images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Clifton Benevento, New York

Clifton Benevento is pleased to present ‘Tacky Glue’, a solo exhibition of recent work by Detroit-based artist Dylan Spaysky.

Carved, whittled, glued and plumbed, Spaysky’s artworks possess a homespun temperament that might point toward the handiwork of a garage hobbyist or homemaker. Carpeted sculptures resembling cat towers are contorted to evoke figures with bad posture. Holiday decorations are compressed into wreath-like Tondo assemblages, while dish sponges are hacked into tiny cappuccinos.

Shaped by personal history, Spaysky attempts to reconcile off-the-shelf consumer product as talisman or personal artifact. He pulls material from thrift stores that trade in the excesses of comfortable suburban lifestyles, and as such, his work encourages a dual conversation about abandonment and endurance.

A new series of sculptures draw upon ‘door harps’ as their inspiration. Bending themes of domesticity with decorative impulse, his work gleefully expresses an inability to make amends with authenticity.

Dylan Spaysky (b. 1981, Waterford, MI) lives and works in Detroit, MI. Selected exhibitions include Museum of Contemporary Art (Cleveland, OH), Night Club (Chicago, IL), Cue Art Foundation (New York, NY), Susanne Hilberry (Detroit, MI), NGBK (Berlin), Michael Benevento (Los Angeles, CA), and Cleopatra’s (Brooklyn, NY). Spaysky is Co-Director of the Detroit artist-run space Cave, and has organized exhibitions around the area in venues such as Center Galleries and the abandoned car wash at Norwalk St. and Buffalo St. in Hamtramck