Allison Janae Hamilton and ektor garcia at Marianne Boesky Gallery

Artists: Allison Janae Hamilton, ektor garcia

Exhibition title: Tricknology

Curated by: Sanford Biggers

Venue: Marianne Boesky Gallery, Aspen, US

Date: July 26 – September 9, 2019

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and Marianne Boesky Gallery

Marianne Boesky Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition curated by artist Sanford Biggers, featuring the work of artists Allison Janae Hamilton and ektor garcia—both of whom have long-standing relationships with Biggers. Hamilton and garcia are recognized for their complex, narra-tive-infused tactile sculptures and installation pieces. This exhibition will explore the ways in which both artists use materials to evoke history and define new mythologies—aspects of this approach are also present in Biggers’ own practice. Titled Tricknology, the exhibition takes its name from a line in a song by the group Brand Nubian that directly calls out the importance embracing one’s self, soul, and narrative as one. The exhibition celebrates this concept and practice, while critically viewing the dominant narratives that underlie our knowledge of art, culture, and history. Tricknology will be on view at Marianne Boesky Gallery’s location in Aspen, Colorado, from July 26 through September 9. As part of the exhibition, both Hamilton and garcia will present new work.

“In their seminal song Wake Up, the hip hop group Brand Nubian calls out the importance of re-claiming history and self-knowledge in order to see through the tricknology employed by those in power,” said Sanford Biggers. “The works that Allison and ektor make are enigmatic, layered, and nimble in their respective uses of personal and cultural history as well as materials. They both offer visionary insight and tools for us to construct new narratives, and I look forward to collaborating with them on this exhibition.”

Hamilton’s connections to America’s Southern and rural landscapes are at the center of her practice and the narratives she weaves within her work. Her visually-rich installations, sculptures, and video pieces incorporate and layer ideas and themes from across a wide range of subjects, including con-temporary African-American culture, folklore, the traditions of Southern farm life, and Baptist hymns. Dynamic and complex in the way it builds meaning, Hamilton’s work inspires and incites the viewer to take action. Floridawater II, a recent photographic work, for example, captures a body submerged in a dense and fertile body of water. Through the subject’s state of suspended ani-mation, Hamilton references the traditions of baptism or immersion by water as well as deities of both birth and water, such as Yemoja or Venus.

At the same time, Floridawater II alludes to the relationships between labor and southern coastal waterways, as the image was captured within a channel of interconnected rivers at the headsprings of the “Slave Canal” in Hamilton’s home region of North Florida. In this way, Hamilton’s work also addresses salient issues affecting contemporary life, such as the impact of land loss, environmental justice, and climate change. This is also seen in her series Yard Signs, which is comprised of wood panels marked with text and symbols that reference nature’s power to carry and contain collective narratives and histories, while also being susceptible to destruction. Her works are power objects that call to the viewer, disrupting and repositioning our understanding of many traditional “Ameri-can” narratives and encouraging a reassessment of often unchallenged and deeply rooted histories, notions, and preconceptions.

garcia’s work speaks to the viewer through its unfixed state and ability to engage with and react to its environment. Many of his objects feature chains or links, creating connections between different elements while also alluding to notions of breakage and reformation along new lines. poor celana, which is included in the upcoming presentation, is comprised of a glazed porcelain vessel that is weighed down by chains. While it seems immobile, it also suggests an opportunity for combining with another. Like Hamilton, garcia’s practice is focused on inciting the viewer to action. To this end, he uses a range of materials and processes—from crochet, weaving and fiber-work, to terra cotta, stoneware, and porcelain, as well as myriad found objects—to create complex assemblages and multi-layered works. In using these varied materials, garcia produces work that asks critical questions about our collective responsibility in creating and upholding societal structures and the narratives they are built upon. In bola de, a brightly colored spherical vessel that includes layers, cuts, and accretions to its ceramics body, garcia references age and history, alluding to an un-known past and people. garcia also uses his own history and cultural traditions in his practice, namely in his faithful use of crochet techniques from Tabasco in Zacetcas, Mexico.

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Allison Janae Hamilton (b. 1984) was born in Kentucky, raised in Florida, and her maternal fami-ly’s farm and homestead lies in the rural flatlands of western Tennessee. Hamilton’s relationship with these locations forms the cornerstone of her artwork. Hamilton has exhibited her work at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Storm King Art Center, New Winsor, NY; the Studio Mu-seum in Harlem, MoMA PS1, Long Island City, NY; the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC; the Jewish Museum, New York, NY; Fundación Botín, Santander, Spain; the Brighton Photo Biennial, Brighton, UK; and the Istanbul Design Biennial, Istanbul, Turkey. Solo ex-hibitions of her work include Pitch at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA), North Adams, MA (2018); Passage at Atlanta Contemporary, Atlanta, GA (2018); and Wonder Room at Recess, New York, NY (2017). She is the recipient of the Creative Capital Award and the Rema Hort Mann Foundation Grant, as well as wide range of residencies. Hamilton’s work is in numerous private and public collections including the Studio Museum in Harlem and Arte Al Límite. Hamilton received her PhD in American Studies from New York University and her MFA in Visual Arts from Columbia University. She lives and works in New York, NY.

ektor garcia (b. 1985) was born in Red Bluff, California. He received his BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2014, and his MFA from Columbia University, New York in 2016. garcia’s solo exhibitions include those at Cooper Cole, Toronto, Canada; Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany; Art Basel, Basel, Switzerland; kurimanzutto, Mexico City, Mexico. Group exhibitions in-clude those at LAXART, Los Angeles, CA; New Museum, Salon 94, and Sargent’s Daughters, New York, NY; Chicken Coop Contemporary, Portland, OR; Museo de Arte de Zapopan, Guadalajara, Mexico; ACCA, Melbourne, Australia. garcia lives and works between Mexico, New York, and wherever he loses himself.

Sanford Biggers’s (b. 1970) diverse practice explores the often overlooked cultural and political narratives of American history through the use of antique quilts, found objects, installation, film, and performance. His work is an interplay of history, narrative, and perspective speaking to current so-cial, political, and economic happenings as well as the historical context that bore them. Biggers’ work has appeared in venues worldwide. He has had solo exhibitions at the Contemporary Art Mu-seum St. Louis (2018), the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (2016), the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (2012) and the Brooklyn Museum (2011), among others. His work has been shown in several institutional group exhibitions, including at the Menil Collection (2008) and the Tate Modern (2007), and also recent exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (2017) and the Barnes Foundation (2017). In winter 2017, Biggers was awarded the prestigious Rome Prize in Vis-ual Arts by the American Academy in Rome. Biggers’ work is also held in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; the Walker Cen-ter, Minneapolis; the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington D.C.; the Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas; and the Legacy Museum, Montgomery, among others. Originally from Los Angeles, Biggers has been based in New York since 1999.

Allison Janae Hamilton and ektor garcia, Tricknology, 2019, exhibition view, Marianne Boesky Gallery, Aspen. Photo Credit: Tony Prikryl

ektor garcia, ensemble (hedz), 2019, Glazed ceramic, crocheted leather and copper wire, Dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York and Aspen. © ektor garcia. Photo credit: Jason Wyche

Allison Janae Hamilton, Floridawater II, 2019, Archival Pigment Print, Image Dimensions: 24 x 36 inches 61 x 91.4 cm, Edition of 5, with 2AP, Signed and dated in ink (verso): Allison Janae Hamilton 2019. Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York and Aspen. © Allison Janae Hamilton. Photo credit: Jason Wyche

Allison Janae Hamilton, Fencing mask 3, 2018, Fencing masks, mixed media, unique, 10 x 12 inches 25.4 x 30.5 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York and Aspen. © Allison Janae Hamilton. Photo credit: Jason Wyche

Allison Janae Hamilton, Fencing mask 14, 2018, Fencing masks, mixed media, unique, 18 x 22 inches 45.7 x 55.9 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York and Aspen. © Allison Janae Hamilton. Photo credit: Jason Wyche