Garden Show at Regards

Artists: Jason Benson, Tom Burr, Barbara Ess, Alex Felton, Petrova Giberson, Oto Gillen, Dan Graham, Frank Heath, Lena Henke, Elizabeth Jaeger, Elizabeth Orr, Nancy Shaver

Exhibition title: Garden Show

Curated by: Sam Korman

Venue: Regards, Chicago, US

Date: June 3 – July 16, 2016

Photography: images copyright and courtesy of the artists and Regards

Garden Show proposes a metaphor of urban parks. They have been transcendental spaces, corrupt spaces, lonesome spaces, spaces from which the powerful have extracted authority. They are leisure spaces, common spaces, pleasure spaces, spaces defined by a ceaselessly plodding public. They are open and display signs of no-admittance. Parks are a means to understand the progression of an American rhetoric. Like a dream, they register a migration of people and narratives. They suspend an American paradox between the urban and pastoral. They are an on-again-off-again romance with democracy.

Frederick Law Olmsted described his project, Central Park, as “the lungs of the city.” At the time, the city commonly ascribed the cause of poor health to the “miasma” of the city—New York’s vapors caused a contagious delirium of capital that affected an individual at will. Perhaps the air never cleared. There have been numerous migrations throughout the metropolis, and it is often challenging to differentiate sequestration from continual intramural emigration. Like art, however, the parks translate these conditions through a constitutional reverie, which tests and gauges how meaning is made within this democratic garden.

Sam Korman is a writer and curator based in New York. Exhibition essay by Sam Korman available on the gallery website.

Barbara Ess, Wild Horses (from Surveillance Series), 2009
Archival inkjet print, 22 x 44 inches

Jason Benson, Seed Ball Café: Kale Bombs, 2016. Collage on found substrates, kale seed balls (powdered clay, kale seeds, organic fertilizer, water), 31 1/4 x 24 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches

Jason Benson, Seed Ball Café: Kale Bombs, 2016 (detail). Collage on found substrates, kale seed balls (powdered clay, kale seeds, organic fertilizer, water), 31 1/4 x 24 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches

Tom Burr, Eight Renovations: A constellation of sites across Manhattan, 1997-2016
Vinyl wall text, Dimensions variable, Edition 1/3

Lena Henke, Boobs, #3A, 2015
Resin, steel, rubber, sand, 12 x 8 x 6 inches

Petrova Giberson, Triangle, 2016
Rhododendron stick, canvas, watercolor, 44 x 39 1/2 inches

Petrova Giberson, Yellow, 2016
Canvas, sand from Ohio Street beach Chicago, IL, Dimensions variable

Lena Henke, Untitled, 2016
Clay, glaze, plastic, wood, paint, rotating bracket, ceramic: 14 x 7 x 6 inches, ceramic: 8 x 7 x 6 inches, pedestal: 20 x 14 x 12 inches, pedestal: 24 x 14 x 13 inches

Alex Felton, 1/144 MG Ecophagic Apocalypse, 2016
Epoxy clay, styrene, Mr. Super Clear UV Cut, 16 3/4 x 11 x 10 1/2 inches

Dan Graham, Untitled, 1989
Graphite, colored pencil, ink on paper, 19 1/4 x 16 1/4 inches

Barbara Ess, Guys on Corner X Square (from Remote Series), 2011
Archival inkjet print, 8 x 10 inches

Tom Burr, Eight Renovations: A constellation of sites across Manhattan, 1997-2016
Vinyl wall text, Dimensions variable, Edition 1/3

Petrova Giberson, Numerous Pieces Of Moveable Furniture, 2016. Canvas, ink, watercolor, sand from Brighton Beach and Rockaway Beach, New York, Dimensions variable

Nancy Shaver, Thin Ticket, 2015
Canvas, dress fabric, flashe acrylic, house paint, oil paste, 12 x 21 inches

Elizabeth Jaeger, Flower 4, 2016
Painted ceramic, 12 inches (dimensions variable)

Elizabeth Jaeger, Flower 2, 2016
Painted ceramic, 12 inches (dimensions variable)

Elizabeth Jaeger, Flower 1, 2016
Painted ceramic, 12 inches (dimensions variable)

Tom Burr, Eight Renovations: A constellation of sites across Manhattan, 1997-2016
Vinyl wall text, Dimensions variable, Edition 1/3

Lena Henke, Boobs, #3A, 2015
Resin, steel, rubber, sand, 12 x 8 x 6 inches

Petrova Giberson, Walls Are / Of White Fur, 2016
Canvas sandbags, Dimensions variable

Barbara Ess, Two Distant Bays (from Surveillance Series), 2010
Archival inkjet print, 8 x 10 inches

Elizabeth Orr, MT RUSH Trailer, 2016
HD video, 1:48 loop, Edition 1/2

Elizabeth Orr, MT RUSH Trailer, 2016 (still from video)
HD video, 1:48 loop, Edition 1/2

Elizabeth Orr, MT RUSH Trailer, 2016
HD video, 1:48 loop, Edition 1/2

Dan Graham, Pergola Conservatory, 1987
Diptych: Photo collage on print out; architectural drawing, graphite, ink on tracing paper drawing, 31 3/16 x 25 5/8 x 3/4 inches