Artist: Odessa Straub
Exhibition title: Puss Palace Panic Room
Venue: COOPER COLE, Toronto, Canada
Date: August 1 – 31, 2019
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and COOPER COLE, Toronto
COOPER COLE is pleased to present Puss Palace Panic Room , a solo exhibition by Odessa Straub in the gallery’s annex location. This marks Straub’s first solo exhibition in Canada.
A Fantastical Palace, a defensive fortress, a puss prison.
Architecture melds with the objects adorning her form.
Heels hobble, hair’s harnessed, purses snatched.
These objects, rendered aggressive on the form of a Brick House (she’s mighty mighty), present as shields.
She grows into it, expelling dank spaces of imposed Damaged Demure Damsel.
Arms and legs protruding from windows and doors, puss palace mobilized.
The figures and forms of Odessa Straub’s new work embody the human disjuncture of compartmentalized emotions. Points of tension and unease are mined and articulated through an abstracted, narrative language. Straub begins with decisive subjects and actions that she dispels within dreamy, foggy realms. Creating elusive spaces that often carry singular identifiers-a chair, a window- her figures float ungrounded, suspended in place, but with the possibility of taking flight.
Odessa Straub (b. 1989, Brooklyn, NY) graduated with a BFA from The Cooper Union (2013). Solo exhibitions include, Puss Palace Panic Room, Cooper Cole, Toronto, Canada (2019); Migrating Contents, ALAC, Los Angeles, CA (2018), Tennis Elbow, The Journal Gallery, Brooklyn, NY (2017); Real Puss Technologies, SEPTEMBER, Hudson, NY (2017); Odessa Straub, NADA, NY (2017) ; Tears in Housebreaking Letting the Gold, Acappella, Napoli, Italy (2016); Necrotizing Woos, Jeffrey Stark, New York, NY (2016); Seasonings on Precipice Perception, Mier Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (2015). Two and three person exhibitions include, Jaywalkers: Eddie Martinez, Rafael Delacruz, and Odessa Straub, Loyal Gallery, Stockholm, Switzerland (2019); Viewing Room: Agathe Snow and Odessa Straub, Marlborough Contemporary, Chelsea, NY (2017). Group exhibitions include, Yellow, SEPTEMBER, Hudson, NY (2019), Inflatable Dolls, Women’s History Museum at Springsteen Gallery, Baltimore, MD (2019); Peanuts, Eighteen Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark (2019); NADA Miami, Cooper Cole (2018); Simili Stone, organized by Jacques Vidal, LA KAJAE, Brooklyn, New York (2018); night walk, Inman Gallery, Houston, Texas (2018); Summerfest, curated by Lauren Taschen, Max Hetzler, Berlin, Germany (2017); Fresh Cuts, Eric Firestone, Hamptons, NY (2016); Blue Jean Baby, SEPTEMBER, Hudson, NY (2016); Perfect Present: Three Generations of Painting, Jeffrey Stark, New York, NY (2015); Present Conditional, Mier, Los Angeles, CA (2015); That’s The Neighbor, Always Dressing These Boulders In The Yard, The Suzanne Geiss Company, New York, NY (2014); In 2019, Odessa published a zine with innen Zines, Zürich, Switzerland, and was nominated and selected for a studio space at Art Cake, founded by Cordy Ryman and Ethan Ryman Brooklyn, NY. Odessa Straub lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
Odessa Straub, Puss Palace Panic Room, 2019, exhibition view, COOPER COLE, Toronto
Odessa Straub, Puss Palace Panic Room, 2019, exhibition view, COOPER COLE, Toronto
Odessa Straub, Previous Precautionary Practice, 2019, Acrylic, dye, leather and patent leather on canvas, 55 x 42 in (139.7 x 106.7 cm)
Odessa Straub, Projecting Palpable Presence, 2019, Silk organza, acrylic and dye on panel, 62 x 64 in (157.5 x 162.6 cm)
Odessa Straub, Purging Precipice Perspective, 2019, Acrylic on canvas, 34 x 28 in (86.4 x 71.1 cm)
Odessa Straub, Puss Palace Panic Room, 2019, Wood, cabinet hardware, sheepskin, rug, purses, backpack, shoe form, turtle shells, dye, 86 x 27 x 78 in (218.4 x 68.6 x 198.1 cm)
Odessa Straub, Puss Palace Panic Room, 2019, Wood, cabinet hardware, sheepskin, rug, purses, backpack, shoe form, turtle shells, dye, 86 x 27 x 78 in (218.4 x 68.6 x 198.1 cm)
Odessa Straub, Puss Palace Panic Room, 2019, Wood, cabinet hardware, sheepskin, rug, purses, backpack, shoe form, turtle shells, dye, 86 x 27 x 78 in (218.4 x 68.6 x 198.1 cm)
Odessa Straub, Puss Palace Panic Room, 2019, Wood, cabinet hardware, sheepskin, rug, purses, backpack, shoe form, turtle shells, dye, 86 x 27 x 78 in (218.4 x 68.6 x 198.1 cm)
Odessa Straub, Puss Palace Panic Room, 2019, Wood, cabinet hardware, sheepskin, rug, purses, backpack, shoe form, turtle shells, dye, 86 x 27 x 78 in (218.4 x 68.6 x 198.1 cm)
Odessa Straub, Puss Palace Panic Room, 2019, Wood, cabinet hardware, sheepskin, rug, purses, backpack, shoe form, turtle shells, dye, 86 x 27 x 78 in (218.4 x 68.6 x 198.1 cm)
Odessa Straub, Puss Palace Panic Room, 2019, Wood, cabinet hardware, sheepskin, rug, purses, backpack, shoe form, turtle shells, dye, 86 x 27 x 78 in (218.4 x 68.6 x 198.1 cm)
Odessa Straub, Puss Palace Panic Room, 2019, exhibition view, COOPER COLE, Toronto
Odessa Straub, Puss Palace Panic Room, 2019, exhibition view, COOPER COLE, Toronto
