The Marble Mouth Oracle at Below Grand

Artists: Joe Bochynski, Caleb Jamel Brown, You Ni Chae, Gabriel Cohen, Jesse Genepi, Sarah Miska, Erik Probst, Randy Wray

Exhibition title: The Marble Mouth Oracle

Curated by: Andrew Woolbright

Venue: Below Grand, New York, US

Date: October 1 – November 7, 2021

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and Below Grand, New York

A gelatinous saudade has created its own forever-amnesia. Time has been more liquid, free-floating, moves quick with disaster and then gets stuck for weeks on end in gooey epoche. Whatever you call it– the long 90s, the infinite now, the end of history, the altermodern – it all has the speed of a lava lamp. Lacking memory, it can only offer aleatory repetition and viscous non-savoir. The shapes the lava lamp generates aren’t trying to repeat the shapes that came before, but they often do.

When the oracle finally goes to speak, marbles start dropping out of his mouth and rolling along the floor. The oracle can’t get the meaning out. The harder he tries to mouth the words the more marbles keep falling; and the more the noise sounds like a chanting murmur. Soon, the marbles carry and become the message. The bouncing, clicking, animism rolls away.

The marbles are whispering to each other as they roll. It is a vibrant, permanent murmur that exists between them. To us, it is all noise without a signal, but deep down we know that it has syntax. We just can’t make sense of it. We listen in but we haven’t been invited to the dance.

Joe Bochynski (b. 1986, Buffalo, NY) was an elementary school safety patrol member from 1996-1997, altar server from 1999-2004, and father since 2016. His mosaic bricolage artwork focuses on the rituals and allegories found within daily life; saving them from the dustbin of the endless scroll. He received a BA in Mathematics and Studio Art from Hobart College in 2008, and an MFA in painting from RISD in 2013. His first artist book was published in 2016 by CEPA Press with support from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. He participated in the Emerging Artist Fellowship at Socrates Sculpture Park in Queens, NY in 2017 and was a fellow at the Vermont Studio Center in 2015. Bochynski exhibits in the United States and works in Brooklyn, NY.

Caleb Jamel Brown (b.1993 Atlanta, Ga) is a multidisciplinary artist, working primarily in collage, photography, painting, and installation. Brown’s work, often uses up-cycled fabrics and paper, layered with photographs, paint, thread, clothes pens, and various other materials to communicate the act of thinking and working through themes of labor & leisure, ancestral history, mental health in black communities, and the use of abstraction and vernacular as the foundation for larger cultural narratives. Brown has exhibited and participated in residencies throughout the United States and abroad including PATA, Lodz, Poland; Proyecto Ace, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Coleman Arts Center, York, Al; Doomed Gallery, London, England; Plough gallery, Tifton, Ga; Portugal, Burnaway, Atlanta, Ga, and Mint, Atlanta, Ga.

Youni Chae (b. Daegu, South Korea) received her MFA in 2008 from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has had solo exhibitions at Guertin’s Graphics in NY, Adds Donna, 65Grand and Julius Caesar galleries in Chicago. Youni Chae lives and works in Queens, USA

Gabriel Cohen is an artist, author and curator currently based in Los Angeles, CA. His work addresses themes of loss and distance and their relationship to various notions of scale (either real or metaphorical). Cohen’s work has been including in presentations with ADDS DONNA (Chicago, IL), White Columns (New York, NY), Kings Leap (New York, NY), QUEENS (Los Angeles, CA), and has been supported by solo presentations at New Works (Chicago, IL) and In Lieu (Los Angeles, CA). Additionally, Cohen has presented public projects with Sweet Pass Sculpture Park (Dallas, TX), RISD Museum (Providence, RI), the Hammer Museum (Los Angeles, CA), and the NY based radio station WFMU.

Jesse Genepi (b.1995) lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. He is a recent graduate of the University of California-Davis studio arts MFA program. Genepi’s paintings take influence from fantasy, science fiction, esotericism, and a queer collage sensibility. Working through a collage tradition rooted in the cut up technique – his syncretic painting process pays reverence to antiquity, philosophy, and alchemical processes; with the intention of generating an encoded visual lore to be decrypted by the viewer.

Sarah Miska (b. 1983, Folsom, CA) Soon to present a solo exhibition at Night Gallery, Los Angeles and recently presented a solo exhibition at Hernando’s Hideaway, Miami. In the spring of 2022 she will present a solo show at Friends Indeed, San Francisco. Her work has also been featured in group exhibitions at Super Dutchess, New York, Dread Lounge Gallery, Los Angeles, MIM Gallery, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles and UCLA Wight Gallery, Los Angeles. She lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.

Erik Probst (b. 1990, Raleigh, NC) is an artist living and working in Brooklyn, NY. His work explores surrealistic themes and narratives using traditional drawing techniques. He attended both Columbus College of Art &Design and Indiana University where he earned a BA in studio art in 2013. He’s participated in exhibitions at TAG Gallery in Los Angeles, Super Dutchess Gallery in New York and Gallery Shoshinkan in both Japan & New York.

Randy Wray (b.1965, NC) is an artist living and working in Brooklyn, NY. His paintings and sculptures have been exhibited at the Weatherspoon Art Museum, NC; Galeria Camargo Vilaça, São Paulo; White Columns, NY; Greenville County Art Museum, SC; MoMA PS1, NY; Cranbrook Art Museum, MI; Socrates Sculpture Park, NY; and Kohler Arts Center, WI. Wray is the recipient of awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Gottlieb Grant, a NYFA Painting Fellowship, a Lillian Orlowsky and William Freed Grant, and the Inaugural Irving Sandler Prize.

Installation view of The Marble Mouth Oracle. Pictured (left to right): Sarah Miska, You Ni Chae, Caleb Jamel Brown, and Randy Wray

Installation view of The Marble Mouth Oracle. Pictured (left to right): You Ni Chae, Caleb Jamel Brown, and Randy Wray

Installation view of The Marble Mouth Oracle. Pictured (left to right): Sarah Miska, You Ni Chae, Caleb Jamel Brown, and Randy Wray

Installation view of The Marble Mouth Oracle. Pictured (left to right): Sarah Miska, Randy Wray, and Jesse Genepi

Installation view of The Marble Mouth Oracle. Pictured (left to right): Joe Bochynski, Sarah Miska, and Randy Wray

Installation view of The Marble Mouth Oracle. Pictured (left to right): Joe Bochynski, Sarah Miska

Installation view of The Marble Mouth Oracle. Pictured (left to right): Randy Wray and Jesse Genepi

Installation view of The Marble Mouth Oracle. Pictured (left to right): Sarah Miska and Randy Wray

Installation view of The Marble Mouth Oracle. Pictured (left to right): Randy Wray and Gabriel Cohen

Installation view of The Marble Mouth Oracle. Pictured (left to right): Randy Wray, Jesse Genepi, and Gabriel Cohen

Randy Wray. Relic. Wood, foam, plastic, papier-mache, acrylic, sand. 52 x 37 x 26 inches. 2017

Randy Wray. Accelerator. Wood, papier-mâché, denim jeans, test tubes, quartz crystals, wire, coins, buttons, acrylic paint, oil paint, Aqua-Resin, epoxy resin. 64 x 34 x 25 inches. 2011

Randy Wray. Wood, papier-mâché, denim jeans, test tubes, quartz crystals, wire, coins, buttons, acrylic paint, oil paint, Aqua-Resin, epoxy resin. 64 x 34 x 25 inches. 2011

Randy Wray. Accelerator. Wood, papier-mâché, denim jeans, test tubes, quartz crystals, wire, coins, buttons, acrylic paint, oil paint, Aqua-Resin, epoxy resin. 64 x 34 x 25 inches. 2011

You Ni Chae. Keyhole. Oil on canvas. 13 x 27 inches. 2015

Sarah Miska. Champing at the Bit. Acrylic on canvas. 48 x 36 inches. 2021

Caleb Jamel Brown. Deja vu, in Reverse. Inkjet print, cyanotype, clothes pins, grommets, acrylic, brads, spikes, and enamel on textile. 41x 65 in. 2021