Tom Forkin at Shoot the Lobster

Artist: Tom Forkin

Exhibition title: Manhattan

Venue: Shoot the Lobster, New York, US

Date: March 31 – April 23, 2017

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Martos Gallery

Prequel vs Preface: As a film, the prequel does not need to be “pre.” Actual sequence is not important. Rather, the prequel is additional information or context, which can be given after. As a novel, the preface gives you an intro before the main event; an aside written by the author to prepare you for what’s coming, or to apologize in advance.

Tom Forkin’s first solo show in Manhattan, NY is called Manhattan. His most recent exhibition, earlier this year at Motel Gallery in Brooklyn, NY, was called Brooklyn. Whether Brooklyn is a preface to Manhattan or Manhattan is a prequel to Brooklyn, I’m not sure.

Forkin’s intimately scaled ceramic cityscapes portray brick facades, skyscrapers, and mysterious doors. Characters wander through deserted streets in the rain, rest pensively against light posts, and stalk their neighbors from rear windows. Arranged on the walls like a storyboard, but with no rigid order, his preferred neutral palette recalls muddy puddles and cloudy skies.

For his show at Shoot The Lobster NY, Forkin has made new ceramic tableaux in black and white. Outdoor scenes with cobblestone streets, bodies sitting in parks leaning on shrubs, tall buildings, commercial and residential, and indoor scenes including someone passed out on a living room floor feel like they move across different times, past and present.

Tom Forkin (born 1986 Cleveland, OH) lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Recent exhibitions include Brooklyn at Motel Brooklyn, Will You curated by Jenni Crain and Nick Fusaro at Pratt Institute Brooklyn, A Stolen Painting Found by a Tree organized by Kodomo/The Manilla Institute at Rope Baltimore, Garden of Sadness at Violet’s Cafe Brooklyn, and Charmed organized by Tamara Gonzales and Maggie Lee at Shoot The Lobster New York.