Artist: Ewa Juszkiewicz, Natalie Ball, Jonathan Gardner, Daniel Heidkamp, Andrea Joyce Heimer, Chris Martin, Cheikh Ndiaye, Peter Schuyff, Pauline Shaw and Genesis Tramaine
Almine Rech Paris is pleased to present CHORUS, the third exhibition organized with Bill Powers (following Cliche in New York and Early 21st Century Art in London, both 2018).
A riff on music producer Tom Dowd’s famous line “Don’t bore us, get to the chorus”, this sentiment speaks to the audience’s relationship with contemporary western culture. They want the hook without the set up, drop the bass and make it all chorus, no verse. Group shows are a type of chorus, a gathering of disparate voices brought together. Historically, the Greek chorus included characters speaking on the dramatic action viewed before us as a unified response.
Genesis Tramaine’s paintings translate these choral actors into portraits of Jesus’ apostles. Jonathan Gardner reminds us that currency is a faith-based agreement tacitly stamped with the approval of the masses in their acceptance of its value. Cheikh Ndiaye tackles the subject of civil unrest; even chaos can have structure and momentum when a group holds a focused mentality.
Daniel Heidkamp’s painting reveals an empty stage where instruments lay fallow, while Chris Martin turns to the sky, exposing abstract galaxies organized by stars and planets alike.
Schools of painting can each be thought of as a type of chorus, but from today’s vantage point it can also be a form of marginalization. Traditionally, one wants to place things in genres, only to have their makers reject that categorization. In their differences, we may spot
overlap, and in their friction each piece comes into focus.