Evie Falci – Voids & Invocations Jan. 28 – Feb. 28

Posted on June 9, 2015 by Jason Patrick Voegele

http://flavorpill.com/nyc/event/art/evie-falci-voids-and-invocations

http://whitehotmagazine.com/articles/evie-falci-at-lodge-gallery/3129

http://nycartscene.info/post/109027476321/evie-falci-the-lodge-gallery

https://slowsoulburn.wordpress.com/2015/01/20/evie-falci-a-universe-of-rhinestones/

http://quietlunch.com/voids-and-invocations-evie-falci-thelodgegallery/

It always begins the same way. The primordial void, the vast chaotic emptiness of pre-creation before time began. And then out of nothing the void is punctured and orders are formed around the developing architecture of creation.

This is the kind of language that ancient poets and contemporary psychologists like Manly. P. Hall or Carl Jung use to correlate alchemical symbolism with the development of the psycho-spiritual life of the individual. Here our unknown selves are the void and our consciousness is born from the void ex nihilo, ready to be formed by naturally occurring archetypal orders that are universal but result in multitudinous expressions of subjectivity.

It is also an accurate account of the ritualized studio practice of Brooklyn based artist Evie Falci. Using the language of esoteric symbolism and sacred geometry, Falci’s alchemical gold is definitively spiritual and her transmutation of metals occur in complicated geometric compositions of punk rock studs and pleather. She does not plan her paintings to a definitive degree before she begins. Instead, she taps into a type of shamanistic creative invention with a loose guide of esoteric rules and a personal symbolic order of geometries to guide each unique construction.

Here, in her first solo exhibition at The Lodge Gallery, Falci continues to explore the development of insight and intuition through the arrangement of symbolic imagery. Her most recent paintings of studs on pleather act as invocations meant to conjure allusions to the spirit world and, like totems, become activated access points to other unworldly dimensions. Cross referencing multiple cultural influences, including Islamic mosaics, ritual body scarification and tattooing, South American textiles, alchemical and esoteric symbols that span from India and the ancient Levant to fraternal enlightenment period hieroglyphics, she has built a composite visual language that is as deeply personal as it is accessible to a popular cultural audience. Harnessing the familiar appeal of popular materials such as denim and pleather, rhinestones and steel studs, her completed compositions are lush and tactile, mysterious and imbibed with magical incantations and divine presence that transform the superficial into the transcendental, and ultimately elevate the baser materials so that they appear to surpasses the sum of their parts.

Evie Falci (born 1985, Brooklyn, NY) is a 2007 graduate of the Maryland Institute, College of Art, Baltimore, Maryland. She participated in the Marie Walsh Sharpe Space Program in 2011 – 2012. Her work has been included in numerous exhibitions at various venues, including, Hudson, Eric Firestone Gallery, East Hampton, Feature Inc.,New York and Gallery Diet, Miami, and is part of Art in Embassies, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Her most recent solo exhibition Everything All Night was at Jeff Bailey Gallery, New York in 2013. Falci continues to live and works in Brooklyn, NY.

ALTERITY, Jan. 9 – Jan. 24, 2015

Posted on May 12, 2015 by Jason Patrick Voegele

The Lodge Gallery is proud to usher in the new year with Alterity, a group exhibition featuring works by Reuben Negron, Emily Burns, Curt Hoppe, Rebecca Goyette, Frank Webster and Ulrike Theusner.

As individuals we choose to keep our personal obsessions with physical pleasure close to the vest, under the table and sometimes in the closet. As a society we are a lot bolder. We build our public fantasies on magazines, advertising campaigns and big budget films but inside we all long for a deeper connection to our true selves. Anyone who has dressed up for a masquerade or is accustomed to a uniform knows the transforming effect that donning a costume can have. Useful as a largely positive mechanism for coping with social anxiety, we all dress up in our own self constructed costumes that mask our true selves in order to navigate the daily complications of our public lives. For some, the only way to explore more personal subjects such as desire, power, control and role reversal is to embrace an ulterior identity associated with a literal mask or costume to be donned as a shield of safety from judgement and public scrutiny. Sometimes these masks are literal and other times they are as subtle as an attitude or context. Each of us, in our own subjective way, learns to stitch together the necessary disguises we require in order to reconcile our pursuits of the baser instincts of human nature and to act out on our natural desires or secret fantasies.

“People seldom change. Only their masks do. It is only our perception of them and the perception they have of themselves that actually change.”

― Shannon L. Alder

Art and Ephemera, 98 Bowery- 1969 to 1989 December 2014

Posted on May 6, 2015 by Jason Patrick Voegele

Friday, December 29th, The Lodge Gallery is proud to present Art & Ephemera from 98Bowery, 1969 to 1989, co-curated by Marc H. Miller.

Every era creates its own type of art object. The inexpensive multiples, political statements, and ephemera in this exhibition are representative of the deliberately transient quality and populist impulses of art in the 1970s and 80s.

Artists in this show include Charlie Ahearn, John Ahearn, Marc Brasz, Colette, Thom Corn, Jane Dickson, Stefan Eins, Sandra Fabara (Lady Pink), John Fekner, Peter Fend, Coleen Fitzgibbon,Bobby G (Robert Goldman), Mike Glier, Group Material, Keith Haring, Curt Hoppe, Becky Howland, Baird Jones, M. Henry Jones, Lisa Kahane, Christof Kohlhofer, Marisela La Grave, Dick Miller, Marc H. Miller, Richard Mock, John Morton, Tom Otterness, Phase 2, Bettie Ringma, Walter Robinson, Christy Rupp, David Schmidlapp, Arleen Schloss, Kiki Smith, Susan Springfield,Anita Steckel, Jehnifer Stein, Anton Van Dalen, Arturo Vega, Tom Warren, Robin Winters, David Wojnarowicz, Y Pants, and more.

NADA Art Fair, Miami Beach – Dec. 4 – 7, 2014

Posted on May 6, 2015 by Jason Patrick Voegele

The Lodge Gallery is excited to be exhibiting new work by NYC artist Kent Henricksen at the 2014 NADA Art Fair on Miami beach at booth #2.17.

NADA runs concurrently with Art Basel Miami this December 4th through the 7th. Please click this link for directions, hours and tickets.

As a continuation of his September solo exhibition at The Lodge Gallery , Kent has created a new body of embroideries, gold guilded frames and stoneware sculpture all juxtaposed against the immersive celestial backdrop of a midnight blue sky, lovingly and meticulously hand stenciled with gold paint.

Race and gender, power and conflict, these are just some of the transcultural archetypes Henricksen explores by manipulating images that are sourced from biblical illustrations, newspapers, old master prints, and esoteric Hindu symbolism of the Trimurti. The thread and ink of his canvases are imbued with a complex ambiguity that pushes the images beyond any definitive cultural context. Contrasting illustrations of historical events with familiar contemporary images, Henricksen’s work invites you to step into a shamanistic world of non-linear narrative and mythic time. Each canvas is a silkscreened fable in gold ink and meticulously hand embroidered thread.

Henricksen explains, “Combining Eastern ideas with Western images – the large canvases are symbolic labyrinths of the cosmos. The Western images loosely represent the Hindu Trimurti, with a creator, destroyer and maintainer. They are representations of a troubled world with disturbing human behavior – destroying the unknown, creating the familiar and maintaining the balance of disturbance”

Kent Henricksen is an American artist based in New York whose work explores race, violence and identity through sculpture, painting, drawing, and installation. Henricksen came to prominence in 2005 for his work in the MoMA PS1 Greater New York Show. His work is in the permanent collections of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C., The Fogg Museum at Harvard, and the Collezione Maramotti. Henricksen has shown internationally including Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York, John Connelly Presents, New York, hiromiyoshii, Tokyo, Arario, Seoul, and Gerhardsen Gerner, Berlin. Solo museum shows include Bass Museum Miami and the Contemporary Gallery of the Nassau County Museum of Art, New York.

Les Fleurs Du Mal- Ulrike Theusner & Paul Brainard, Nov.6 – Dec.14, 2014

Posted on May 2, 2015 by Jason Patrick Voegele

https://news.artnet.com/art-world/must-see-art-guide-new-york-2-156564

Like Charles Baudelaire in his controversial 1857 volume of poetry Les Fleurs du Mal (The Flowers of Evil), Ulrike Theusner and Paul Brainard explore the dark meanders of the human mind, the immoral side of urban life and the gross lack of empathy that continues to mar western culture. The depictions of sexual perversion, corruption, and mental and physical illness, so prevalent in Baudelaire’s poems, find their contemporary reflection in the drawings by Theusner and Brainard, who wade through the popular cultural imagery of what on the one hand is our subjective personal experience and on the other – the universal human condition. The exhibition features 25 drawings, three of which are collaborative works, built on ideas explored through Theusner and Brainard’s conversations about the condition of today’s urban culture.

The ink drawings of Ulrike Theusner are based on William Hogarth’s famous etchings “A Rake’s Progress” and the photographs of Jerome Zerbe’s Book “Happy Times.” The drawings describe the decline of a rich heir over the course of eight chapters. The protagonist is a lethargic puppet, the heir to a rich merchant, who over the course of the story wastes all his money on gambling and prostitution, eventually resulting in his being sent to prison and later to a home for the mentally ill. It is not a moral commentary as originally intended by Hogarth, but a metaphorical description of today’s society. This lifestyle offers no satisfaction for the protagonist and he finally ends up in a psychiatric hospital, surrounded by histrionic monkey figurines in baroque costumes: humans behave like monkeys and monkeys behave like humans.

Paul Brainard’s works in Les Fleurs du Mal are made up of portraits of friends, family and people from his life, imagery from advertising, the internet, and American puritanical religious imagery. A common thread throughout the work is a dark and macabre sensibility that stems from existentialist and absurdist philosophy. Formally, the drawings are in a constant state of flux and the final image arrived at is one of many possible solutions.

The largest work in the show I sleep under a sky of extinguished stars, was inspired by Robert Kolker’s book “Lost Girls,” the story of the lives of the prostitutes who were all murdered by the “Long Island Serial Killer” and whose bodies were discovered in December 2010. This artwork is a posthumous portrait of Jessica Taylor, a prostitute who was murdered and whose remains were discovered in the spring of 2011. The case remains unsolved.

les-fleurs-du-mal-1024x774

Madness, Oct. 10 – Nov. 2, 2014

Posted on May 2, 2015 by Jason Patrick Voegele

Artists include: Allison Sommers, Ben Coover, Chris Crites, Chris Hipkiss, Dawn Black, Hanna von Goeler, Hiroshi Kumagai, John O’Reilly, Judith Supine, Judy Rifka / Daniel Dibble, Kymia Nawabi, Lori Field, Matt Rota, Sharmistha Kar, Sibylle Peretti, Sokol Andrew, Stephen J M Palmer, Winston Chmielinski, Zoë Field

The Lodge Gallery is pleased to present Madness, a group exhibition curated by visual artist Lori Field. Comprised of almost two dozen works, the show brings together an exceptional collection of artists who question the nature of madness and its place in contemporary culture.

While the title Madness is subject to a wide spectrum of subjective interpretations, the exhibition broadly plays on themes of melancholia and definitions of sanity, embracing socially controversial behavior and individual journeys through darkness and confusion. Is madness a chemical imbalance or is it a series of culturally adopted behaviors? What exactly is it that drives individuals and communities to the breaking point of madness? Who is responsible when a lapse in sanity occurs and is a little madness always a bad thing? If it is to be believed that the fine lines between genius and madness are drawn within cultural context then one man’s mad fundamentalist heretic is another mans holy martyr, one woman’s delirium tremens is a another woman’s shamanistic vision. As it turns out, it’s not as easy as it seems to define madness even within the broad interpretations of our shared colloquial vernacular.

From Dawn Black’s portraits of beauty queens, gun nuts, and terrorists, to Hanna von Goeler’s stripped down and ghost-like dollar bill paintings, Chris Hipkiss’s dystopian landscape drawing, and Judy Rifka’s flickering staccato insects, the visual images on view in Madness pick up where definable language fails us.

Kent Henricksen, Disharmony in Blue and Gold, Sept. 5 – Oct. 5, 2014

Posted on September 7, 2014 by Jason Patrick Voegele

Kent Henricksen

Disharmony in Blue and Gold

September 5th, 2014 – October 5th, 2014
Opening Reception, Friday, September 5th, 7pm-9pm

Curated by Jason Patrick Voegele and Keith Schweitzer

The sky is falling- or so it would appear in Kent Henricksen’s upcoming exhibition, Disharmony in Blue and Gold, at The Lodge Gallery.

Known for creating fraught environments that are both inviting and menacing, Henricksen’s work is the combination of opposing forces- the past and present, horror and absurdity, the comic and the tragic, high and low culture. The exhibition presents an immersive installation within midnight blue gallery walls glimmering with thousands of hand stenciled gold dots reminiscent of a mythic celestial heaven. Dark blue canvases hang directly on the stenciled walls where images of discord prevail. Throughout the gallery stoneware face jugs are ominously impaled upon golden stakes that seemingly thrust upwards from the floor.

Race and gender, power and conflict, these are just some of the transcultural archetypes Henricksen explores by manipulating images that are sourced from biblical illustrations, newspapers, old master prints and esoteric Hindu symbolism of the Trimurti (the creator, the preserver and the destroyer). The thread and ink of his canvases are imbued with a complex ambiguity that pushes the images beyond any definitive cultural context. Juxtaposing illustrations of historical events with familiar contemporary images, Henricksen’s work invites you to step into a shamanistic world of non-linear narrative and mythic time. Each canvas is a silkscreened fable in gold ink and meticulously hand embroidered thread.

Henricksen explains, “Combining eastern ideas with western images- the large canvases are symbolic labyrinths of the cosmos. The western images loosely represent the Hindu Trimurti- with a creator, a destroyer and a maintainer. They are representations of a troubled world with disturbing human behavior- destroying the unknown, protecting or creating the familiar, and maintaining the balance of disturbance”

Also, included in the show is a new body of work based on sacred geometric patterns. Here Henricksen evokes the Sri Yantra in gold thread. Formed by nine interlocking triangles that surround and radiate out from the central (bindu) point and balanced against the familiar blue and gold celestial backdrop, we are presented with the symbolic womb of creation. It is the symbol of the universe as a whole and the reconciliation of the divine masculine and feminine principles, a process and philosophy not at all unfamiliar to western culture through illustrations of the chemical wedding in European spiritual alchemy.

No City Is An Island

Posted on April 18, 2014 by Jason Patrick Voegele

April 10th, 2014 – May 11th, 2014

Opening Reception: Thursday, April 10th. 7-9pm

non-curated by Keith Schweitzer & Jason Patrick Voegele with the following artists:
John Ahearn, Charlie Ahearn, Jody Culkin, Jane Dickson, Stefan Eins, Peter Fend, Coleen Fitzgibbon, Bobby G, Mike Glier, Becky Howland, Lisa Kahane, Christof Kohlhofer, Justen Ladda, Joe Lewis, Ann Messner, Richard Miller, Tom Otterness, Cara Perlman, Judy Rifka,Walter Robinson, Christy Rupp, Teri Slotkin, Kiki Smith, Seton Smith

On Dec 31st, 1979, a group of artists in downtown Manhattan mounted a now historic exhibition, “The Real Estate Show,” in response to grim economic conditions facing tenants in New York. It was a confrontational and illegal exhibition, held without permission in a vacant city-owned building, with aggressive political messages that ignited controversy and galvanized city officials, news media and artists alike.

This group, Collaborative Projects Inc (Colab), focused on theme-centered exhibitions with a spirit of openness, experimentation, and minimal curatorial interference. Within this context, “No City is an Island” asked former members of Colab to respond to the exhibition’s title as a theme around which to contribute work. Dialogues were rekindled and themes were revisited or reinterpreted. As each artist has evolved over time, so has the city itself. With a range of works transversing 35 years, “No City is an Island” revisits the zeitgeist of a New York City long bygone, compares and contrasts the artists and urban realities of then with now, and honors one of the most influential art organizations in New York City’s history.

The exhibition is part of a multi-venue celebration of Colab and revisitation of “The Real Estate Show” with “The Real Estate Show, Was Then: 1980″ at James Fuentes Gallery (April 4 – 27), “RESx” at ABC No Rio (April 9 – May 8), “No City Is An Island” at The Lodge Gallery (April 10 – May 11), and “The Real Estate Show, What Next: 2014″ at Cuchifritos Gallery (April 19 – May 18). It is also a component of next month’s inaugural Lower East Side History Month, which will now be observed each May with over 60 Lower East Side organizations currently participating.

The Lodge Gallery, founded by Keith Schweitzer and Jason Patrick Voegele, is located at 131 Chrystie Street on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. It is the exhibition venue of Republic Worldwide and serves as both an art space and a gathering place for hearty discourse and experimentation

Doug Young : “Trace Evidence”

Posted on March 24, 2014 by Jason Patrick Voegele

February 28th, 2014 – March 22nd, 2014

Opening Reception: Friday, February 28th, 7-9pm

Young’s reverse paintings, rendered on the underside of thick glass with automotive paints, are investigations of places and objects that are familiar to us yet feel foreign. The subjects in many of Young’s paintings are iconic rooms and objects associated with bustling activity. The spaces are presented devoid of people and out of context; the empty set of television’s The Price is Right, NASA’s Control Room, and CERN’s Large Hadron Collider are captured in rare moments of inactivity. We are left with an opportunity to examine these rooms and objects closely, to inspect the complex details offered within them, and through this process garner a greater understanding of their purpose and the people, out of frame, who put them to use.

Young also depicts objects of historical or personal significance that are captivating in their graphic qualities, starkly and consciously superficial, attractive yet repelling. Abraham Lincoln’s soiled death pillow is presented alongside portraits of a stained bathtub, an open filthy refrigerator, and a previously frozen TV dinner.

The imagery is evocative of childhood wonder and curiosity, yet haunting and resonant of the out-of-body. Ensconced in monumental, graphite-finished wooden frames, each painting boldly invites our attention. Collectively, all of the works presented in Trace Evidence arouse our sense of mystery and tempt us to conduct our own thorough investigative analysis of the artist’s intention.

Doug Young has exhibited widely in New York and Chicago. He holds a BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1995) and an MFA from Pratt Institute (1997). These images mark a departure for Young, for he has worked primarily as a sculptor during the last decade. But in line with his penchant for Americana, his reverse paintings on glass evoke time-honored traditions in the folk arts and old Hollywood. In 2001 he was awarded by the Guinness Book World Records for the longest nonstop banjo performance in history—24 hours total.

A Human Extension

Posted on March 24, 2014 by Jason Patrick Voegele

Reception: Thursday February 6th, 7-9pm

Exhibition: February 6th – February 16th, 2014

Artists Include: Isaac Arvold, Erik Benson, Julie Elizabeth Brady, Paul Brainard, Monica Cook, Melissa Cooke, Peter Drake, MaDora Frey, Jane LaFarge Hamill, Aaron Johnson, Christian Johnson, Michael Kagan, Karl LaRocca, Francesco Longenecker, Daniel Maidman, Lindsay Mound, Reuben Negron, Javier Piñon, Colette Robbins, Jean-Pierre Roy, Michael Schall, Kristen Schiele, Andrew Smenos, Melanie Vote, Frank Webster, Eric White, Barnaby Whitfield, Mike Womack . Curated by Amy Berger, PR and Arrangement/ Installation by Keith Schweitzer and Jason Patrick Voegele

Inspired by the Designs of Jacqueline Popovic / Jankele

The Lodge Gallery presents an exhibition of new work exploring the relationship between fine art and fashion through a celebration of the accessory. Inspired by the organic and geological accessory designs of Jacqueline Popovic, A Human Extension features twenty-eight artists who have adapted the direct designs, production materials or visual spirit of Popovic’s celebrated Jankele collection into a body of work that investigates the challenging and curious marriage of fashion and art at the dawn of the 21st century.

A Human Extension is an attempt to re-conceptualize the fashion accessory as both sculptural and utilitarian. It is a chance to revisit ideas and philosophies that have long been explored by artists such as Vanessa Beecroft. Alexander McQueen, and Nick Cave who investigated the art/fashion relationship in unique and alternative contexts. Inspired by these ideas and in the context of Jankele’s designs, the artists of A Human Extension are pioneering influential new ideas about the role of fashion in contemporary visual culture.

Artist Julie Elizabeth Brady explains “Fashion is always on my mind when I am coming up with an idea for a painting, but first let me define what ‘fashion’ means to me. Fashion often implies something that is “of the moment” and stylish, but the fashion that captures my attention are pieces that are objects of beauty, new and old, that start a conversation.”

Effectively, all of the artists featured in A Human Extension are developing physical structures that are capable of extending the inner self beyond the confines of the material body. An inspired concept that has driven the philosophy of Jankele’s designs and the central theme around which she has become a muse to this group of artists.