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CYNTHIA NORTON Double Agent Workhorse
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David Ellis: Uh-oh
With action installation by Cynthia Norton: Double Agent Workhorse
June 21 – August 16, 2008
Reception: Saturday June 21, 4–8pm
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Cincinnati, Ohio - Country Club is pleased to present a solo exhibition of new work by New York-based artist David Ellis. The centerpiece of the exhibition, FAMS 2 (2008) - an acronym for Fine Art Moving & Storage - is an installation featuring a new motion-painting continuing Ellis’ exploration of mechanical sound compositions and improvised painting techniques. The motion painting is projected onto the wall along with the tops of 10 art storage crates arranged on the wall according to the Fibonacci mathematical golden rule principal. Inside the crates themselves, piston actuators bang and vibrate a collection of discarded studio debris that creates the soundtrack for the adjacent projection. The audio component is composed and arranged by Roberto Lange, Ellis’ collaborator on numerous projects.
Also included in the show are twelve new paintings. “Ellis paints onto collaged pages comprised of his to-do lists and hardware store needs, papers from the daily grind, as well as things he finds on the street. Ellis then responds to the pages by painting in and on them, rhythmically providing a pulse. The painted layer is graphic, loose and flowing. Ellis calls his signature painting form—a graphic wave in silver and black— “flow,” representing motion in air and water. There is an unconscious, visual catalog below the surface of the final work—an archaeological, archival underpinning inside the painting, submerged below grade.” (Dara Meyers-Kingsley, Independent Curator, New York)
Louisville-based artist/musician Cynthia Norton – often in the character of her performance personae, Ninnie Nuevo – references and expands upon the cultural traditions of the rural South and specifically of her native Kentucky. Moving fluidly between sculpture and musical performances, Norton plays with the idiom of comedic country rube (think post-modern Minnie Pearl) as a strategy to explore the idiosyncratic niches between folk traditions, readymade sculpture, concrete poetry and basement chemistry. The focal point of Double Agent Workhorse is a working moonshine still titled Fountain (Attraction) (2008), a colloquial reference to Marcel Duchamp’s famous sculpture of a similar name.
Both Ellis and Norton share an affinity for transforming found objects into functional musical instruments - Ellis finding roots in Jazz and Hip-hop traditions while Norton stays grounded in a Folk and Country music language. Ellis and Norton also find common ground in Southern influences. Ellis was born and raised in North Carolina (later moving to Brooklyn) and found an artistic voice as one of the founding members and leaders of The Barnstormers, a collective of artists who made their mark painting murals on barns and structures throughout North Carolina using a graffiti vernacular.
Norton attended The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Norton has recently exhibited/performed with the McLeod Residence, Seattle (2008); Swanson Reed Contemporary, Louisville (2007/2004); Steinek Gallery, Vienna (2007); Eugene Lendl Gallery, Graz (2005); SECCA, Winston-Salem (2005). Her work is currently included in the Contemporary Art Museum of Houston’s The Old, Weird America.
Ellis has exhibited in Cincinnati on several occasions both as a solo artist and as part of the artist collective The Barnstormers. In 2004, The Barnstormers painted a mural in the Brighton area of Cincinnati in conjunction with the exhibition Beautiful Losers (organized by the Contemporary Arts Center). Ellis has also presented solo projects with Publico and the CAC. Ellis has participated in numerous prestigious group shows, including Inner and Outer Space at Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh, curated by Dara Meyers-Kingsley (2008); Ensemble, Curated by Christian Marclay at the ICA, Philadelphia (2007); Dawn’s Early Light, Savannah College of Art and Design, (2006); Conversation at Rice University, Houston (2006); and P.S.1’s Greater New York (2005). His motion-paintings have been screened at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Country Club
424 Findlay Street
Cincinnati, OH 45214
countryclubprojects.com / information@countryclubprojects.com
t +1 513 792 9744
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