POST HUMAN UTOPIA, April 22 – May 31

http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2015/04/22/posthuman-utopia/

http://nycartscene.info/post/118565363026/post-human-utopia-lodge-gallery

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Post Human Utopia

April 22 – May 31, 2015

Opening Reception Wednesday, April 22, 7pm -9pm

Will our ever-expanding footprint on the natural world lead to an ecological collapse and a mass extinction of the human race? Will it be our meteoric advances in the development of artificial intelligence that ultimately does us in? Perhaps a biochemical calamity or a nuclear war will be our undoing. There are a lot of dark scenarios in which the world might go on without us.

In his book, “The World Without Us,” Alan Weisman poses a fascinating, thought experiment: if you take every living human off the Earth, what traces of us would linger and what would disappear? Will the footprint of humanity ever fade away completely or have humans so irrevocably altered the environment that the impact of man will continue to shape the earth’s landscape far beyond the days of our departure? This Spring, The Lodge Gallery takes a unique look into a seemingly dystopian situation and contemplates the variable repercussions of our absence in Post Human Utopia, on view April 22 through May 31, 2015.

Artists Include: Sarah Bereza, Lori Nix, George Boorujy, Kate Clark, Peter Daverington, Valerie Hegarty, Ryan McLennan, Jean-Pierre Roy, Ryan Scully and Doug Young

The Lodge Gallery, founded by Jason Patrick Voegele and Keith Schweitzer 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.

 

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Interview- InstallationMagazine, June 2015

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http://installationmag.com/the-copenhagen-connection/

by A Moret and Shana Beth Mason

with Jason Patrick Voegele

In the vibrant, emergent neighborhood of Manhattan’s Lower East Side, some of the most exciting contemporary art is evolving and being seen.  It’s no surprise, then, that a new kind of gallery would spring up, playing to more alternative and intimate tastes than those of the “white cube” variety housed in Chelsea or the Upper East Side. The Lodge Gallery, co-founded by Keith Schweitzer and Jason Patrick Voegele, is a hybrid between art salon, exhibition space, community portal, and aesthetic experimentation. Installation speaks to Voegele about its history, its mission, and its future.

(A. Moret) How did The Lodge Gallery come about?

(Voegele) When we first started working together and were beginning to focus our visions, everything seemed to fall into place. It was a natural pairing. After about a year of curating and co-directing a variety of projects around New York and Miami, we wondered if the traditional idea of a gallery could be broadened or reimagined to suit both a changing art market and our shared vision of an alternative business model. We knew that we wanted our new headquarters to be more than just four white walls and wanted it to be a venue for debate, artistic experimentation, and social interaction. We wanted to build an experimental, multi-dimensional exhibition format. Eventually, we chose the Lower East Side because there is such a rich history of experimentation and authentic expression there. We wanted to be part of a community of galleries that shared our values, so as soon as the opportunity arose, we seized it and called it The Lodge.

(A. Moret) What drives your curatorial programming?

(Voegele) We feel like part of our job is to cultivate and facilitate opportunities for artists first, and everything else follows. There is definitely a core group of familiar artists and faces at The Lodge, but we like working with new artists too and are always finding new ways to develop projects that engage new talent. We primarily exhibit mid-career, representational artists. If you look back through our catalog, you will see hints of special interests that we have revisited from time to time. Keith and I have a lot of diverse interests and are curious about exploring a broad spectrum of subject matter. In any given season, you might find us investigating subjects such as architecture, natural science, and/or mythological archetypes. We both like to think that curation can be an art form, itself, and we are lucky in the sense that we have found a unique way to operate a program allowing us to explore our own curiosities about the world around us.

(A. Moret) In what ways do you feel that each of your respective backgrounds support the The Lodge Gallery’s mission?

(Voegele) Keith and I come from very different backgrounds, but I think we are both grounded in similar values and a sense of community. Keith grew up in New York and studied art and business at The George Washington University in Washington D.C. I came to New York in 1991 from an international school in Taipei, Taiwan to study painting and art history at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. Keith’s financial background and experience in public art programming coupled with my background in art history and commercial gallery experience drive a lot of our alternative ideas about how to manage the gallery and all of our other projects. I think that our individual experience and history of engaging the public through [previous] organizations we have worked with and have founded reflect well in the alternative business model we have built.  One of the things we enjoy the most here at the Lodge is the opportunity to converse with visitors from all sorts of various backgrounds. I think it was important for both of us that The Lodge was designed to be a useful and effective part of the community.

(A. Moret) How did you first meet and then determine you wanted to open the gallery together?

(Voegele) In 2012, Keith and I were both out in NYC hustling to grow our own arts organizations. I had been curating exhibitions and managing private art collections with Republic Worldwide since I had left a Chelsea gallery job in 2009, and Keith, after having been one of the founding members of No Longer Empty, had begun a new public art venture called The MaNY Project. We were introduced by a mutual friend to work on an exhibition on 35th street. We hit it off right away and the show was a success. Following that show, there was actually a long period of courting in a sense. After working together on various exhibitions and projects around NYC and Miami, we decided to open a gallery together. We wanted our professional partnership to be based on a mutual respect for each other’s work ethic and a shared vision of the future. The similarity in our aesthetic tastes were obvious from our first project, but it took about a year of working together before we settled on a plan to merge our professional projects and lay down the foundations of what would become The Lodge Gallery.

(A. Moret) The Lodge Gallery also serves as the exhibition space for Republic Worldwide, giving the gallery two distinct spaces- an exhibition space and a bar area that encourages conversation.  How do the spaces complement each other? Do you see Republic Worldwide as a salon that incubates ideas and supports the work of emerging artists?

(Voegele) From its inception, Republic Worldwide has had three separate divisions. The first is our art consultation and art logistics department, which manages both private and corporate art collections. The second is our community and charitable outreach program. The third is our exhibition division, which is most visible in the form of The Lodge Gallery. In addition to co-directing The Lodge, Keith and I manage the day-to-day business of the larger Republic together, as well. The bar behind the gallery is called Figure 19, and in the evenings it transforms the gallery into a whole other animal. We are partners with Fig 19 and with that partnership (in many ways) it dictates our unusual hours, which run from mid-afternoon to late in the evening. Certainly, the history of salon culture plays a huge part in the history of the Lower East Side and the New York art world. When people refer to New York as the “great melting pot”, they are referring to neighborhoods like the L.E.S. that have long histories of fusing multiple cultures into one cohesive, functional environment. Often it’s been the salons, galleries, and bars that have served as great congregation points for people from all walks of life to gather together for a drink and debate philosophy or the news of the day. Here at The Lodge, surrounded by the best and brightest artists in the city, we like to think we offer an extension of that history. We hope that our adapted formula for a new generation offers the same opportunity for community and social interaction that inspired us when we were first starting out.

(A. Moret) What kind of events are you planning for the future?

(Voegele) Our next exhibition at The Lodge Gallery is called Post Human Utopia, which poses a fascinating, thoughtful experiment: if you take every living human off the Earth, what traces of us would linger and what would disappear? Will the footprint of humanity fade away completely, or have humans so irrevocably altered the environment that the impact of man will continue to shape the earth’s landscape far beyond the days of our departure? The show features Valerie Hegarty, George Boorujy, Kate Clark, Ryan Mclennan, Sarah Bereza, Doug Young, and Lori Nix. It takes a unique look into a seemingly dystopian situation and contemplates the positive repercussions of our absence. That show opens on April 22. Beyond that, our Spring and Fall seasons for 2015 will present all sorts of interesting projects. You can keep up to date with all of our upcoming work on our website.

(A. Moret) For the group exhibition “The Copenhagen Interpretation,” you presented the work of 18 artists working in drawing, painting, collage, and photography.  It is in collaboration with Gallery Poulsen (a progressive exhibition space in Copenhagen)?  Is this your first time collaborating with them?  What prompted the presentation of their artists at The Lodge Gallery? What similarities do you see between The Lodge Gallery and Gallery Poulsen?

(Voegele) Well, first we would like to thank Morten Poulsen from Gallery Poulsen in Copenhagen for reaching out to us with the idea for this project last December at Art Basel in Miami. He was at Pulse and we were doing NADA, just up the beach. We have both worked with so many of the same artists over the years; it seemed perfectly harmonious that we would team up on a project together. Morten primarily shows artists from New York at his gallery, and because both of our galleries embrace a similar aesthetic and cull from a similar network of artists, there is a certain amount of crossover that happens in both programs. We might have different formulas for success, but we attract similar progressive, intellectually forward-minded talent. It’s the first direct collaboration we have done together, but it probably wont be the last. It’s been a lot of fun and has a very “family” atmosphere. After the “The Copenhagen Interpretation” comes down on April 4th, whatever is left of the artwork will return to Copenhagen for Part II of the project, which took place at Morten’s gallery in Copenhagen’s meatpacking district on April 17th.

(A. Moret) The gallery’s 18 artists are both from the US and abroad.  Why is it important for The Lodge Gallery to showcase the work of international artists?

(Voegele) Most of the artists in the show are based in New York. They are all from very diverse backgrounds and upbringings. I grew up overseas in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and was immersed in an extremely diverse international community from a very young age. Keith has travelled extensively, as well, and was also raised with a very realistic perspective of our current, interconnected global society. I think part of our vision here at The Lodge Gallery is to embrace partnerships and projects that promote this interconnectedness and offer artists the opportunity to explore ideas about their place in an increasingly global art market. I think it’s also interesting to note the rich history of immigrant culture in the Lower East Side that is still very much alive today. For hundreds of years and after the arrival of countless waves of immigrants from every corner of the earth, the Lower East Side continues to thrive as a place where people from anywhere can come to pursue dreams and share ideas together. In that sense, we feel like our environment really plays well into our vision.

(A. Moret) The title of exhibition, The Copenhagen Interpretation, suggests that each artist reflects their environment in some direct way.  William Powhida writes a tromp l’oeil piece addressed to New York City, while Rainer Hosch captures a comedy legend.  In what ways have you discovered the significance of an artist’s environment in their work?

(Voegele) Well, the Hosch and the Powhida works are good examples. Hosch is in California and over there, everyone is a comedian (so it’s no wonder that Carlin is rolling his eyes). Seriously though, Powhida is a good example, too. He has a solo exhibition up at Gallery Poulsen on the same subject right now. I also think that John Jacobsmeyer’s Alligator Pit is a good example of the influence of familiar video game imagery on traditional media, and Tom Sanford always has a magical way of bringing personal characters from his life and neighborhood into his work. Daniel Davidson is very successful at the same thing, but with his own unique style.

(A. Moret) How has the public responded to the show, thus far, since opening during Armory Week?

(Voegele) The response has been phenomenal and it’s been great working with so many talented and dedicated artists. The artists in Morten’s stable are all close friends, and even though we know many of the artists very well, it’s been inspiring to be caught up in the team camaraderie. Although it was Armory Week when we opened and there were hundreds of art world events happening around the city, the VIP and collector reception and the public reception that followed generated record numbers of visitors and guests. Press and sales have been great too, so we are looking forward to next year and what might come out of another collaboration.

Artnet – 14 Young New York Art Dealers To Watch, 2015

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https://news.artnet.com/people/14-young-new-york-art-dealers-to-watch-253325

by Cait Munro, Friday, February 27, 2015

Unlike artists, who are prized for their youth, art dealers are typically more valued for their experience. Flouting that received wisdom are 14 young, ambitious art dealers from 11 spaces who are getting the art world to take notice. And it’s probably in your interest to keep an eye on them, as well as their peers who we highlighted in our earlier story The Most Admired Art Dealers. We’ve asked these dealers the same handful of questions to pick their brains about identifying new talent, establishing themselves in the art world, and their thoughts on what tomorrow holds. If the future of the New York art world is in their hands, we might not be so screwed after all.

Jason Patrick Voegele and Keith Schweitzer, The Lodge Gallery: 

What do you think the future holds for the New York art world?
Schweitzer: There is certainly no shortage of naysayers when it comes to the future of art in New York. It’s currently very expensive to live, work, or play here and it continues to get more so. I look at it this way: it’s always been a tough city in one way or another. There’s a reason they wrote the line “If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere.”

Voegele: I also think that artists are getting smarter, more business savvy and more capable of self-marketing. Many of the brightest are interested in engaging with dealers and curators in more creative ways that require a flexibility on the part of gallerists that you are just not going to find up on 57th street or within the Chelsea scene. Call it a generational shift if you like. I think it is a very positive direction and its a direction that has really allowed the L.E.S. to flourish as New York continues to change and evolve.

 

 

The Copenhagen Interpretation 3/3/15 to 4/4/15

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https://vimeo.com/121944481

The Copenhagen Interpretation

3/3 – 4/4

Opening reception Wednesday March 4th, 2015 from 7-9pm.
The Lodge Gallery and Gallery Poulsen proudly present “The Copenhagen Interpretation,” an exhibition of 18 works in different media: drawing, painting, collage and photography.
Participating artists: Aaron Johnson (US), Alfred Steiner (US), Barnaby Whitfield (US), Christian Rex van Minnen (US), Daniel Davidson (US), Debra Hampton (US), Eric White (US), Isaac Arvold(US), Jacob Dahlstrup (DK), Jade Townsend (US), Jean-Pierre Roy (US), John Jacobsmeyer (US),Mi Ju (KOR/US), Mu Pan (TW/US), Nicola Verlato (IT), Rainer Hosch (AUT/US), Tom Sanford(US) and William Powhida (US).
Denmark-based Gallery Poulsen is located amidst butchers, fishmongers and the vibrant nightlife of Copenhagen’s Meatpacking District. With a passion for traditional art on canvas and paper, Gallery Poulsen presents a strong team of contemporary artists, mostly Americans, who work in a significant artistic style, where the clean, the satirical and not least the reflective are the thematic common denominators.
A group exhibition of artists who occupy the stable of Morten Poulsen Gallery in Copenhagen and are regular exhibitors at The Lodge Gallery in NYC. To coincide with Pulse art fair during Armory Art Weekend, March 2015
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Evie Falci – Voids & Invocations Jan. 28 – Feb. 28

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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.

Artist Evi Falci with her work

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ALTERITY, Jan. 9 – Jan. 24, 2015

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

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

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 AhearnJohn AhearnMarc BraszColetteThom CornJane DicksonStefan EinsSandra Fabara (Lady Pink), John FeknerPeter FendColeen Fitzgibbon,Bobby G (Robert Goldman), Mike GlierGroup MaterialKeith HaringCurt HoppeBecky HowlandBaird JonesM. Henry JonesLisa KahaneChristof KohlhoferMarisela La GraveDick MillerMarc H. MillerRichard MockJohn MortonTom OtternessPhase 2Bettie RingmaWalter RobinsonChristy RuppDavid SchmidlappArleen SchlossKiki SmithSusan Springfield,Anita SteckelJehnifer SteinAnton Van DalenArturo VegaTom WarrenRobin WintersDavid WojnarowiczY Pants, and more.

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

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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.

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

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.

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Madness, Oct. 10 – Nov. 2, 2014

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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.

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