ARTWEEK : INTERVIEW WITH JASON PATRICK VOEGELE, THE LODGE GALLERY

Thanks so much to Artweek.com and Artjobs‘s Liza SKova for this interview from early August about new ideas, partnership and the unique purpose of The Lodge Gallery

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http://www.artjobs.com/arts/interview/manhattan-art-space-new-ideas-healthy-debate-interview-jason-patrick-voegele-lodge#

By Liza Shashkova @ ARTWEEK, 2016

1.  Jason, you are an NYC based curator, creative entrepreneur, director, producer and public speaker but you started out as an artist, am I correct ? 

I did start out as an artist. When I was 13 years old I was growing up overseas in Taipei, Taiwan and I had an amazing teacher who showed me how to use oil paint. She encouraged me to think critically about art and seek to discover my own voice. From there I came to New York in 1991 to study painting at Pratt Institute. When I talk now about process, studio rituals or creative development, I still like to use the language of painting.  I haven’t painted in quite a long time though. After I left Yancey Richardson Gallery in 2009, I was primarily writing and curating and from that came Republic Worldwide, followed by The Lodge Gallery after Keith and I finally met. I feel like it was all a fluid transition and each step along the way had informed the next.

” In a way, many of the questions and subjects I like to explore as a curator and a producer are the same subjects I found fascinating as a painter and a maker. “

2.  What was the inspiration & motivation to open The Lodge Gallery with your partner, Keith Schweitzer ? 

Keith and I worked together many times before we decided to move forward and open a new gallery together. When Keith and I met, he had just left No Longer Empty as a founding member and was the Director of Public Arts for F.A.B. in the Lower East Side. We teamed up to curate a few shows and served as the development directors for the last few iterations of the Fountain Art Fair in Miami and New York before we agreed to open The Lodge. We have always been interested in what the purpose and function of an art gallery should be and how we could make the most of the opportunity.

” We wanted to build an exhibition space with an alternative business model that could become a gathering point for our community to explore new ideas and engage in healthy debate. Our unusual hours accommodate all sorts of collectives and creative events that encourage and support that kind of discourse and experimentation. “

I think that if you look back at all the work we have done over the last four years, you will see repeated thematic patterns in our programing and that speaks for itself about the inspiration that guides our direction.

3.  The Lodge Gallery began exhibiting and promoting mid-career artists in 2012. How has the gallery expanded in recent years and what is the next step ? 

That’s true. Since 2012 we have been primarily promoting the work of mid-career representational artists who have already had a solo exhibition or two under their belts and price points based on existing sales histories. In addition to the average four solo exhibitions we produce each year,

” we also curate around five or six group exhibitions that allow us to open up opportunities to work with both younger emerging creatives and more established artists who are interested in a particular project or curatorial vision rather than long term obligations and contracted relationships.  “

We have a loose stable of artists that we work with pretty regularly but our flexible approach has allowed us to develop projects that have attracted hundreds of the best working artists in New York and abroad. Each one of them is a different evolving relationship with respect to each artists needs and career goals.

There are a few interesting changes in our programing this year. Lately we have had a heavy focus on two person shows and have opened up at least three month long projects that bring in outside curators to the space. For example, in September we will be working with Michael David from Life on Mars Gallery in Brooklyn and in October, we are working with Dina Brodsky to install a fifty-person invitational group exhibition titled, Point of Origin.

4. Who is the most recent artist you exhibited and why did you choose them ? 

Our current exhibition, Unintended Archeology, by Levan Mindiashvilli and Uta Bekaia is about screen memory.  It is focused around the idea of remembering the past; even the most certain memories of your childhood, what you are really remembering is the last time you remembered remembering it. Now that sounds a bit confusing but it’s like playing a game of telephone with the memories of your life. The reality of your memory transforms each time you recall the thought. Levan and Uta are from The Republic of Georgia so many of the images are references to the post-Soviet era of Eastern Europe. Most of the work struggles through the effort to reconcile ideas like national identity and attempts to accurately recall transformation on both the personal and cultural levels.  We’ve worked with Levan before. He did his first NY solo exhibition at The Lodge about two years ago.  The decision to put this show together definitely comes out of our own curiosity about cultural identity and how to manage information inundation.  There are also undertones of ideas about the relationship of the body to architecture and we have done a number of projects on that subject over the years. Our next show is titled, A Peculiar Nature, and features Sirikul Pattachote and Tawan Wattuya from Bangkok, Thailand. That opens August 3rd through September 4th.

5. Do galleries really need to have a physical space anymore, when business is mainly conducted at art fairs, phone or email ? 

I suppose it all depends on how you define the purpose of a gallery. If a gallery is meant to be a purely commercial venture then I do not see much of a future in that for young gallerists or curators.  It’s true that the business of selling art has transformed in ways no one ever saw coming 20 years ago. It’s funny to think about how the old gallery model has been surrounded by extremes of change on both sides. On one side you have the art fairs that satellite around the bigger art fairs with big money investors and art world insiders with all of the fruits of success and excess on display, on the other side, you have websites like Instagram and Facebook and other sites like Artnet and Artsy that empower the individual artist and turn painters and sculptors into creative entrepreneurs.

” It’s fair to say that an ambitious creative entrepreneur with a hundred thousand followers on Instagram and access to art fair exposure could do very well in the current climate without traditional gallery representation. “

This brings me back to how you define the purpose of a gallery. Business is business and bills need to be paid at every gallery but we have never believed that the purpose of a gallery should be purely commercial. It needs to have a philosophy too and a vision that artists and patron both feel an intimate connection with. A place to return to often and look forward to in between visits.

” My favorite galleries are like anchors to the real world. Like temples to secular awe where shamans and the tribe come together to experience the theater of human imagination.”

6. Any tips or lessons from the digital marketing side of things ?

Three tips. First, update your website often and link it to all your social media outlets. Update your website, post about it online. Repeat ad nauseam. Second, shows come and go but the documentation lasts forever. None of that will matter if you don’t photograph your projects well and organize them on your website. Third, It’s important to remember that the ultimate goal of digital marketing is to garner real world results.

7.    What is “hot” on the New York Art Scene at the moment and what upcoming show are you most excited about ?

Well the Lower East Side is having its official moment now so it’s pretty hot all over down here. If you head over to the Bowery there is a great show open at The New Museum called “The Keeper” that was really inspiring. Also, the new site of the International Center of Photography just opened nearby there too so that’s worth a visit.

” Other than that everyone is still getting all set for the opening of the fall season in September and that’s always one of the most interesting times of the year. It’s often indicative of what to expect from the Art Basel art fairs in Miami in December. “

Until then the city is full of some really great representational painting exhibitions because representational painting is finally back in the “hot” zone.

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Reverence & Reverie – Nov. 6 through Dec. 13

Reverence & Reverie, November 6, 2015 – December 13, 2015

Opening Reception Friday, November 6th, 7-9pm

Nakid Magazine: https://nakidmagazine.com/2015/11/16/matt-hansel-reverence-reverie-artist-to-watch/

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wambsmK-Lgc

Artists: Matt Hansel, Christian Rex van Minnen, Elizabeth Livingston, Kent Henricksen, Jansson Stegner, Peter Daverington, Allison Sommers, and Kate Clark.

The historical sense involves a perception, not only of the pastness of the past, but of its presence
– T.S. Eliot

Artists of the European Renaissance grasped to collect shards of art history in order to repurpose them for their own use. They played off of familiar, classical motifs, responded to new developments, and imbued their work with mythic popular imagery to weave, what was then, a contemporary perspective into their sophisticated compositions. While they used stories and images from the past to question then contemporary cultural norms and values, they worked to build a new way of thinking by building upon the lessons learned from their classical heroes. In doing so, they transformed both the known and the unknown into foundations that would resonate through time.

The annals of art history are rich with movements that either grow out of conflict or are born in reverie for a more enlightened age. For the artists in this exhibition, reverent derivation has become the skeletal framework around which they each embark upon journeys of innovation and invention and build their contemporary practice. The exhibition, as a whole, speaks to a larger conversation about where we came from, who we are and where we might be going.

In the spirit of history repeating itself but never the same way twice, The Lodge Gallery is proud to present Reverence & Reverie, on view November 6 through December 13, 2015

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Sponsored by Peroni Italy

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Art in Odd Places: RECALLed – Oct 14 through Oct. 28

Art in Odd Places: RECALLed – October 14, 2015 – October 28, 2015

Opening Reception: Wednesday, October 14, 7-9pm
BoweryBoogie: http://www.boweryboogie.com/2015/10/art-odd-places-recalled-lodge-gallery-recap/

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Art in Odd Places (AiOP) presents Art in Odd Places: RECALLed, an exhibition organized by Caitlin Crews, Claire Demere, and Ikechukwu Casmir Onyewuenyi with Art in Odd Places curators Kendal Henry and Sara Reisman. Hosted by The Lodge Gallery. The exhibition features a selection of artworks by artists participating in this year’s anniversary festival––RECALL––and is accompanied by a publicly accessible archive with current and past artists’ documentation.

The two week run of Art in Odd Places: RECALLed includes numerous evenings of special programming and performances from participating artists in this year’s festival. The show aims to manifest the past and future of AiOP through its archival component, which will continue past the exhibition as an ongoing repository for Art in Odd Places’ history.  

Featuring: BAMteamIsidro BlascoDennis Redmoon DarkeemNicholas FraserJohn Craig FreemanGhana ThinkTankMonika GoetzJohannes Rantapuska & Milja HavasTerry HardyLeah HarperLinda HeshSam JablonLiz LindenLuLu LoLoL Mylott ManningCarolina MayorgaJenny PolakSasha Sumner & Nick PorcaroTim ThyzelMarieke Warmelink & Domenique Himmelsbach de VriesBrooks Wenzel.

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“Iconophilia”, Peter Daverington 9/9 through 10/11

ARTEFUSE:  http://artefuse.com/2015/09/16/opening-night-for-the-2015-season-on-the-lower-east-side-124153/

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Peter Daverington, “Iconophilia

September 9, 2015 – October 11, 2015Opening Reception: Wednesday, September 9, 7 to 9pm

The Lodge Gallery is proud to present “Iconophilia,” an exhibition of new paintings by Peter Daverington on view September 9th through October 11th 2015.

The hand of an artist can transport us back in time to discover where we came from, or it can take us on journeys forward through dreams to places we never thought possible. In his most recent body of work, Peter Daverington seizes the big picture and presents us with the relics of an evolving world.

Harvested from the iconography of great masters, Iconophilia is an adventure through the historical cannons of western art. From the invention of oil paint right up into the graffiti tags and throw ups of old school New York street artists, Daverington plunders and appropriates from a vast archive of visual imagery. In the mix are the fading heroes of the late middle ages, such as Cimabue and Giotto, alongside repeated vignettes from the work of renowned American landscape painter Albert Bierstadt. Among the depictions of high and northern renaissance figuration and Hudson river landscapes, Daverington has woven his own iconography of checkerboards and floating geometries seamlessly into the balance. The result is a collection of riotous melodies that oscillate between artifact and artifice.

As a public meditation on his own future, the future of painting, and the future of western civilization,Iconophilia is also an investigation into the cycles of degeneration and renewal. The strange decayed and distressed cacophony of imagery, abstraction, and erasure in these paintings reflects a world in collapse or one that has already collapsed, perhaps several times over, only to be restored and revitalized so that it may collapse again for future generations. Daverington’s poetic reverence for bygone ages and his faith in the future of painting combine here to offer a glimpse of hope amidst the chaos.

As the artist explains, “My recent proclivity for subjecting the canvases to brutal forms of abuse and destruction with a power sander and graffiti is perhaps a subconscious response to the disintegration, ruin, and class warfare occurring within contemporary society. It’s worth pointing out that while these works literally depict the iconography of art history as destroyed and defaced, each painting has at least one area that has been lovingly restored.”

Peter Daverington is a painter and musician from Melbourne, Australia currently living and working in Beacon, New York. He completed his MFA at the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne and has held fourteen solo exhibitions since 2004. Peter has been commissioned to paint public murals in Argentina, Australia, China, Egypt, Germany, Guatemala and Turkey. He is the winner of a John Coburn Emerging Artist Award, Rupert Bunny Foundation Visual Arts Fellowship, Australia Council for the Arts New Work Grants and a finalist in the Archibald and Sulman prizes. His work is held in numerous public and private collections. This is Daverington’s first solo exhibition in Manhattan.

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Elizabeth Livingston; Night Fell – August 5 through September 6

Huffington Post:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/adrian-margaret-brune/elizabeth-livingstons-pai_b_7974756.html

Visionaire:  https://www.visionaireworld.com/blog/elizabeth-livingstons-night/

Before I Could Answer

Elizabeth Livingston “Night Fell”

August 5th, 2015 – September 6th, 2015

Opening Reception, Wednesday, August 5th, 7pm-9pm

The Lodge Gallery is proud to present “Night Fell,” a solo exhibition of paintings by Elizabeth Livingston, on view August 5 through September 6, 2015.

Alfred Hitchcock and Johannes Vermeer both took great delight in peeling back veneers of suburban order to capture intimate moments, exposing the vulnerability of domesticated middle class life. Elizabeth Livingston’s most recent body of work evokes all the same cinematic emphasis on visual scrutiny, moments of false security, and entrapment by employing hyper-detailed patterns of juxtaposed fabric to adorn her subjects against stark planes of color and narrative light. There is a shared suspense in these voyeuristic moments, a sense of the quiet before the storm or the last rays of dusk light before night falls.

As Livingston explains, “[the paintings] are both safe houses and defenseless outposts about to be consumed by night.”

This ominous undercurrent of isolation is both palpable and intentional in her most recent work as well. In “Night Fell”, the title work of the exhibition, we glimpse a dim glow of light from the porch of a quaint two floor home that is both inviting and fragile, stable but vulnerable, and surrounded by the obsessive detail of the lush encroaching rural landscape.

As described in her own words, “In more recent work I’m pulling back from the figure, to focus on exterior views of a larger scene. In these paintings, the figure is no longer visible, but a human presence is clearly felt through dimly lit windows. A small country home at dusk with the porch light on reads both as a safe house and as defenseless outpost against the dark woods surrounding it. The tension in this divergence, to me, is a reflection on how beautifully fragile our lives are.”

Elizabeth Livingston attended Yale University, where she received a BA in fine art in 2001 and an MFA from Boston University in 2006. Livingston has been included in numerous exhibitions in Boston, MA, New Haven, CT, Fort Worth, TX, and New York City, among others. She has been an artist in residence at the Vermont Studio Center and the Ucross Foundation in Wyoming and recently closed a solo exhibition at the University of Maine Museum of Art. Her work has been widely collected throughout the U.S. and Europe. Livingston currently lives and works in New York City.

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Hannah Cole; Back to Earth – July 1 through August 3

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Hannah Cole “Back to Earth”

July 1st, 2015 – August 2nd, 2015

The Lodge Gallery is proud to present “Back to Earth,” a solo exhibition of paintings by Hannah Cole featuring a groundbreaking new series of hand-cut works.

Cole is known for acutely observational paintings that depict concise fragments of her everyday surroundings. She has an uncanny ability to glean lyrical visual moments from otherwise mundane settings. Although her depictions of urban fixtures and studio debris approach hyperrealism in terms of rendering, there is a perceived emphasis on the abstract geometry defining the picture plane. Patterns and textures take center stage as context is cropped away and the ordinary transcends.

“In all of my work, I’m interested in exploiting the tension between ‘observed’ and ‘abstract,’ and similarly, I enjoy playing with the expectation of reality by inventing where the viewer may not expect invention,” Cole explains, “My paintings are at once rooted in the unique experiences of my own life in Brooklyn, and in conversation with the larger history of American painting. I make every mark by hand, without shortcuts. This practice is one part meditation, one part Yankee work ethic.”

Cole’s most recent works push new ground by slicing through the surface. Meticulously hand-cut tyvek, paper, and canvas surfaces are layered and painted upon. Actual shadows are created and presented alongside painted shadows, furthering confusion between perception and reality. As a whole, the exhibition provides a portrait of the artist, challenging us to see what she herself sees, as she sees it.

“Despite the common things that inspire her, Cole’s works are very much her own, and anything but ordinary.”
– Evan J. Garza, New American Paintings

Hannah Cole is an American artist based in New York. Cole holds a MFA in painting from Boston University, a Post-Baccalaureate degree in painting from Brandeis University, and a BA in Art History from Yale University. Her work was shown recently at The Drawing Center and at Volta, Basel. Last year she had her first solo museum show at the University of Maine Museum of Art. She is currently working on an upcoming show for this fall at Boston University’s Sherman Gallery

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Heathen Fundamentalist ; An Ode to Phillip Guston – June 3- June 28

Rhino: https://rhinohornartists.wordpress.com/2015/06/05/the-heathen-fundamentalists/

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Heathen Fundamentalist; An Ode to Philip Guston

June 3, 2015 – June 28, 2015
Opening Reception Wednesday, June 3rd, 7-9pm

Artists: Paul BrainardDawn FraschAaron JohnsonLaura MoriartyDoug ParryLeonard Reibstein, and Tom Sanford.

Underlying his iconic imagery and heightened sense of primordial time, beyond the movements between figuration and abstraction, there is a general optimism in the post-50’s work of Philip Guston. Behind each oddly described object there is a desire to like the world and discover little pleasures in the unfamiliar and sometimes darker recesses of reality. Guston’s post-50’s studio was a menagerie of masterful deconstruction and then obliteration of formal painterly concerns. It was through this transformation that he learned to navigate the difficult science of color and began to experiment with non-hierarchical configurations of order.

As an artist who was made famous for work that was stubbornly eccentric to the contemporary enthusiasms of his day, his style and unique voice have proven to carry some serious lasting power. But it was over forty years ago that Guston’s work transformed the world of painting. If legacy is built on the influence of future generations what sort of influence has Guston’s work had on the imagination of today’s studio artist? What has Philip Guston done for you lately? To answer this question The Lodge Gallery presents “Heathen Fundamentalist” on view from June 3rd through June 28th.

Laura Moriarty

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Dawn Frasch

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Aaron Johnson

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Doug Parry

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Leonard Reibstein

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Paul Brainard

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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.

 

 

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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