Group Show: Halpern | Morlat | Phelan

GROUP SHOW
September 26 – November 10, 2007 | 11 Rivington St, NY

Tamar Halpern | Florian Morlat | Michael Phelan

Opening September 26, 2007, Eleven Rivington is a new art gallery located in the heart of the burgeoning Lower East Side art district in downtown Manhattan, steps away from the New Museum of Contemporary Art.  The inaugural exhibition, organized by Augusto Arbizo, is on view from September 26 to November 10, and will feature abstract photography, mobile sculpture, and paintings by Tamar Halpern, Florian Morlat and Michael Phelan, respectively.  The exhibition addresses issues of neo-conceptual formalism, with works that critically and conceptually repositions and re-contextualizes formal histories of art, architecture and design.

Eleven Rivington joins the eclectic mix of brand new galleries and project spaces opening in the Bowery district.  In keeping with the industrial landscape of this historic artists enclave and restaurant-supply row, the modestly sized gallery of 700 square feet, designed by James Slade Architects, is a spare and raw white box with a curtain wall of glass doors that open out onto the sidewalk across from Freeman Alley.

As part of the inaugural 3-person exhibition, Brooklyn based artist Tamar Halpern will present a suite medium format photographs.  Halpern composes her images utilizing both traditional and digital processes, creating hybrid abstractions that are computer generated and digitally modified.  Accumulated layers of multiple generations of marks and images are then re-photographed by the artist and printed as c-prints.  Halpern was educated at Columbia University and currently lives and works in New York.  She has previously exhibited at White Columns, NY, and Andrew Kreps Gallery, NY.

New York artist Michael Phelan will be represented by three recent large-scale tie-dye paintings.  These dye-on-linen paintings featuring concentric circles of jewel-toned colors are unabashedly American, synthesizing disparate sources, inspiration, and ideas, from Jasper Johns and Kenneth Noland’s targets to hippie neo-spirituality and pop culture.  Phelan was born in Texas and has exhibited widely in the US and abroad, including solo shows at Edward Mitterand, Geneva; Hiromi Yoshii, Tokyo; Leo Koenig, NY; and Shane Campbell, Chicago.

Munich-born Florian Morlat will exhibit a large-scale mixed media geometric mobile hung from the ceiling.  Employing the language of formalism, Morlat’s work is informed by nature and beach culture (the artist is an avid surfer) as well as 70s handmade crafts, employing found materials, fabric and techniques such as draping and stitching.  Morlat received his MFA from UCLA and currently lives and works in LA.  Past solo exhibitions include Daniel Hug, LA; Galerie Ben Kaufmann, Berlin; and Galerie Michael Hall, Vienna.