Alix Pearlstein: Episode

Solo exhibition

Artemis Greenberg Van Doren Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new videos and photographs by New York based conceptual artist Alix Pearlstein, titled Episode. This is the artist’s first one-person exhibition at the gallery. In the past year, her videos were featured in Video Jam at the Palm Beach Institute for Contemporary Art, FL; Drama Queens: Women Behind the Camera at the Guggenheim Museum, NY; and Faces of Laughter at the Stedelijk Museum of Modern Art, Amsterdam.

Known for her investigation of relationships and the way in which people communicate, Pearlstein's new video installation, Episode, features vignettes of interplay among four characters, who appear to be acting "as if" they are a contemporary family: mother, father, son and daughter. The almost silent (pre-verbal) dialogue occurs in a neutral white space with each person's considered dress an acknowledgement of today's savvy marketing, signifying and dictating the roles of the actors. Simultaneously, the projections viewed on the two opposing walls of the main gallery present subtly different points of view of the same moment converging and diverging to focus on various aspects of the scene and particular characters. A group of four photographs offers an alternate perspective of the group's dynamics. Though these photographs are clearly posed, the moments they present retain a sense of immediacy, suggesting that the actors are "out of character" yet still playing out their instructed roles.

Alix Pearlstein was born in New York, NY, where she continues to live and work. She graduated from The State University of New York at Purchase, NY (M.F.A.) and Cornell University, Ithaca, NY (B.F.A.). Her fellowships and residencies include The Mac Dowell Colony (1988, 1989, 1997), Art Matters (1996), and National Endowment for the Arts (1989). She has exhibited at Postmasters Gallery, NY; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; The Whitney Museum of American Art, NY; and the 1999 Venice Biennale, among many others.