Opening this week in New York: Nearly Approaching Never to Pass

Left: Stretched Membrane, Zombie Crossing by George Pfau, 58” x 58” (2009)
Right: The Mind Recedes the Blood is Wise the Soundless Mouth is Open by Joshua Hagler, 78” x 110” (2009)

I’ve only just moved to New York this month, and am happy that Grandfather Art has already brought my San Francisco friends and painters George Pfau and Joshua Hagler here to me, via their collaborative 2-person show opening this week. Be warned that Reaves has unusually limited gallery hours, so the opening may be your best chance to check out this production. The glimpses I’ve caught of the beautiful, very sensitively rendered painted transparencies to be included in the show are some of the best work I’ve seen from either of these two yet.

“Nearly Approaching Never To Pass”
opening Thursday, October 14th 6-9pm
and running through November 13th
at Reaves Gallery, 526 West 26th Street, Suite 706, New York

About the show: By combining current technology with traditional media, Hagler and Pfau investigate both literal and non-literal representation of the human body. The notion of the layered body becomes a kind of schematic through which the artists are able to sift through an imbrication of memory, mythology, and personal reflection. The artists embrace digital media both as a tool and as a conceptual consideration in the work. Pfau excavates the wire frames of video game zombies as one of a variety of tools to depict skin as an influx or inside-out boundary between the body and its environment. Hagler makes use of custom-made digital 3D models to depict what he terms “the four evangelists,” four individuals who have had significant impact on the artist’s life, in an attempt to place them into a quasi-historical cosmology discreetly reflective of the artist’s personal memories. In addition to implementing a variety of two-dimensional pictorial strategies, the pair extend the exploration to sculpture, video, and a collaborative work utilizing the same techniques with respect to artifacts from their respective family histories of generations past.