Robert Steele Gallery 511 West 25th Street
New York, NY 10001
  
  

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Robert Steele Gallery located at 511 West 25th Street

 in New York City focuses on Contemporary art, both Australian Aboriginal art as well as International art.  

Past Exhibitions

 

John Ochs
Unearthed: New Paintings in Shellac
Sept 10 - Oct 9, 2004

 

 

 

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Neither Here Nor There

Mary Ehrin, Bill Feeney, Zero Higashida, Terry Maker, Milton Rosa-Ortiz,
Patricia Tinajero-Baker, Lee Tribe

curated by 
CORNELL DeWITT PROJECTS 

 

May 27 through July 10, 2004

Robert Steele Gallery is pleased to present Neither Here Nor There, a group show curated by Cornell DeWitt Projects and featuring new sculpture and installation works by Mary Ehrin, Bill Feeney, Zero Higashida, Terry Maker, Milton Rosa-Ortiz, Patricia Tinajero-Baker, and Lee Tribe. The exhibition will run from May 27 through July 10, 2004, with a reception for the artists May 27 from 6 to 8 pm.


Often when an artist is working from one place while in another place - be it cultural, physical or emotional - the work created addresses neither place directly. It is neither here nor there. However, it is this displacement that becomes the strength of the work. By being entirely rooted in neither frame of reference, the artist provides new insight, and perhaps even revelation regarding both states. The artists in this show draw from a contrasting background from the one they are working. This displacement is reflected in the work through use of unique materials, or familiar materials applied in a new and unexpected fashion.

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Bootzilla, 2004
ostrich feathers, acrylic paint
39" by 40" by 7"

Mary Ehrin’s art suffuses a layered surface of ostrich feathers into glowing, moving, animal-like creatures, splicing fantasies of sensual extravagance and unconscious desire. Works like Perruque en Poudre Rose Chaud Pour Marie Antoinette (2003) reflect her obsession with 18th century French culture and extensive studies in painting and costume design. The result is a form of iconic portraiture that is alternately erotic, historical, vapid, beautiful, luxurious, and fake. click for more

 

 

 

$39.70, May 6, 2004
wood, wire, metal
28" by 50" by 26" (including base)

Bill Feeney was born and raised in Wyoming and now lives and works in Brooklyn. Drawing from his own background as well as a diverse range of influences, Feeney’s work recreates loaded environments that, familiar to the viewer or not, take on new meaning when placed into an incongruous environment. $39.70 (May 6, 2004) is a wooden, scale replica of an oil pump - a sight familiar even more common than Dairy Queens to those who have plied the highways of the western United States. In a gallery in New York City, in the contemporary political climate, the work takes on an entirely new panoply of meanings. click for more

 

Wall In Wall, 2004
steel, 77" by 37"

Zero Higashida divides his time between New York and his home in Japan. His mother survived the dawn of the atomic age in Hiroshima, and Higashida’s work reflects the tension between violence and passivity. Welds like scars bind steel panels into poetic constructions that contradict the weight of their materials.

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Pop Quiz B, 2004
shredded paper, crayons, markers
40" by 30" by 1 1/2"

Terry Maker’s new works are constructed from recycled shredded tests and other paperwork collected from elementary schools. The papers are compressed into blocks also containing thousands of red crayons, and then sliced into panels to reveal the “correcting” of the papers. The works act as a metaphor for the psyche of the young mind - at first naïve and sincere, the individual is shaped and eventually displaced through societal interaction. click for more

 

 

Illegal Migrations, 2004 (view 1)
drift wood, monofilament, support structure
7 1/2" by 13" by 3" (not including support structure)
51" high including support structure

Milton Rosa-Ortiz was born and raised in Puerto Rico and now lives and works in Brooklyn. In two new sculptures, the outlines of small boats are formed by hanging driftwood found on beaches in Puerto Rico. The sculptures correspond to boats constructed and used by Dominicans to reach Puerto Rico, and eventually the United States. Broken shards of these boats - often built for only one trip - are found along beaches on the western shore of Puerto Rico. These vessels represent the hopes of a poor class of migrant people who are willing to put their very lives at risk for the opportunity to displace their native culture in a land of opportunity.  click for more

 

 

Landscrap installation
Part I (Read Between the Lines), 2004
latex, suction cups, copper wire, wood, car paint, pins
dimensions variable

Patricia Tinajero-Baker was born in Quito, Ecuador and now makes her home in a small town in Colorado. The politics of cultural displacement also mark the starting point for the conceptual development of her installations. Combing found objects, miscellaneous scraps and recycled materials, Tinajero-Baker builds installations that reveal evidence of their previous uses while also proposing alternatives to their lifecycle.  click for more

 

 

(left) As It Is, I, 2004
steel, white and grey patina
7 1/2" by 3" by 3 1/2"

(right) As It Is, II, 2004
steel, black patina
11 1/2" by 5" by 6"

Lee Tribe was born and raised in London and now lives and works in New York. In sculptures of welded steel, Tribe subverts the constructivist tradition from which he is working by creating small-scale, almost “friendly” works in a manner more commonly associated with large, imposing, more “macho” works. Chunks of found and recycled steel, chain, and other imposing objects are made comfortable and familiar through Tribe’s deft touch with a blow-torch. click for more

 

 

 

Cornell DeWitt founded his first gallery in 1995 in Boulder, Colorado, and from 1998 through 2003 was director of the now closed Cornell DeWitt Gallery in New York. DeWitt is now a full-time father and, through Cornell DeWitt Projects, a part-time curator, consultant and private dealer.

 

 

 

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John Sanders
New Sculpture
April 23 - May 22

Town Square 2003
19" x 22" x 21"
welded copper and bronze

Stage Set (left) 2003
21" x 20" x 10"
Reader (right) 2003
24.5" x 14" x 11"
both welded copper and bronze

Still Hanging In 2003
40" x 30" x 16"
welded copper and bronze

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