Kerry Downey at Underdonk

for, between, beside, like, inside, around, near, of, on, under, off, until, behind, to, through, 

within, without, over, pass, along, among, following, against, from, outside, toward, beyond, 


February 10 - March 10, 2024

Performance at 6 PM



The unwieldy list of prepositions that frames Downey’s show conjures a set of relational possibilities. Prepositions are, afterall, relationships – between verb and noun, subject and object, insides and outsides. Prepositions are directional, spatial, temporal, and determining – how close, how long, how far, how much, too far, and often too close, too much. Downey’s abstractions invite us to shift from the systematic to the interpersonal—from power over or under, to power with–and back again.

My Back Pages

The Painting Center is pleased to present My Back Pages, a solo exhibition of paintings by Biff Elrod curated by Georgia Elrod. These works span much of the artist’s career, featuring paintings from the early 1970’s through 2022. Elrod’s work explores intimacy and humanist narratives through lushly colorful painting and the manipulation of photographical references. 


June 23 - July 17 2022

The Painting Center

547 West 27th Street

New York, NY 10001



EXCERPT 2001 - 2021

The Painting Center is pleased to present EXCERPT 2001 - 2021, a solo exhibition of paintings by D. Jack Solomon curated by Georgia Elrod. The works in this exhibition reflect the artist’s ongoing exploration of composition, forms and vibrant painterly structures. Our eyes travel the surface on a sometimes zany ride into found imagery and collage, cartoon, whimsical shapes, and radiating color.


June 23 - July 17 2022

The Painting Center

547 West 27th Street

New York, NY 10001

Thingness


December 4th - December 19th 2021

Opening Reception: Friday December 4th, 6-8PM



Caitlin MacBride

Linda Wallis


Underdonk is pleased to present Thingness, an exhibition that brings together two artists that explore object-hood. Caitlin MacBride and Linda Wallis make paintings and works on paper that present objects from an alternate reality or place in time; perhaps these pieces depict our past and our future simultaneously. 

Curated by Georgia Elrod

H A I R S U P P L Y

A one-weekend-only event at The 5x10, "an illegal bar 5'x10' long, in an undisclosed location that features curated conversation, drinks and atmosphere by rotating bartenders" Wigged guests were invited to enjoy cocktails such as The Deep Conditioner, trade wigs, and engage in conversation that got a little hairy...

For more info:

https://mckendreekey.wixsite.com/mysite

Making (It) Work
Oliver Art Center, CCA Oakland Campus
January 22–February 7, 2019

https://portal.cca.edu/events-calendar/making-it-work/

California College of the Arts presents Making (It) Work, a group exhibition of artworks made by artists during their first few years of parenthood. Many artists are surprised to find that the joys, hardships, and consuming nature of child care can produce unexpected layers of inspiration and an urgent sense of motivation. A reevaluation of priorities and time management changes the way artists approach the studio; new questions are revealed; new modes of working are hashed out.
The exhibition was conceived during a playdate conversation between the exhibition’s co-curators CCA assistant professor Karla Wozniak and New York-based artist Georgia Elrod. According to the co-curators, “Hanging out with our babies we got to talking about the craziness of life as artists and new parents. After putting the kids down for a nap we kept
talking and comparing notes. Along with its very real stresses and limitations, we were both surprised by how creatively generative early parenthood was for us.”
Becoming a parent is a profound identity shift, and this exhibition highlights the work made during this transition. The exhibition does not assume parenthood to be a necessity for deeper understanding of self or artistic practice—rather it celebrates the resilience and dedication of artists. Making (It) Work celebrates makers who have embraced parenthood in its many forms and recognize its generative force.

Featuring work by Lisha Bai, Karen Dana, Leigh Davis, Ariel Dill, Madeline Donahue, Georgia Elrod, Jackie Gendel, David Huffman, McKendree Key, Shaun Leonardo, JJ Manford, Sangram Majumdar, Aspen Mays, Leeza Meksin, Althea Murphy-Price, Elizabeth Russell, Karen Seapker, Allison Smith, Elisa Soliven, Angie Wilson, Witts, Karla Wozniak, and Ezra Wube.

Curated by Karla Wozniak (CCA Assistant Professor, Painting/Drawing) and Georgia Elrod.

OOBS
Nancy Davidson
Nicasio Fernandez
Maureen St. Vincent

November 30th - December 30th, 2018

http://www.underdonk.com/exhibitions/oobs/

OOBS brings together three artists that depict physicality using suggestive and often surreal forms. From the erotic grace of Maureen St.Vincent’s nipple-scapes, to Nancy Davidson’s sunbathing phallus, to Nicasio Fernandez’s wonky and exaggerated figures, these artists are finding humor in bodily forms, and with pleasure. The paintings and sculpture in this show are grounded in a roundness that points to flesh, subverting our expectations as we decipher the imagery. There is something giddy in these particular presentations of sexuality, the boldness of color, form and implied narratives feel like freedom.

Nancy Davidson’s works are “domineering and highly sexualized, comically flirting with the viewer with a wink and a nod, but also genuinely erotic”. As Nancy herself states, “the work is engaged with spectatorship and the interaction, reaction, and attention to an implied social structure that sets up an almost irrepressible release of laughter…” Nancy Davidson is an interdisciplinary artist, working primarily in sculpture and installation. Her work has been shown at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), the Corcoran in Washington D.C., the Wight Gallery at UCLA, as well as the Shoshana Wayne Gallery in Los Angeles and at Robert Miller Gallery in New York, among others. She lives and works in New York City.
www.nancydavidson.com

Nicasio Fernandez’s paintings stretch life into an absurd territory by exploring what it means to be human. Within the paintings there is a cast of grotesque figures with animal-like features, exaggerated limbs, and unnatural skin tones who are overwhelmed emotionally in the midst of trying to adapt to their given situations. Influenced by Otto Dix, Peter Saul, Judith Linhares, the Chicago Imagists and cartoons from Chuck Jones, Fernandez’s vibrant wonky paintings are occupied with ideas of cartoon-like violence, desire of control, clumsiness, questionable mental and physical endurance and a parody of masculinity. Utilizing slapstick humor in a surrealistic tone results in a psychological image that is both entertaining and challenging. He lives and works in Mahopac, NY.
www.nicasiofernandez.com

Maureen St. Vincent uses a surrealist vocabulary to explore erotic pleasure and the part-body. Implying vestiges of bodily experience freed from rationality, her work results in a kind of disembodied erotica, or as Maureen says, “Disembodica”. This recent work has developed within and around custom made frames. She lives and works in San Francisco, CA.
www.maureenstvincent.com

Underdonk
1329 Willoughby Ave #211
Brooklyn NY 11237
L train to Jefferson St
Joy Decision at Underdonk
Damali Abrams
Jodie Lyn-Kee-Chow
Sarada Rauch
Andre Springer
Aya Uekawa
Rachel Eulena Williams

October 20th - November 19th 2017
Performances on Friday November 10th, 8-9PM

http://www.underdonk.com/exhibitions/joy-decision/#more-917

“You are an extension of the power that created the whole universe. You are God in drag. You are dressed up in this outfit of a body, which is temporary. You are eternal. You are forever. You are unchanged. And this is a dream you're having. So don't get to attached to it. Make love. Love people. Be sweet. Have corn dogs. Dance. Live. Love. Fuck shit up. But it's all good. You can't fuck it up because you're eternal.”
-RuPaul

This show is an ode of sorts to RuPaul, a performer who inspires many as a cultural icon, artist and guru. Bringing a range of both media and approaches, Joy Decision takes a cue from Rupaul’s philosophy to present artists who subvert dominant paradigms with a sense of irreverence, purpose and joy.

Address: 1329 Willoughby Avenue
Hours: Saturday and Sunday, 12- 6PM, and by appointment
Around About is a podcast of conversations, in the spirit of horizontality. It is created by artists Georgia Elrod and Sarada Rauch with an intent to expand the circle, investigating art within larger contexts. Each episode brings together guests from a variety of backgrounds and diverse disciplines. The approach is open, we start with a topic and we see where the conversation leads. www.aroundaboutproject.com
IN ON at Heliopolis
Mike Cloud
Maureen St. Vincent
Karla Wozniak

December 13th- January 17th
Opening reception December 13th 7-10pm

Curated by Georgia Elrod, Baris Gokturk and Sarada Rauch

We wanted to do a painting show about weird places. In our discussion, we realized we had different understandings of what that meant. Was it in or on a place? We were intrigued by this shifting idea, and it became the basis for this show. The artists in IN ON explore the simultaneity of “place” as depicted and also as surface.

Heliopolis
154 Huron St,
Greenpoint, Brooklyn NY
www.suncityprojectspace.com
Witness my Hand: Paul Ramirez Jonas at Heliopolis
March 1- 24th, 2013
Opening Reception March 1st, 7-10 PM

Curated by Georgia Elrod, Sarada Rauch and Baris Gokturk.

"Witness My Hand" is based on a simple premise: A copy machine is a form of active pedestal. A sculpture is placed on top, and its bottom can be “published” by the viewer.
A photo copier is a magic base. Originals go on top, endless copies come out of it. The structure of this machine is very simple: There are things on top that get to be copied, they are the originals. There are things inside, they are the raw material. And there are things that come out.
All pedestals are a form of frame, and it could be argued that they transform whatever is on top of them. Piero Manzoni made a series of pieces called Base Magica: A pedestal that a viewer could climb onto and become a sculpture. Manzoni also made a piece called Pedestal of the World: A pedestal, with that inscription on its base, turned upside down so that the world was on top of it. Lets re-imagine those pieces with a copier in the place of the pedestal.
A notary public has its origins in the role of scribe. A scribe was a recorder of facts, a copier and transcriber, and the notary public grew out of that. They now offer a service to the public--one of testifying to the originality of the mark. Thus, the copy center is sometimes a space to publish and broadcast, and sometimes it is a space for appropriation. Is the copy center the original, decentralized? Like a copy center, Heliopolis becomes a space to publish, broadcast, or appropriate.

Heliopolis
154 Huron St.
Greenpoint, Brooklyn NY
www.suncityprojectspace.com
Ticklish Object at Heliopolis
Judith Linhares
Jeff Grant
Zoe Sheehan Saldaña

December 6th, 2013 - January 5th, 2014
Opening Reception: Friday, December 6th 6-9PM

Curated by Georgia Elrod, Sarada Rauch and Barıs Gokturk

Think of a snap shot, capturing the point right after the peak where things are just starting to decompose. As a freeze frame it is an image of something that is in its nature, moving. Still life, in its traditional painterly framework, functions as such. A seemingly conservative genre that pioneered the transformation of the commodified object to the aesthetic one in the Dutch tradition, it paradoxically lead to a few revolutions in 20th Century. In the contemporary setting a collection of objects is overly indexable. The works in Ticklish Object revolve around a transient idea of reconfiguring the object between still life and archeological artifact.

The artists in this show deal with contemporary reverberations of still life, navigating this web of indexing objects by investigating object-hood and re-presentation. Each of the separate objects points away from the collection it is grouped with toward other meaning. The subtleties and vibrations of arrangement can create multiple layers and simultaneously active and quiet readings. These works show us the cultural coronations of artist-as-archeologist, the manipulative gaze of the maker, and the contemporary artist as hunter-gatherer.

Heliopolis
154 Huron St.
Brooklyn, NY
www.suncityprojectspace.com
big window little field at Heliopolis
Zachary Fabri
Float Masters
Christina Freeman
K. J. Holmes
David Kagan
Shaun Leonardo
Dhira Rauch
Samita Singh

Two nights: April 11th and April 25th
A participatory work all month long

Curated by Georgia Elrod, Sarada Rauch and Baris Gokturk

Though humble in its square footage, Heliopolis’ storefront space proposes itself as a condensed field for activating, intervening and questioning what constitutes a performance.

What does it mean for the audience to anticipate, experience, participate in such an event? How passive or active do we behave with this type of experience that resists commodification yet brushes against entertainment? Is it possible to talk about this expansive terrain as egalitarian, breaking away from established hierarchies?

The works in "big window little field" consider these questions through a variety of practice and scope. Like the genre of performance, the artists in this show are from a large breadth of definition. Their discipline, age, sex, orientation, outward and inward identity cast a wide net over the medium. These artists transport Heliopolis into an activated state.

Heliopolis
154 Huron St.
Greenpoint, Brooklyn NY
www.suncityprojectspace.com
Circled the Man at Heliopolis
Daniel Bozhkov
Dineo Seshee Bopape
Erkan Ozgen and Sener Ozmen
Ji Hye Yom
Susana Gaudêncio

Opening Reception: Friday, November 9th, 7-10pm

Curated by Georgia Elrod, Baris Gokturk, and Sarada Rauch.

"You could say that a reckoning has to be made with the coyote…”
Joseph Beuys on I Like America and America Likes Me, 1974
 
When Joseph Beuys came to New York to live and communicate with a wild coyote in a small room he fascinated people. In I Like America and America Likes Me (1974) Beuys assembled a parallel mythology; through symbolism he proposed a different perspective on America, both current and historical. Using an alternative lexicon of ancient myths, he attempted, through his work, to "fix" or heal the rampant global effects of American foreign policy at work during that time. Following this lead, the works in Circled the Man extend parameters by investigating parallel mythologies at work today--traditional, political and otherwise. A show inviting expansion and insight, these are international artists whose work questions, navigates, or provides a broader perspective on political and social paradigms.
 
It is the common practice of political entities, states and institutions with access to power to churn their respective mythologies, amplifying their raison d’etre and justifying their actions beyond ethical frontiers. The fabrication of such mythologies is followed by the aestheticization of their message sponsored by these very same machines. The individual, the artist, and the independent mind finds itself on the edge of these official narratives. This displacement at its best can result in an alternate current, an adjustment, and a healing. The artist can respond to the officially sponsored spin-of-authority with their own individual practice, placing a stick into the spinning wheel.

Heliopolis
154 Huron St,
Greenpoint, Brooklyn NY
www.suncityprojectspace.com

Rum Punch!
July 3rd - July 17th, 2014
Opening Reception: Thursday, July 3rd, 6-9 PM

http://theqatparkside.blogspot.com/2014/06/leffets-goes-arty.html

204 Parkside
204 Parkside Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11226

“Rum Punch!” is a group exhibition featuring artists living or working in south Brooklyn. It is the inaugural show at 204 Parkside, quite possibly Brooklyn's only event space and art gallery that doubles as a tax preparation office. Organized by the participating artists and the proprietor of the venue, Derek Noel, this exhibition showcases a variety of work and media. Inspired by the uniqueness of the space, much of the work is site specific and made especially for this show.

Bursting with a feeling of collectivity and integration, the diversity of the works and the artists who made them mirror the ever-changing population of Flatbush. Like a big bowl of rum punch we hope that this exhibit serves as a mixing and a gathering, the artwork inspiring a blending of neighborhood artists with the local community.

Juan Pablo Baene
Rory Baron
Darell Day
Francks Deceus
Georgia Elrod
Baris Gokturk
Sarah Elise Hall
Mckendree Key
M P Landis
Rachel Ostrow
Sarada Rauch
Orlando Richards
Carrie Rubinstein
Rosemary Taylor
Witts
Ezra Wube
Watch Man at Heliopolis
Witts
Dave Mishalanie

June 4th – 18th, 2010

Curated by Georgia Elrod

Dave Mishalanie and Witts have some unexpected connections in their work. Incomplete narratives, bizarre characters, a sense of apocalypse. Figures and grounds commingle. There is a curious humor lurking, a comic-book kind of finesse.

Heliopolis
154 Huron St.
Greenpoint, Brooklyn NY
www.suncityprojectspace.com