For immediate release:

tmyaing01@gmail.com (917) 378-3700

Media inquiries: Tun Myaing

Melanie Vote

Yulia Levkovich

Karl Koett

Art Foundry
is proud to present

Living Things
September 21 October 12, 2012
Opening reception September 21, 6 - 9 pm

New York, NY. The Art Foundry celebrates its grand opening and presents the exhibition Living Things, a group show curated by Heidi Elbers and Tun Myaing featuring original paintings, drawings, installations and more from 16 emerging and established artists in the NYC area. Every once in a while, we encounter an object. Truly, unmistakably encounter itan experience wholly apart from mere recognition and identification. To encounter an object, truly, is to not only recognize its existence but to relate to it. This moment of identification with an object is transformativehere it is occasioned that our constant immaterial selves, the collections of thoughts, worries, hopes, emotions, are finally represented in simple, material ways, out of our minds and into a visible tangible reality. In this sense, these rare objects are inhuman beings capable of bearing the weights and concerns of human souls. As impactful as this recognition may be, it is also delicate and fleeting--fundamentally incommunicable to any outside the direct experience. The artist however is uniquely sensitive to these objects, poised better than most to listen, to relate to these immaterial forms. In fact, it is the duty of the artist to do so, and to find a way, however vexing, of telling about these experiences to others. To bridge that curious divide. Artists have framed this relationship between man and object in various ways throughout history. Dutch still life represents a modality in which various objects jointly and uniquely pattern a reminder that death is near. A platter of spoiled fruit, a fish eaten with bones exposed, sometimes, most direct, a human skull, all collude to express mortality. The object, in this setting, is both a thing unto itself and a symbol, a carrier of a message. The work of (Garcia-Lopez) expands upon these ideas. His drawings of objects, organic and not,

connote a sense of time and decay within the objects themselves. These objects are not just symbols, they are like usmolded and changed by time. In seeing an object change, we are invited to ponder how we will change, how we despite our immaterial trappings are bound up in a physical, material world of unavoidable change. Through out history the body has been the object of much introspection, desire and many wonderful mysteries. We are born into this suit of flesh and bones without any choice of the matter and have little understanding of it and less control over its internal workings. We nourish it the best we can and do our best to keep it from its inevitable end. It is its own entity and has its own demands. Empathy and lust are constantly changing the roles we see this body as which seems separate from the actual person. We treat animals like humans and humans like animals, objects like humans and humans as objects. Even the dead can become alive again through paintings or sculptures. There is our body as seen by other people; the body as you see it in your mind and the actual body that exists without any judgments. This disconnect is part of the human condition and also a favorite subject for many artists. The artists in Living Things continue this tradition into the 21st century, bringing their unique, contemporary vision of the bizarre, beautiful world of their quotidian surroundings. They transcend the insentient subject of their work, communicating with the viewer on a higher, immaterial plane.

Hi-resolution jpegs of the selected works and artists bios are available upon request: tmyaing01@gmail.com For further information on the Art Foundry, please visit: theartfoundry.us

Art Foundry 310 East 23rd Street, No. 12F, New York, NY 10010

T: (917) 378-3700