NINE HUMAN HEADS

Nine Human Heads

The Icebox Project Space is pleased to present Nine Human Heads, on view July 21st through 23rd at 1400 N. American St. This group exhibition is the culmination of a seven week conceptual and material exploration by the artists of the Tyler School of Art Summer Painting and Sculpture intensive 2015, a post-graduate summer residency. 

Peer into the minds of a surfer, a politico, a cemetery supplier, a mother, a rambler, a survivor, a businessman, a vaudevillian and a dreamer through their art in this exercise in anti-curation. These nine diverse individuals open their heads to give you a glimpse inside their creative processes, while questioning the limits of definition and the obscuring of our natural assumptions with sculpture, painting, installation, drawing and video.  

Xingyang Cai seeks to create a separate space and environment, to reflect on the relationship between the things themselves and reproductions. These artworks also act as traditions in the industrial era. Anthony Tamburro focuses on the ideas of voyeurism, eroticism and pleasure coupled with the affects of trauma as a way to “laugh in the face of danger”. This manifests in videos recording small, repetitive and obsessive actions. Claire Brill frames and investigates distortion and reflection:the possibility of controlling natural, impermanent moments and how we capture the ephemeral. Natalie Sundeleaf Sept looks to decontextualize labels, identity and representation while exploring portraiture. Her immense figures go from wall to floor with a unique flour drawing experiment. Jay Hartmann is also interested in symbols and uses abstract gestural painting to investigate malleable tropes from comic books while conveying multiple layers of content from those symbols. 

The artwork of Su A Chae is an investigation into her own “mindscape”. These paintings seek to understand ontology and the expression of feelings and thoughts with abstract color and fluid imagery. Allison Anderson uses thin layers of paint and medium to move within the boundaries of feminine textures, colors and expressive, dynamic mark making. Sofia Macht draws in three dimensions by manipulating traditional art materials, fabrics and household objects. Fueled by rhythmic, repetitive action, she pulls apart and stitches together until these parts form a cohesive texture. Marc Yearsley's recent sculptures orbit ideas of uselessness and consider what comes after: things - both made and found - without value, purpose, or utility; structures that don't support, substances that don't mix, substrates out of place and objects that don't belong.

A special thank you to Memphis Tap Room for their generous donation of hot dogs and burgers to provide for all attendees. Beer also will be served gratis. 

Nine Human Heads

The Icebox Project Space at Crane Arts, 1400 N. American Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19122

Artists: Allison Anderson, Claire Brill, Xingyang Cai, Su A Chai, Jay Hartmann, Sofia Macht, Natalie Sundeleaf Sept, Anthony Tamburro, Marc Yearsley

On view: July 21-July 23rd

Opening reception: 6 to 9 p.m. Tuesday, July 21st

Hot dogs, hamburgers, beer and other refreshments provided.

Gallery hours: noon to 6p