New York (March 25, 2008) – Perry Rubenstein Gallery is pleased to present multi-media artist Mike Quinn’s solo exhibition in the 534 West 24th Street gallery space.
The exhibition will feature a site-specific installation, Keeping Up Appearances Can Be A Drag, which graphs the force of a basketball falling to earth against the force of gravity. The gravity line (represented by a hundreds of USA Gold Cigarette packs) is the constant whose omnipresence is the inescapable, the invariable; these are the rules by which every game is played. The fall of the ball or “drag force line” is represented by faux gold varsity pins that the artist has transformed by enscrawling the prescription code for a common anti-depressant on top of their gleaming veneer. The work deals with an object falling and the forces, which hinders it from staying up (gravity and drag), it appears as a positive line when graphed. Pharmaceutical medication and over the counter self-medication can be taken in order to maintain the appearance of happiness; losing can be made to look like winning.
Winning Is Good (for mom) and Losing Is Good For You (for me) approaches the rational side of win and loss. The “win” piece maps out the velocity of a ball in flight against free throw shooters’ head; the “loss” work maps the same for a missed shot. The rational aspects of the win look cold, forced and distant while the chaos and unpredictability of the loss piece looks more engaging and honest and welcoming. The win begins to look forced in that it represents the idea of the fleeting moment of victory; it is the loss– the struggle to move forward without the hope of moving up– that can be counted on.
Quinn received a B.F.A. in painting from NYU in 2000. He grew up in Hartford, CT and now lives and works in New York. This exhibition is Quinn’s first with Perry Rubenstein.
Concurrently on view at the gallery’s 23rd Street space through March 29th is Ry Fyan: I Can Give You What You Want. On April 12th, the 23rd Street gallery will reopen with Berlin-based artist Dennis Rudolph’s New York solo debut, titled: THE HOLY WAR, CHAPTER I: Sacrifice of Youth.