At Postmasters: Jen Catron & Paul Outlaw and Rafael Rozendaal

At Postmasters, 54 Franklin St., opening Saturday, Jan. 12 to Jan. 23
Opening Reception: Saturday, 6 to 8 p.m.

JEN CATRON & PAUL OUTLAW
an idea of god, or a toothbrush 
&
RAFAËL ROZENDAAL
Don't do too much

FROM THE GALLERY'S PRESS RELEASE...

Postmasters is at 54 Franklin St.
JEN CATRON & PAUL OUTLAW

an idea of god, or a toothbrush

For their second solo exhibition with Postmasters Jen Catron & Paul Outlaw present a contradictory show of the tragic and the mundane, of logic that breaks down into absurdity. Dada artist Tristan Tzara once said dada can be god, or his toothbrush. It is with this perfectly sensible nonsensical logic that the artists present works that are both endearing and insane, that range from a miniaturized version of Alex Jones’ bathroom to a massive euphoric ice cream chocolate fountain. Reflecting upon the past years’ daily mundanity being punctuated by insanity, the works oscillate between tragedies in belief (such as tiny replicas of cult suicides) and humorously absurd monumental objects. 
 
The world feels like it might crumble, or triumphantly save itself. It’s within this state of limbo and chaos that Catron & Outlaw present oversized sculptures outfitted with fountains and participatory elements that monumentalize the confusion and surreality that comes from discerning truth from truthiness. The audience is invited to dive into an exploration in belief systems in an attempt to discern how we have arrived at this uneasy tipping point. Swim-able oversized sink pouring dirty water contrasts with miniaturized evangelical end-of-world money-making pyramid schemes and conspiracies. Viewers will pay witness to historical rituals and be drawn into microcosms of bizarre yet normalized world views while considering, and ultimately giving in to, the absurdity of our own creations. The works are both everything and nothing, logic and nonsense, spiritual and nihilistic, god or a toothbrush.

image: JEN CATRON & PAUL OUTLAW, Soothing Desk Fountain I (The Last Meal for the Movement of the Restoration of Ten Commandments of God), 2018; 15 x 14 x 14 inches
 

RAFAËL ROZENDAAL

Don't do too much

January 12 - February 23
opening reception, Saturday 6-8pm

i don’t really work with materials… i don’t code, i don’t print, i don’t weave, i don’t paint, i don’t draw…..like most people, i’m glued to my screen. it feels like i never work, it feels more like waiting. the work appears and then i wait again, for the next one.
 

   - Rafaël Rozendaal
 
Postmasters is pleased to announce Rafaël Rozendaal’s fourth solo exhibition with the gallery. His most recent series of works are shadow objects of deceptive simplicity that fluctuate between an image and an object, a drawing and a sculpture. In what can be considered the shortest path from digital to physical, Rozendaal creates shapes which are coded to be cut by computer out of rectangular plates of white steel.

To Joseph Kosuth’s One and Three Chairs (1965) canonical trinity of language, picture, and referent, Rozendaal proposes a fourth element of meaning: the virtual. These are man-conceived, machine-made objects, where a line of code cuts a line in metal, becoming a line frozen in the material world, but also a void. This void, the negative of the shape, is activated by light; the shadow cast on the wall defines the image of an object that is not there. 
Rozendaal’s new works mirror the digital realm, where drop-shadows lend the illusion of presence and form to immaterial, virtual objects. And where graphics software facilitates instant inversion, toggling between mask and background, object and absence. These contemplative voids and the shadow objects they create counter the cacophony and information overload of online life. 
 
Rafaël Rozendaal (b. 1980, Netherlands) is Dutch-Brazilian artist who uses the internet as his canvas and as his studio. His websites attract 40 million visits per year. His practice also consists of installations, lenticular paintings, tapestries, drawings, writings, lectures, and a podcast. He is the creator of BYOB (Bring Your Own Beamer), an open source DIY curatorial format. Most recently (2018) Generosity, Rozendaal’s solo exhibition, took place at Towada Art Museum in Japan. His work is currently included in Programmed at the Whitney Museum of American Art and in a show of recent acquisitions at the Stedelijk Museum on Amsterdam. Rafaël Rozendaal's first major monograph Everything, Always, Everywhere was published in 2017 by Valiz, Amsterdam.

 
image: RAFAËL ROZENDAAL, Shadow Object 18 09 09, 2018