A reception for the artists will be held on Thursday, January 12th from 6-8 pm. This exhibition is curated by Chris Byrne.
Charles Andresen has been making “throw paintings” for nearly three decades, wherein spoonfuls of viscous acrylic are flung upon stretched canvas. Hurling and plopping paint in this manner yields unexpected shapes and patterns, serving as a tool for him to uncover fictive space and imagery.
Andresen sees his method as an extension of Surrealist automatism, an act of discovery and a way to assemble a puzzle. Recently, he has been making “nocturnes” using light-tinted lines and dots atop very deep grounds, and medium-toned work with darker markings. Quoting Malcolm Morley, Andresen states, “I’d echo his remark that he wanted to depict reality as if “the world were made of paint”.
Jerry Torre, known as the Marble Faun, is a Queens based artist who works primarily in stone and earthenware. He was the live-in handyman and close friend to Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale (Big Edie) and her daughter, Edith Bouvier Beale (Little Edie), as seen in “Grey Gardens,” Albert and David Maysles’ 1975 documentary about two women living in isolated squalor.
In his youth, Torre spent time exploring the mausoleums and statues of Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn with his friends. He found refuge from an abusive childhood when his uncle, a mason, taught him to work in stone, which he began hand-carving without the use of machines in 1987. Torre’s work pulls from his rich and varied life experiences, including work as an assistant to the ventriloquist Wayland Flowers, tending a palace in Saudi Arabia, running an art-moving business, and driving a cab for 20 years.
Chris Byrne is a curator and the co-founder of the Dallas Art Fair. He serves on the Dallas Contemporary’s board of directors, is co-chair of Art21’s Contemporary Council, as well as the American Folk Art Museum’s Council for the Study of Art Brut and the Self-Taught. He is the author of the 2013 limited-edition graphic novel “The Magician” (Marquand Books).
Charles Andresen was born in Arizona in 1964. For the past twenty-five years, he has been employed by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He graduated from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where he trained as a realist oil painter. Andresen was awarded a 2015 residency at the Elaine de Kooning House on Long Island. Recent shows include Christian Berst, New York; The Green Gallery, Milwaukee; Guided By Invoices Gallery, New York; Susanne Hilberry Gallery, Ferndale, MI; Derek Eller Gallery, New York; James Fuentes Gallery, New York; and Turner Byrne & Runyon, Dallas, TX.
Jerry the Marble Faun was born in New York in 1955. He grew up in Kensington, Brooklyn, and held his first exhibition in 2014 at Jackie Klempay Gallery. His work was included in the 2015 Outsider Art Fair in New York, where he received press including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Observer, Forbes, Vogue, Interview, and Architectural Digest. In 2016, He participated in group exhibitions at Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York and CANADA, New York. He has upcoming group shows at Safe Gallery, Brooklyn, The Bureau of General Services, Queer Division, and a solo presentation with SITUATIONS, New York. He was awarded a residency at the Elaine de Kooning House on Long Island.