BE THERE
CandylandPresented by Claire Oliver February 16, 2007- March 17, 2007Reception: February 15, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pmCarson FoxIn the artist’s second solo show at Claire Oliver Gallery, Carson Fox stays true to her promise to be "unfaithful to any medium". Fox continues her distrust of beauty and quest to expand the boundaries of new media in "Candyland"; the organic and inorganic collide in a surrealistic garden party of glittering technicolor sweetness. Fox stimulates our childhood fantasies of grand overindulgence in the manner of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" or "The Wizard of Oz." Assaulting the viewer with an elaborate arrangement of form, color and texture, spectacular surrealistic flowers sprout from the walls of the gallery. Each a unique work of art unto itself, en mass they read as something far greater; a pictorial plane of subtle fluctuations in shimmering color, referencing Color Field painters such as Mark Rothko. By feeding on society’s demands for perfection, Fox simultaneously satisfies and questions our insatiable desire for more. The question she poses of the viewer delves into the very nature of "beauty"; the artist’s disdain for superficiality and all that it connotes is linked to the context in which the word is used. For this new body of work, Fox has created a casting process which allows her to vary every detail of each flower. Using a mixture of resin, glue, and found objects, she mixes pigment directly into the liquid plastic, dusting further color onto the surface of the set, but still tacky, work before giving the sculpture a final sealing; thus creating endless variations in hue and texture. One can compare Fox’s approach to Lyrical Abstraction to that of Lee Krasner’s playful rhythmic placement of shapes. The Artist’s intuitive balance of colors and forms brings movement throughout her vibrant visual landscapes, culminating in sophisticated works infused with whimsy and fantasy. In "Candyland", the artist pulls from her early exposure to southern gothic aesthetics and folk art traditions, and aligns herself with early feminist artists who used craft materials in their studio practice. By considering her message and her media, Carson Fox continues to subvert the hierarchy of established art making and engage us in new postmodern dialogues. Carson Fox’s work is represented in the permanent collections of The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Museum, Philadelphia, PA; Hofstra Museum, Hempstead, NY ; The Royal Museum of Belgium, Antwerp, Belgium; Rutgers Center for Innovative Print & Paper, Rutgers University, NJ; and the Newark Museum, Newark, NJ. She has held solo exhibitions at Jersey City Museum, Jersey City, NJ; 1708 Gallery, Richmond, VA; and Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Boulder, CO.
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