Summer Whites: Curated by Eddie Martinez and Sam Moyer

Summer Whites
Sarah Dornner, Ben Gocker, Anya Kielar, Sol LeWitt, Keegan Mchargue, David Benjamin Sherry, Mika Tajima, Ned Vena, Ryan Wallace
Curated by Eddie Martinez and Sam Moyer
June 24 – July 29, 2011
Opening Reception: Friday, June 24, 6-8 pm /White Attire Appreciated

Rachel Uffner Gallery is pleased to present a group show curated by artists Sam Moyer and Eddie Martinez. Using white as a point of convergence and departure, this exhibition will look at the way the color white is used in a full spectrum of practices.

White hearkens to minimalism, but on a basic level it calls up empty spaces, fresh starts, and the possibilities of a space or object waiting for us to inscribe it with meaning. Practically, white can be the great neutralizer: It levels the playing field for artists and throws into relief certain aspects of their practice; it can make works disappear into a space or it can colonize the architecture around it; white can flatten images so that only surfaces remain; it can highlight the form of an object and hide its references. White reveals as much as it conceals.

The concept for this exhibition arose out of the curators’ own use of white. Each makes very different work with one of the few overlaps being their interest in white. Martinez has used the color white to neutralize the surface of his paintings thus emphasizing the topography of the paint, while Moyer has used whiteness to camouflage her work within the architecture of the gallery. Both artists' systems use shadow and light to define content and shape.

The artists in Summer Whites work between these two poles. Each works in white as a part of their practice, whether making minimalist sculpture, large scale figurative wall pieces, or using white as a point of departure for image making in painting and photography. No matter their means of process, the common denominator of white gives all of the work a ghostly presence.
Summer Whites reminds us of the possibilities of a single color, and begins the summer with a clean and resonant slate.