Robert Bittenbender - Patty Chang - Troy Lamarr Chew II - Milano Chow - Srijon Chowdhury - Gina Fischli - Dalton Gata - Margaret Harrison - Jeanette Mundt - Larissa De Jesús Negron - Brandon Ndife - Farah Al Qasimi
Striving After Wind derives inspiration from the art historical genre of still life painting known as Vanitas, which became widely recognized in Northern Europe in the 17th century. Typical Vanitas paintings portrayed symbolic objects—such as, fruit, flowers, skulls, extinguished candles, and time pieces, among many others—that relayed narrative meaning. They were intended to convey moralistic messages and warn against overindulgence, reminding viewers of the transience of worldly pleasures and the inevitability of death.
In our current world molded by capitalist excess and environmental degradation, such works feel particularly prescient. Striving After Wind presents a selection of contemporary works that revive and expand this art historical style to reflect upon our current times. Ranging from traditional still life paintings, to sculptural assemblages, they explore notions of the icon, tropes of femininity, the banality of the everyday, fleeting memories, the passage of time, the temptations of our desires, and more. At times darkly humorous and eerily seductive, this exhibition reminds us that nothing lasts forever.
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Robin Bittenbender (b. 1987, Washington DC) lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. He has had solo exhibitions at LOMEX, New York (2019, 2018, 2017), and HIGH ART, Paris (2015-16). His work has been included in the Whitney Biennial 2019 at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2019) and other group exhibitions at Balice Hertling, Paris (2018); Gladstone Gallery, New York (2018); White Columns, New York (2017); Greene Naftali, New York (2015); and James Fuentes, New York (2015).
Patty Chang (b. 1972, San Leandro, CA) lives and works in Los Angeles. She received her BA from the University of California, San Diego in 1994. She has had recent solo exhibitions at Friend Indeed Gallery and Cushion Works, San Francisco (2020); the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2019); the Queens Museum, New York (2017); and the Museum of Modern Art, New York (2014), among others. Her work is included in numerous public collections including, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; the Museum of Fine Art, Boston, MA; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Chang has an upcoming solo exhibition at Pioneer Works, Brooklyn in 2021.
Troy Lamarr Chew II (b. 1992 in Los Angeles) lives and works in Los Angeles. Solo exhibitions include Yadadamean, CULT Aimee Friberg Exhibitions, San Francisco (2020); Fuck the King’s Horses and all the King’s Men, Parker Gallery, Los Angeles (2020); WWJZD, Cushion Works, San Francisco (2019) and Stunt 101, Guerrero Gallery, San Francisco (2019). His work has been included in recent group exhibitions at Altman Siegel, San Francisco (2020); Kristina Kite Gallery, Los Angeles (2019); San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco (2019); Good Mother Gallery, Oakland, CA (2019); and the Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco (2018). His work was recently acquired by the international foundation KADIST.
Milano Chow (b. 1987 in Los Angeles) lives and works in Los Angeles. She received her BA from Barnard College in 2009 and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2013. She has had solo exhibitions at Bel Ami, Los Angeles (2020); Adams and Ollman, Portland, OR (2020); Chapter NY, New York (2018, 2015); and Mary Mary, Glasgow (2016). Her work has been included in the Whitney Biennial 2019 at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2019) and other recent group exhibitions at STANDARD (OSLO), Oslo, NO (2021); Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR (2018-19); and the Drawing Room London & Modern Art Oxford, Oxford, UK (2018), among others. Her work was recently acquired by the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
Srijon Chowdhury (b. 1987, Dhaka, Bangladesh) lives and works in Portland, OR. He received an MFA from the Otis College of Art and Design, and a BFA from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. He has had solo exhibitions at Foxy Production, New York (2020); Anat Ebgi, Los Angeles (2019); Antoine Levi, Paris (2018); Upfor, Portland, OR (2018); and The Art Gym, Marylhurst, OR (2018). His work has been included in group exhibitions at Nir Altman, Munich, Germany (2020); VO Curations, London, UK (2019); Foxy Production, New York (2019); Et Al, San Francisco (2018); Roberta Pelan, Toronto, Canada (2017); and The Green Gallery, Milwaukee (2017).
Gina Fischli (b. 1989, Zurich, Switzerland) lives and works in London. She studied at the Royal Academy of Art, London (2018) and the University of Fine Arts Hamburg, Germany (2015). Fischli has a current solo exhibition at Neuer Essener Kunstverein in Essen, Germany and upcoming solo exhibitions at Sandy Brown, Berlin; Soft Opening, London; and Chapter NY, New York. She has had previous solo exhibitions at 303 Gallery, New York, (2020); SUNDY, London (2018); DELF, Vienna, Austria (2017) and Forde, Geneva, Switzerland (2016). Her work has been included in group exhibitions at Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, Colorado (2020-2021); suns works, Zurich, Switzerland (2020); Sentiment, Zurich, Switzerland (2020); Stalla Madulain, Engadin, Switzerland (2020); Mamoth Gallery, London (2020); Geneva Biennale: Sculpture Park, Parc des Eaus-Vives, Geneva, Switzerland (2020); Galerie Noah Klink, Berlin, Germany (2020), Fri Art, Fribourg, Switzerland (2019); Weiss Falk, Basel, Switzerland (2019); Kunstverein Harburger Bahnhof, Hamburg, Germany (2019); Royal Academy, London (2019); Amtsgericht Frankfurt (Oder), Germany (2019), and Swiss Institute, New York (2019); among others.
Dalton Gata (b. 1977, Santiago de Cuba, Cuba) lives and works in Coamo, Puerto Rico. He graduated in 2005 from the Escuela de Diseño Altos del Chavón in Santo Domingo, DR with a BFA in Fashion Design. He has had solo exhibitions at Peres Projects, Berlin, Germany (2020); Sunday Painter, London (2019); Chapter NY, New York (2019); Galería Agustina Ferreyra, Mexico City (2019); and Embajada, San Juan, Puerto Rico (2018), among others. His work has been included in group exhibitions at Clima Gallery, Milan, Italy (2020); Kurimanzutto, Mexico City (2020); Rachel Uffner Gallery, New York (2019); and Embajada Gallery, San Juan, Puerto Rico (2018). Gata has an upcoming solo exhibition at the ICA Miami in 2021.
Margaret Harrison (b. 1940, Wakefield, UK) lives and works between the UK and San Francisco. She has had solo exhibitions at institutions including BPS22, Charleroi, Belgium (2021); Frac Lorraine, Metz, France (2020); the Azkuna Centroa in Bilbao (2017); the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, UK (2015); and the New Museum, New York (1989). She has participated in group exhibitions at the Tate Modern and Tate Britain, London; the Jewish Museum, New York; Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Arnhem; the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; and MoMA PS1, Queens, NY, and many more. Her work is included in numerous institutional collections including, Tate Liverpool, Liverpool; Tate Britain, London; Tate Modern, London; England Arts Council of Great Britain, London; Borough of Hammersmith Kunsthaus, Zurich; Victoria & Albert Museum, London; and the Les Abattoirs, Musée - Frac Occitanie Toulouse, France.
Jeanette Mundt (b. 1982, New Jersey) lives and works in New York. Recent solo exhibitions include those at Company Gallery, New York (2020); Société, Berlin (2018) and Off Vendome, New York (2016). Her work has been included in the Whitney Biennial 2019 at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2019) and other group exhibitions at Greene Naftali, New York (2018); Galerie Neu, Berlin (2018), and Kunsthalle Leipzig, Germany (2017), among others.
Larissa De Jesús Negron (b. 1994, San Juan, Puerto Rico) lives and works in Forest Hills, Queens. She received her BFA from Hunter College in 2017. She had her first solo exhibition at Sabroso Projects, Brooklyn in 2020 and has an upcoming solo exhibition at More Pain, New York. Negron has participated in group exhibitions including, Speech Sounds, More Pain, New York (2021); Documento, Embajada, San Juan, Puerto Rico (2020-21); Imagining Reality, Future Gallery, Berlin, Germany (2020-21); 100 Drawings from Now, The Drawing Center, New York (2020); The Privilege of Getting Together, Regular Normal, New York (2020), and YB2P, curated by Danny Baez, Catinca Tabacaru Gallery, New York.
Brandon Ndife (b. 1991 Hammond, IN) lives and works in Brooklyn, NY and Jersey City, NJ. He received a BFA from The Cooper Union in 2013 and an MFA from the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College in 2020. Solo and two-person exhibitions include: MY ZONE, Bureau, New York (2020); Minor twin worlds with Diane Severin Nguyen, Bureau, New York (2019); Ties That Bind, Shoot the Lobster, New York (2018); Just Passin’ Thru, Interstate Projects, Brooklyn (2016); Meanderthal, Species, Atlanta (2016). His work has been included in group exhibitions at Franz Kaka, Toronto (2021); the Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, Colorado (2020-21); Matthew Brown Gallery, Los Angeles (2020); LC Queisser, Tbilisi (2020); and Bureau, New York (2020), among others.
Farah Al Qasimi (b.1991, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates) lives and works in Brooklyn and Dubai. Al Qasimi received her MFA from the Yale School of Art in 2017. Her recent commission with Public Art Fund, Back and Forth Disco, was on view on 100 bus shelters around New York City in 2019 and 2020. Her work has been featured in exhibitions at Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai; the San Francisco Arts Commission, San Francisco; the CCS Bard Galleries at the Hessel Museum of Art, New York; Helena Anrather, New York; The Third Line, Dubai; The List Visual Arts Center at MIT, Cambridge; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Toronto; and the Houston Center for Photography, Houston. Her work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, UAE; Tate Modern, London; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge; Huis Marseille, Museum for Photography, Amsterdam; Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick; and NYU’s Grey Art Gallery, New York.