What is my work about?
My work is primarily comprised of sculptures and photographs that simultaneously approach and deny representation, creating a state of mimetic ambiguity. My pieces play with contradictory couplings of nameable objects with abstractions, exposing the familiar as constructs of material and color. I make images and sculptures that deconstruct the object of their own depictions to express that things are often not entirely how they appear, and that interesting narratives hide in banal situations. My practice is a way for me to reinterpret what I experience in the everyday.
Artist Statement
My works are each a series of performance gestures imbedded in process. “Gravity Drawing (Hangman)” for example, highlights the act of pouring, the flow of cement and the resulting weight from the casting process through the form of an upside-down game of hangman. The aspect I find most interesting about this sculpture is that it is a hangman drawing even while not being one. Similar to the way that “Raf’s Thumb,” is a monumental rendering of a thumb belonging to a person named Raf, as well as anyone’s thumb. I’ve come to deeply enjoy the almost psychic way associations can be implanted in the art object. It allows the blue area in “Cockpit,” to signify sky even while it is clearly just a piece of paper leaned against a backdrop. My work in general explores the boundaries of representation. A concern central to “Runny Palette,” and perhaps others of my photographs is whether a reflection can recreate its object.
I am interested in a visual language filled with dual meanings and non-sequiturs. Familiar objects and materials in my work seem alien via a slight alteration or cropping. Parts of my pieces are often askew, or appear to be on the border of collapse. Tubes and other visual elements, formally act as lines, leading the eye away from center, suggesting more to be imagined passed the margins. My works are very much about projecting the imagination onto the space surrounding them; allowing openings to become widows, and fragments to become stand-ins for a larger whole. A shift in point of view by viewer or camera can significantly change how my works are perceived.
My practice is a reaction to a contemporary state of being, in which reality and fiction meet in constant speculation and investigation. I am fascinated by the concept of chance appearing predetermined, largely because I see it as metaphor for the stringing together of disparate facts that one does as participant in media saturated culture. Thus, groups of forms in my work teeter between jumbled arrangement and mechanized system. I inlay, overlap and fold material to create a sense of sequence and cohesion despite an arbitrariness of individual parts.
My recent body of work uses the theme of travel as metaphor for the dispersion of images and ideas through technology. The pieces focus on interior space on moving vessels such as cruise ships and zeppelins. “Aircraft Dining Table” plays with the visual similarity of an ornately folded dinner napkin and an aircraft engine. A similar folded shape appears behind the window in the photograph, “LZ129 Dining Hall.” This body of work also deals with the construct of foreign. The sculpture, “Reclining Exotic Figure” for example, uses the public sculpture motif of the abstracted reclining figure to signify specificity and immobility. The bamboo in this piece is an interjection of a possible origin story. It is a sculptural vision of a thing both generic and foreign, like a stereo with the words ‘made in China’ stamped on the back.
CV
Residency Programs/ Fellowships
2014-2016 (current) The Drawing Center Open Sessions, New York, NY
2014 International Exchange and Studio Program Basel (IAAB), Basel, Switzerland
2013 Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Swing Space, New York, NY
2011 Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, ME
Education
2007- 2011 The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, New York, NY,
Degree: Bachelor of Fine Arts
2003-2007 Alexander W. Dreyfoos Jr. School of the Arts, West Palm Beach, FL
2006 The Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation Summer Seminar, Colorado Springs, CO
2005 Maryland Institute College of Art Summer Program, Baltimore, MD
Workshops
2008 “Energy: Yes! Quality: No!” with Thomas Hirschhorn, New York, NY
Selected Awards and Grants
2011 Jacques and Natasha Gelman Trust Award for exceptional ability in the fields of painting or sculpture
2011 Alex Katz Fellowship, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture
2009 New York Central Art Award, The Cooper Union
2007 Full Tuition Scholarship, The Cooper Union
2007 1st Place Pathfinder in the Arts, The Palm Beach Post
2007 Kraus Family Foundation Scholarship, American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) WorldStudio
Selected Solo and Partner Exhibitions
2014
“Bermuda Shaped Like a Mushroom; New Works by Andrew Ross”, IAAB Atelier Riehen, Basel, Switzerland (solo open studio exhibition)
2012
“Show Room”, AMO Studios, Brooklyn, NY (partner exhibition with Ryan Chin)
“Take It With You”, Jack Chiles, New York, NY (partner exhibition with Anne Libby and Peter Wilson)
2011
“Prop 3.141”, The Cooper Union, New York, NY (partner exhibition with Samuel Jojo Ashford and Valerie Keane)
2010
“Furniture Show”, The Cooper Union, New York, NY (partner exhibition with Hunter Skye Chamberlain)
Selected Group Exhibitions
2014
“The Great Poor Farm Experiment VI”, The Poor Farm, Manawa, WI
“Elemental”, Good Work Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
“Display Copy”, Petrella’s Imports at NADA NYC, New York, NY
“High Spirirts”, Beverly’s, New York, NY
“Foriegn Zone”, Basement, Basel, Switzerland
“Action + Object + Exchange”, The Drawing Center Lab, New York, NY
“Still.Life”, Outlet Fine Art, Brooklyn, NY
2013
“This is the Prism the Spider Dreams of as It Weaves its Web,” Signal Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
“Under the BQE,” M/L Artspace, Brooklyn, NY
2012
“The Quiet Awe of Dwelling,” Ferro Strouse Gallery, Miami, FL
“Size/Scale/Repetition,” General Practice, Miami, FL
“Bring Your Own Beamer (BYOB),” Knockdown Center, Queens, NY
“July,” CEO Gallery, Malmo, Sweden
“It’s a Small, Small World,” Family Business Gallery, New York, NY
2011
“Strength in Numbers,” Scope Art Fair, Miami, FL
“Reformation 2011,” Somerset County Jail, Skowhegan, ME
2010
“Panoramic Bird’s Eye-View,” Temporary Storage Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Selected Performances
2013
“Do It (Outside),” Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City, NY
2011
“Skowhegan Performs,” Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City, NY
Publications
2013
“Emergency Index Volume 2,” Ugly Duckling Presse, Associate Editor credit
“Passive Dragon,” Digital artist’s book for Petrella’s Imports (www.petrellasimport.net)
Bibliography
2014 Grunthaner, Jerey. “Is There Still Life in the Still Life Genre? Yes, and OUTLET’s New Show Proves It”, news.artnet.com,
Friday, March 28, 2014
2013 Killary, Katie. “A Night Inside the Prism at SIGNAL”, bushwickdaily.com, Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Relevant Work Experience
2013-Present, Keith Sonnier Studio, Studio Manager/ Artist’s Assistant, New York, NY
2010-Present, Self, Freelance Fabricator/ Fabrication Assistant/ Art Handler, Multiple Locations
2012-2013, Random House Inc., Freelance eBook Production, New York, NY
2012, Pierre Huyghe Studio, Art studio intern, Brooklyn, NY
2010, Anya Kielar Studio, Art studio intern, Brooklyn, NY
2010, Johannes Vanderbeek Studio, Art studio intern, Brooklyn, NY