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Death Sex War
Joan LinderNew Drawings
Stephen Nyktas - Project Room
March 17, 2006 - April 15, 2006
Opening Reception: Friday, March 17, 2006, 6-9pm
CHICAGO, IL -- rowlandcontemporary is pleased to present Death Sex War, an exhibition of drawings by Joan Linder in her first solo exhibition in Chicago. Linder brazenly refamiliarizes the themes of sexuality, power, the politics of war, and death, each thoroughly obscured by metaphor and modernity. In our project room Stephen Nyktas presents a series of new photographs that elevate the mundane objects that surround us to a level that is both familiar and revealing.
Death Sex War
In a culture that is hyper-saturated by electronic imagery, Joan Linder uses the traditional materials of pen and ink to create large-scale images that persist in revealing an essence that refuses pat definition. The slight or sloppiness of hand creates an awkward intimacy and forces the viewer to peer beneath the surface.
In Seven Eighty-Two, a fully outfitted American soldier stands ready for combat. With all the accoutrements of modern warfare (battle uniform, night vision goggles and radio ear pierce), we are given only a glimpse of the actual soldier through a small portion of his face. Is this second skin necessary to distance himself from his prey? While we search for the person inside the soldier, does the soldier look back at us through his night vision goggles bathing us in an inhuman green glow, determining whether we are friend or enemy?
05131 is a drawing of a partially dissected cadaver from the gross anatomy lab at a university. The title of the piece is the number assigned to the cadaver, when it was received by the lab. Part of a larger methodology for systems of identification, the number allows for the emotional distancing necessary for dissection and ultimately, the furthering of medical science. The daily news is replete with gruesome reports of death (Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, 9/11, etc.) and yet we never see the bodies, which are likewise categorized by the sheer number of those who have died. Here too the identity of the cadaver remains hidden.
Both Seven Eighty Two and 05131 are drawings of surface and yet we, perhaps against our better judgment, are compelled to probe beneath the coverings to find ourselves.
Project Room
Stephen Nyktas creates photographs that document the transformation of commonplace items of his personal environment into objects that celebrate their very ordinariness. Consisting mostly of everyday household products such as toothpaste and soap containers, Nyktas turns the items inside out exposing their interior and concealing their exterior – revealing at once a familiar yet abstract object.
By changing the objects scale, Nyktas heightens the viewers’ sense of personal connection. In dissecting these objects – sometimes clean, sometimes messy – these photographs allow for the exploration of new psychological and bodily meaning.
Joan Linder lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. She received her BFA from Tufts University, Medford, MA, and her MFA from Columbia University, New York, NY. Linder has had solo exhibitions at Mixed Greens (New York, NY), Riva Gallery (New York, NY), and Katharina Rich Perlow (New York, NY). Her work has been reviewed in Newsday, ARTnews, The New York Times, Boston Herald and KQED, FM. She was awarded artist residencies at Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, NY (2002), Karl Hofer Gesellschaft, Berlin, Germany (1999), and Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, Maine (1999), and received a grant from the Pollack-Krasner Foundation in 2001.
Stephen Nyktas received his MA from Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, and his BFA from Albion College, Albion, MI. He is currently in the MFA graduate program at Northwestern University. Nyktas has had solo shows at both Albion College and Purdue University, where he participated in various group shows as well. He currently resides in Chicago, IL.
