David Meanix - This City March 20, 2008

Leo Kesting Gallery Presents: David Meanix This City
and Glowlab Presents: Beka Goedde - Entropically Favorable
March 20 April 6, 2008
Opening Night Reception: Thursday March 20, 7:00 10:00 pm
812 Washington St (at the corner of Gansevoort) New York, NY 10014
8th Ave A, C, E and L train Stop or 1,2,3 to 14th Street
Tuesday Sunday from 11:00 am until 7:00 pm
Admission is free to the public
Phone: 917-650-3760
Web: leokesting.com

March 3rd, New York In a formal collaboration between partner galleries Leo Kesting and Glowlab, David Meanix's sculptures born from torn and shredded photographs and culminating in staged renditions of modern daily life are exhibited next to Beka Goedde's paintings and works on paper depicting a bird's eye view of architectural structures suggesting tent cities and shanty towns. In Leo Kestings collection of works by David Meanix, entitled This City, and Glowlabs presentation of Beka Goedde's Entropically Favorable, two curators bring forward visions exploring psychogeography and the complex relationships between people and the spaces they inhabit. Exhibitions will be on display March 20th through April 6th.

In This City, David Meanixs original approach to photography brings a new direction to the discussion of social issues by providing an array of engaging imagery as a starting point. Through a technique known as Photosculpture, Meanix delves into the personal lives of women, minorities and couples who either struggle with the challenges that life in the city presents, or bask in its glories. This technique of tearing photographs and collaging them back together allows Meanix to approach the subject in a dynamic way. Pure and true to its intention, Meanixs artwork is defined by its conception, the deconstruction of the object and the photograph itself. Once this has occurred Meanix can begin to find his subject, an intangible that must be rebuilt. The portrait has been taken and is ripped apart to then be remade representing a fresh look at our personal identities.

My sculptures are about release. They portray a bringing forth of ones true self while consciously shedding pretenses. . . A realization that we are spirit held by the physical body; cocoons of sublime bliss.

In the second exhibition, curated by Glowlab and presented on the gallery's mezzanine level, Beka Goedde's first New York solo exhibition, Entropically Favorable, brings a similar vision refocused on the identity of the city itself. Her complex landscapes appear to float in unbounded space on rough, warped painting surfaces that are at the same time thin and delicate, arching and curving outward from the wall. Raw plywood is covered with etchings on Japanese paper, linen and plaster in gauze-like layers, lending a dreamy, ethereal quality to Goedde's imaginary villages. Jewel-toned colors fill geometric sections in clusters, hinting at life within the primitive structures. Bits of words and phrases appear at times as whispers woven into the terrain.

Trained in neuroscience and philosophy at Columbia University and Barnard College, Goedde presents a complex spatial perspective where planes and structures collide with the uncertainty of memory dense in places, sparse in others. In these landscapes of growth and continuation, light and tactile perception reach an equilibrium counterbalanced by the acceptance of natural decay. One has the sense that these dwellings might tumble at the slightest quake, leaving only the idea of a landscape behind.

Reminiscent of Italo Calvino's "Invisible Cities," Goedde's introspective yet dynamic spatial and tactile sensibility draws the viewer into her interconnected framework of imaginary constructions, leaving behind lingering questions about the nature of space.

From its origins as Capla Kesting Fine Art in Brooklyn, the Leo Kesting Gallery launched in 2003 and developed an aggressive campaign to introduce new figurative artists to collectors and art supporters. Leo Kesting offers the art viewing public an opportunity to see forthcoming talents in an intimate setting where undiscovered, cutting-edge artists are presented to the contemporary art scene.

Glowlab, a curatorial project of Brooklyn-based artist and curator Christina Ray, supports the development, production and exhibition of new works by artists and creative technologists whose primary inspiration is the urban environment. Open by appointment in Williamsburg, Glowlab operates as a nomadic initiative, collaborating recently with host galleries and arts organizations in New York, Miami, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Montr