Material Underground: Group Exhibition

Anna Betbeze, Patrick Jackson, Mike Kuchar, Andra Ursuta

François Ghebaly presents Material Underground, a group exhibition with works by Mike Kuchar, Andra Ursuta, Patrick Jackson and Anna Betbeze.

Working since the early 1960’s, Mike Kuchar has created prolific bodies of work in both drawing and film/video. When speaking of his two practices Kuchar has described them as “a projection of visions in your mind that you either put on paper or you try to achieve that effect when you’re behind the camera.” This show will include several of Mike’s original drawings for publications such as Meatmen, Gay Heart Throbs and Manscape. The video Statue in the Park (1996) will also be screened, which tells the story of two strippers who venture into the park to see a sculpture that “will make you kind of horny.”

Both sculptures by Andra Ursuta have a relation to the body, food and violence. Speed Bag of Bread is both a punching bag and a bread bag, while Untitled is a scythe made from bicycle parts.

Dirt Pile on Table (marble), part of a new series by Patrick Jackson, resulted from craigslist searches for coffee tables of varying genres. The tables are then piled with hand squeezed portions of mud, which are dried, soaked with epoxy, and result in a hardened dirt shell that looks like excrement.

Anna Betbeze will contribute Noir, a wool carpet that’s been painted, sculpted and otherwise attacked. The result of this material transgression is pink over black, or perhaps, considering the piece’s title, a black widow, of sorts.