Inside Out: Ryan Oskin and Kate Stone

MARCH 29 – MAY 5, 2019 
OPENING RECEPTION FRIDAY, MARCH 29, 6–9 PM

In the mid to late 60’s, the quality of a photograph was often tied to how truthful it was, as journalism or personal expression. Postmodernism in photography rose up at this time as a rejection of this standard, acknowledging that the image is a constructed object and not a window onto the world or a factual representation. Postmodernism acknowledges that photographs have a context, and this context influences how an image is perceived, whether as art, journalism, or a snapshot. Photographers are often aware of this context when creating an image and consciously create a world inside the image to express their ideas.

Ryan Oskin and Kate Stone both take on the idea that all images are constructions in as direct a way as one can, by taking photos of constructions—objects, buildings and interiors—and affixing the photographs onto objects that reference what they capture in their pictures. This doubling of representation suggests that the subject matter being photographed is somehow less real than the physical objects the artists have created. Their collapsing of the two-dimensional world of photography into the three-dimensional world of sculpture is part of our very contemporary practice of obliterating genre. 

What makes Oskin and Stone compelling artists isn’t the process by which they make art, or how that process reflects their attitudes towards their media. Rather, it is what their images say about them and the world around them. Oskin’s work has always involved the formal appreciation of found objects and textures of construction sites. His work for this show applies his interest in the vernacular of construction sites to comment on the rapid overdevelopment of New York City’s real estate market and allude to his personal relationship with the places in his work. Stone’s work has focused on her somber and personal relationship to interiors, spaces that are empty, lived in, dismantled and then often recreated into a loving portrayal of memory. This work continues in the recent stop-motion videos at the center of her work in this show, in which the supernatural becomes a stand-in for the constant state of tension and uncertainty that world events have brought to our personal lives and private spaces.

Ryan Oskin investigates the moments between the formation and aging of architecture through photography, sculpture, and installation. He has had solo shows at the Rubber Factory and the Java Project in New York City. In addition, his work has been shown throughout the United States at Aperture Foundation (New York, NY), LVL3 (Chicago, IL), Press Street (New Orleans, LA), Newspace Center for Photography (Portland, OR), and underneath the 6th Street Bridge with Cudahy + BBQ.LA (Los Angeles, CA). In 2016, he completed a year-long residency at ARTHA Project in Long Island City, Queens. He graduated from Pratt Institute with a BFA in Photography in 2012. He currently lives in Brooklyn, NY. 

Kate Stone is a Brooklyn-based artist working with photography and construction materials to create images, installations and animations that explore the way we relate to space and architecture. She received a BA from Bard College and an MFA from Parsons the New School for Design. She is a recipient of the Tierney Fellowship and the Lotos Foundation Prize. Her work has been exhibited at Rubber Factory, Aljira Center for Contemporary Art, Cuchifritos Gallery, and The Museum of Broken Relationships, among others.