Not Invited...

LONDON KAYE • NIELS POST • VICTORIA SCOTT • EMMANUEL SEVILLA

May 13 – June 26, 2016
Opening Reception: May 13, 6–9pm
Artist Talk: Saturday, May 14, 4–5pm

Not Invited… presents four artists who blur the boundaries between the interior and exterior of the gallery, making work inspired by the urban spaces that surround us, as well as artworks that inhabit those spaces, hiding in plain sight.

Outside the gallery, these artists engage in unsolicited collaborations with the public space of the ever-changing city. Unmapped, these works can only be discovered in their environments by those seeking them or stumbling across them. The artists insert their work into the urban landscape to contrast with what already exists or highlight what is commonly overlooked. The public space creates the possibility for an open and democratic environment where art can be not only seen, but also shared, stolen or destroyed. These unsanctioned collaborations exist in a temporary agreement with their surroundings and hold the provisional quality of a studio experiment.

The works inside the gallery maintain their gritty presence with permanence and materiality. Emmanuel Sevilla’s hand-painted signs blend into the everyday, maintaining the energy of the city and the street. Other works exist within the white walls of the gallery as trompe l’oeil forms such as Victoria Scott’s meticulously crafted folded paper garbage bags. The humility of the artworks gracefully obscures the earnest attention to handcraft of the object and the precious materials of which they are made.

A limited edition zine with poster, documenting past and present installations of unsolicited public works, will accompany the show. It will be printed in a variant edition, with each artist contributing a poster, and will be available on a pay-what-you-wish model.

London Kaye is a classically trained dancer who discovered her passion for crochet at the age of thirteen. London received a dance scholarship to NYU and after graduation, dove into the local street-art scene, where she developed her signature style by crocheting on fences. Her work has adorned the windows of ABC Carpet and Home and she has recently crocheted pieces for major brands including Starbucks, Miller Lite, Chex Mix, and the TBS Network. According to Condé Nast Traveller, "London Kaye is the one to watch.”

Niels Post lives and works in Rotterdam, NL. A central theme in his work is the creative use of public space. His work is primarily conceptual and incorporates materials like wood, vinyl, video, steel, and gold. On the longest gallery wall Post will create a site-specific piece, approximately 25 feet. On Spam, Love #9-#15 is part of Post’s ongoing “On Spam” project, which began when he was inspired by texts found in dating spam messages, that, when read together, create a poetic narrative. In addition, Post will install a selection of his On Spam: Business Proposals on vacant storefront windows in the surrounding boroughs. This will be Post’s first exhibition in New York in over a decade.

Victoria Scott is a visual artist working between sculpture and digital media. Born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, she graduated from the New Media/Photo Electric Arts Department at The Ontario College of Art, and completed her MFA within the Art and Technology Department of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She works with electronic media and physical materials to create simulated and real site-specific installations, sculptures, animations and images. Her recent projects include constructing material representations of conceptual objects that can exist simultaneously in simulated digital environments, the public commons and in the space of cultural imagination.

Emmanuel Sevilla was born and raised in Los Angeles where he earned his BFA from Otis College of Art and Design. Drawn to the dominant elements of the urban environment (signs, advertisement, consumer objects and detritus), he explores the economy of these things. Through a craft-based practice that pulls from his experience as a commercial sign maker, he creates painting-sculpture hybrids utilizing a trompe l’oeil-like technique. Sevilla currently lives and works in San Francisco, where he received his MFA from California College of the Arts. He was a 2015 resident at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.