MICHAEL GIBSON
PRESS RELEASE
November 2002
PAINTING AS PARADOX Curated by Lauri Firstenberg November 7 – December 21, 2002 Artists Space 38 Greene Street, 3rd Floor New York, NY 10013 T.212.226.3970 Ext. 27 F.212.966.1434 Simon Aldridge, Ellen Altfest, Augusto Arbizo, Jan Baracz, Roberto Bermejo, Sebastian Blanck, Mark Bradford, Jane Callister, Karlos Carcamo, Carolyn Carr, Matt Chansky, Jose Leon Cerrillo, Nayda Collazo-Llorens, Elizabeth Conlon, Claire Corey, Maria Cruz, Jay Davis, Andrea DeFlorio, Mary Doherty, Carl Eckhoff, Benjamin Edwards, Judith Eisler, Karel Funk, Michael Gibson, Frantiska + Tim Gilman, Inaki Gracenea, Isca Greenfield-Sanders, Terry Haggerty, Brad Hampton, Marc Hadelman, Janice Handleman, Ellen Harvey, Millree Hughes, Minako Iwamura, Sunny Kim, Kieren Kinney, Carla Klein, Dorota Kolodziejczyk, Mara Korkola Evan Lintermans, Valentina Loi, Octavius Neveaux, David Nicholson, Odili Donald Odita, Graham Parks, Michael Phelan, Thomas Pihl, Seth Price, Nathaniel Quinn, Jessica Rohrer, Gabriela Schutz, James Sheehan, John Tremblay, Anton Vidokle, Kelley Walker, Darren Wardle, Kehinde Wiley, Carrie Yamaoka, Gyoko Yoshida, Brenda Zlamany Painting As Paradox is an experimental exercise in synthesizing research of the eclectic practices of young emerging artists grappling with various fraught legacies of painting. Their work often reflects a continual gesturing towards tradition and concurrent redefinition of painting in contemporary terms. Examining the tendencies of artists trying to reconcile the contradictions and taboos of painting to date, not to mention its alleged disappearance and resurgence, this exhibition investigates the measures taken to maintain the medium's relevance. Impacted by the specter of both historical and contemporary precursors, the work represented in the show often demonstrates the re-posturing of traditional genres within the lexicon of new technologies. This highly self-conscious interest in the status of painting, its production,reception, and circulation, has led to enormous activity, from digital painting, hybrid painting, non-painting, hyper-figurative painting, and beyond, primarily initiating a collapse of categorization. In light of the current block-buster exhibitions such as Urgent Painting at the Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris or Painting at the Edge of the World, Walker Art Center, Painting As Paradox does not intend to compete as a survey of present movements in art making. Rather, the show focuses on over fifty emerging artists whose work reveals contradictions within individual practices, but particularly the visual and conceptual tensions between disparate contemporaneous productions. Hung salon-style to reflect the sheer proliferation of production and the eruption of traditional genres, the task of this show is to represent, not to reconcile, disparate levels of production in a singular condensed space. A catalogue will be available.(Catalogue sold out). For further information please go to: http://www.artistsspace.org/  
No Maps for These Territories
2002
enamel on masonite
60 x 48 inches