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More Mergers & Acquisitions is a continuation of our popular and provocative exhibition Mergers & Acquisitions (December 12, 2008 – January 25, 2009), that brought together works by renowned modern masters and consequential contemporary artists. Once again, distinctive works in various media have been borrowed from local, regional, and national artists, collections, galleries, and studios; combined they create surprising affinities of form, content, and historical legacy. The exhibition is organized into four themes: Figure-Ground, Collaboration, Un-Natural, and Familiar Faces. Throughout the exhibition, found photographs contribute to each thematic grouping.
Figure-Ground is an organizational concept that helps to locate specific forms in represented or real space. Works by painters Sam Gilliam, Ron Gorchov, and Frank Stella clarify or confuse elements of figure and ground by redefining the possibilities of the shaped canvas and how it can contain color and gesture. Brad Tucker and Richard Wentworth are sculptors who manipulate common materials (wooden lattice, metal buckets) to create humorously metaphysical objects and installations.
Jiha Moon and Rachel Hayes, Golden Blizzard (an Atlanta-based collective), and Team SHaG (New York painters Amy Sillman, David Humphrey, and Elliott Green), all choose to take on the joys and pitfalls of Collaboration. Each artist possesses a diverse and inclusive practice, so their collective activities cultivate an even wider range of illustrative techniques and image-making traditions including collage, figuration, landscape, surrealism, fantasy, and kitsch.
The theme of Un-Natural brings together works by Steve Aishman, Joe Gibbons, Joe Peragine, and Scott Reeder, who examine aspects of abundance, violence, estrangement, and sadness. Their works present various flowers, plants, and gardens as the recipients of human activity or as sentient beings capable of their own expressive powers.
Familiar Faces are seen in a variety of funny or disturbing head shots including Osama Bin Laden, Farrah Fawcett, the Man in the Moon, and artist self portraits. Works by Heidi Aishman, Leah Busch, Arnulf Rainer, Curtis Mitchell, Joel-Peter Witkin, and William Wegman use these subjects in combination with precise materials to examine the complexities of identity and popular culture.
More Mergers & Acquisitions acknowledges current states of personal, economic, and institutional uncertainty while positing an optimistic tone of generosity and camaraderie.
Heidi Aishman, Steve Aishman, Leah Busch, Joe Gibbons, Sam Gilliam, Golden Blizzard, Ron Gorchov, Curtis Mitchell, Jiha Moon and Rachel Hayes, Joe Peragine, Arnulf Rainer, Scott Reeder, Frank Stella, Team SHaG, Brad Tucker, William Wegman, Richard Wentworth, Joel-Peter Witkin
Special thanks to the participating artists and the following lenders: Missy and Wesley Cochran, Edith and Robert Fusillo, Gavlak Gallery, Fay Gold Art Advisory Services, Yolanda and Greg Head, Inman Gallery, Lauren and Tim Schrager, and Solomon Projects.