Seeing Is Believing
Curated by Brett Rollins
January 20 - February 25, 2006

Opening reception
Friday, January 20,
6:00-9:00pm

Artists

Josh Dorman
Nicola López
George Pfau
Zoe Sheehan Saldaña
Leah Tinari

Gallery Hours
Monday-Friday 2:30-6:30
Saturday 11-5

The Bronx River Art Center (BRAC) is pleased to present the group exhibition Seeing is Believing from January 20 to February 25, 2006. Curated by Brett Rollins, Seeing is Believing includes works by Josh Dorman, Nicola López, George Pfau, Zoe Sheehan Saldaña and Leah Tinari. The exhibition runs from January 20 - February 25, 2006 and the opening reception is Friday, January 20, 6- 9pm.

Portraiture, landscape and still life explode from their traditional surfaces in Seeing is Believing

Seeing is Believing brings together works by emergent artists who approach the "traditional" subjects of representational artÑportraiture, landscape, still-life-as fluid, dynamic elements to be used outside of any formal sense of rules or order. Although diverse in style and subject their works are all bold, highly personalized and universally idiosyncratic. Juxtaposing forms that are muscular and delicate, linear and robust, all of these artists redefine the representation of the real world to suit themselves, from landscapes that literally explode off of the two-dimensional surface into the gallery space, to journalistic images absorbed into a flat plane of linear graffiti.

Josh Dorman, most recently seen in his fall 2005 solo exhibition at Pierogi Gallery, creates surreal landscapes within the frames of antique topographical maps. In his dream-like scenes the contours of hills and coasts and the edges of buildings and bridges are defined by the precise printed lines and curves of the mapmaker's hand. Documents meant to quantify the specific forms of the real world are re-imagined as the space occupied by a world that is utterly unreal.

Nicola López, recently seen in Greater New York at P.S.1 and in her New York solo debut at Caren Golden Fine Art, will create a unique new installation consuming an entire wall of BRAC's front gallery. López's overlapping monotone prints of satellite dishes, smokestacks, tenement buildings and piles of tires are haphazardly hand-tacked to the walls, spread across the ceiling and floor: the nonstop, all-consuming sprawl of the urban depicted as an organic mass.

George Pfau's paintings group realistic figures drawn from life with others lifted from nature photographs and journalistic shots taken in international hot zones. He places them in highly abstracted, open spaces barely defined by linear patterns and bio-mechanical forms, derived from the visual language and energy of graffiti. Occupying an undefined environment and isolated from each other, his figures embody uncertainty and evoke the instability of our times.

Zoe Sheehan Saldaña will present bold new works: 6 x 8 foot tapestries, hand-woven by a studio in Guadalajara, Mexico. While the first of her tapestry works was recently seen in Exit Art's Biennial II: Traffic, the second in the series will debut here. The first tapestry translates the artist's heavily pixelated, low-res photo of a seemingly banal suburban street scene: it actually depicts the most dangerous intersection in America. The works are charged with social, cultural and economic issues, from immigration policy to the overheated debate over "outsourcing".

Leah Tinari was most recently seen in her fall 2005 solo exhibition at Mixed Greens. Her delicate gouaches are based on snapshots of family and friends, intimate captured moments that she fragments by overlapping images, adding fanciful framing devices, lifting out parts of figures and settings, and layering the picture plane with flat patterns and still-lifes connected to the moment depicted. Both extremely personal and universally recognizable, they evoke the viewer's own familiar nostalgia.

Curator Brett Rollins received his BFA in Photography from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1996, and his MA in Visual Arts Administration from New York University in 2003. Rollins previously coordinated marketing and development for the Rotunda Gallery in Brooklyn, and is currently the Development Associate for the New Museum of Contemporary Art and Development Manager for its new media affiliate, Rhizome.org. Seeing is Believing is his first curatorial endeavor in New York.

This program is made possible with public funds from The New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency. Additional support is provided by The New York City Department of Youth and Community Development and the Department of Cultural Affairs and itÕs Material for the Arts program; Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion Jr. and The Bronx Delegation of the City Council. Corporate and foundation support includes: Time Warner; Youth Media and Arts Fund; The Carnegie Corporation; The New York Community Trust and The Helena Rubinstein Foundation. Additional support is provided by JP Morgan Chase through the New York State Multi Arts Consortium (NYMAC); the Ford Foundation through the Bronx Council on the Arts and the generosity of our patrons.