Andrew Guenther - Things Ingested and the Shapes They Become
north room
November 29, 2007 - January 8, 2008
Opening Reception: Thursday, Nov 29, 6-8 pm
Andrew Guenther's work addresses themes of spirituality and evolution within the self and culture. This series of mixed media works on paper, which contain items appropriated from consumer culture, additionally explores the intricate relationship between individual and object. Articles of clothing, sunglasses and other commonplace items appear in conjunctions with alien, otherworldly figures that emerge from broad flat forms with details in thick impasto. Placed squarely in the foreground, these figures loom out at the viewer, as if to assert the valorization of the individual in postmodern society. In these works, the viewer is invited to consider how the meaning and purpose of objects, as well as thoughts and ideas, are constantly shifting as they pass through the lens of the individual. These things are changed physically, conceptually and symbolically as we obtain, assimilate, and release them into the world again for others to question, reject or absorb. As Guenther states, "What we do with our time will not be remembered as much as the things we leave behind—ideas, objects, and substances become the cultural repository to which all of us contribute and collect." Overall, the sharp contrast in media, form and textures give these works a jarring, fragmented quality that mirrors the instability of social order in a consumerist society.
Andrew Guenther lives and works in New York. He has exhibited widely throughout the United States and Europe and his work has appeared in a number of publications, including Artforum, Flash Art, The New York Times and Art Asia Pacific.