March 15–April 2, 2022
Performance: March 30, 6–8pm
Fergus McCaffrey New York (2nd Fl)
“All my work centers around painting as performance, as an act that brings with it the artist’s whole body.” —Katy Martin
Katy Martin’s commitment to the embrace and employ of her body is an act of defiance akin to Carolee Schneemann’s feminist critiques of action painting; Schneemann was an artist Martin knew personally and certainly saw perform—tense events about which the artist has remarked, “Few people talk about the sound of Carolee’s performance, the friction that slapping of movement could have on the people in the room.” This figure onto ground act mirrors (inspires) Martin’s own action—smearing her freshly painted body onto paper or canvas, sometimes publicly, often privately; then photographing and printing the residual impressions. To integrate painting, photography and performance is evident in the gallery’s downstairs exhibition of Matthew Barney, Carolee Schneemann, Kazuo Shiraga, Min Tanaka; Martin’s mission is more overtly addressing the ramification of painting’s act—specifically abstract expressions conducted through the dimension of time. The pushing and pulling of painted forms manifests a sense of ephemerality in a gestural abstraction rooted in both east and west postwar conventions. Here, every moment of movement leaves a mark on the surface where Martin has orchestrated a phantasmagory of strokes hovering in visual and physical space.
The gallery is delighted to present a selection of Martin’s paintings on the second floor of our Chelsea space, Tuesday, March 15 through Saturday, April 2—in conjunction with Barney, Schneemann, Shiraga, Tanaka on the ground floor. A reception and public performance by Martin will be held on Wednesday, March 30, 6–8pm, at Fergus McCaffrey.
RSVP recommended—RSVP@fergusmccaffrey.com.
For more information, please contact info@fergusmccaffrey.com, or visit the artist’s website.
Image: © Katy Martin; courtesy of Katy Martin