Goodbye Horses: 225 West 17th Street

Ethan Cohen Gallery is pleased to present Goodbye Horses, a group exhibition exploring a version of what has been previously described as post-modernism as seen through the eyes of artists working in the post-internet era. Taking its cue from Q Lazzarus’ iconic song "Goodbye Horses," the exhibition explores the idea of rising above earthly constraints and seeing beyond the material, into a realm of greater awareness. The song’s haunting refrain— “Goodbye, horses / I’m going to fly over you”—speaks to the desire to transcend the everyday experience and attain a higher state of being, free from the boundaries of the senses.

In organizing the exhibition, we determined to let the works lead the curatorial vision, beginning with the decision to include artists we don't represent or have not yet worked with. A conversation began with the individual artist foremost, from there we began to look for similarities between the artists' practices. What emerged was an observable tendency within many artists’ current practices. Some of these include a propensity towards saturated-all-over canvases with multiple figurative layers, which seemingly reflect the inherent and often jarring interaction with multiple currents of stimulation and interactivity–a condition that has become commonplace in the post-internet era even and specially in times of leisure. We also see a forlorn type of romanticism marked by an apathetic disembodiment this lifestyle provokes.  

Andrew Woolbright’s paintings frequently consider love, they are “inspired by virtual experiences. Utilizing the addictive color of the screen […] and a proposal for a video game he doesn’t intend to make”. The extra-pictorial narratives of Woolbright’s painting often evoke historical, mythological, and absurd references which invigorate the essential concerns of a painter. For example, one of Woolbright’s paintings poses the question, what would happen if you broke your arm on your way to your crucifixion?

Robert Falco’s paintings are poetic ensembles rendered from multiple layers of imagery, romantic in quality yet gritty in tone. They seem to define a generation ushered in by late-night L train platforms. 

Zoe Alameda’s multifaceted sculptural assemblages and paintings combine a myriad of signifiers as sources of subjects: from distressed photographic details of bodies, eviscerated both physically and psychologically, to illuminated streetlights casting wrought iron shadows on honest interiors. Her janky and ramshackled supports coupled with sculptural interventions cast objecthood on her paintings, overturning generations of tradition with a louche attitude of apathy. 

Similarly, Barış Göktürk’s recent paintings make use of appropriated collages and drawings which are transferred to linen. They present obfuscated figures barely discernable amidst a cacophony of textures which occupy a space between torn affiches and Goya’s Saturn Devouring His Son. 

Using patterns and repetitive imagery that comes from textile traditions, Halil Altındere’s Turkish Miliary Drones Rug takes inspiration from Afghan war rugs. Blending Turkish carpetmaking traditions with AI technology, using imagery of militaristic oppression and drone warfare, Altındere creates a striking commentary on today’s power dynamics, increased militarization and surveillance.

Lauren Luloff’s vivid silk paintings evoke fragile landscapes, flora, and memories of quilt patterns, expressed through loose grids of potent dye. The poetics of nature are expressed through the language of textile tradition.

Erik Foss has a diverse painting practice. Foss’s abstract paintings are informed by UAPs (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena) and realized in contrasting degrees of surface; from smoothly aerosolized to generously applied layers of impasto thicker than a spoon full of peanut butter. His portals and other abstractions propel the viewer through the totality of Foss’s collective cultural experience.  When making representational works Foss takes a similar formal approach of layering (or defacing) crisp gestural abstraction or trompe-l’oeil stickers over blurred out naturalistic depictions of broadly recognizable cultural references, distinctly bringing his own brand of subversion to the kitsch that defined a generation. 

Thomas Deininger’s environmentally conscious sculptural practice reimagines naturalism in the form of birds and other animals which appear as realistic depictions from one angle yet seem to explode into a cacophony of plastic detritus from other viewing angles. Within Deininger’s dense assemblages of nostalgic kitsch we are confronted with multiple micro narratives distinctly subversive in narrative and wholly apart from the whimsical approach others have taken. What we are left with is the artist’s virtuosity coupled with the inherent political message of conservation and sustainability, as evoked by the materials and the nature of the subject.

Nick van Woert’s bark paintings feature thick layers of actual fissured bark flattened and adhered to a substrate. While these quiet giants seem to be a contemporary reimagining of romanticism with a nod to environmentalism, his works which include hyper rational mechanical components take the work to an entirely different level. This type of aesthetic is generally reserved for the pragmatic industrial design of engineers who are less concerned with the way something looks over how it performs functionally. However, as van Woert has observed, there exists in this aesthetic area a deep well that one decides to drill.  The conflation of these two aesthetics which seem to be in diametric opposition exemplifies the impact of man on nature and elevates the read of the piece beyond the conventionally modernist approach with a genealogy rooted in romanticism. There is a deep focus on the beauty and power of nature.

Fabian Marcaccio’s dynamic paintings make use of 3-D printing as well as his own unique physical approach to painting. Marked by the use of silicone to create dense fabric which at once exists purely as a proposition of the potential of painting, while at the same time they are hurtling away from what was the center of painting’s past, like the head of a comet on course for Andromeda.  Marcaccio’s painting pulls at the warp and weft of painting in the same way as our post-internet experience tears at the fabric of our realities in the present moment, with its continuous gravitational pull away towards an alternate reality.

Emil Alzamora’s contemporary ceramics contend with the tradition of portraiture busts yet recalculates the classical through a contemporary lens with allusions to BDSM, disembodiment, and the affect of dis-ease; like a soft sensual horror creeping up such that every muscle in your body flexes. 

Berlin based artist Charlie Stein's painting practice features future-forward figurative works implanted with cybernetics or completely robotic androids. The spirit of Stein's work lies in glossy black patent leather or women clad in shining latex melting into the netherverse while they keep up to date on their medical injections.

Bill Komoski makes exquisite paintings which are equal parts elegant and coarse. His imagery elicits the alpha and omega of the memento mori. Komoski’s work frequently references the fundamental elements from white hot torches to the concentric circles of droplets of water. Initially, Komoski’s work reads as if to be of the lineage of Polke and makes use of mechanical reproduction, but in reality they are much more complex in the manner in which they are made. As it turns out Komoski’s work is more in opposition to Walter Benjamin than is evident at first glance in that everything is rendered by hand and even more beguiling he works without any reference or drawing.

Charlotte Fox’s low chroma canvases couple liquid layers of shimmering satin set against flat banal interiors with various creeping pests. Her handling of hands presupposes they are some type of object, cast, or replicated dimensional form and mysterious green liquid collects in the hollows of cups of her hands.

Katinka Huang's fleshy colored paintings are examples of figural instances punctuated by multiple moments of memory spilling between each other like a torrent with the pressure of an unleashed hydrant in July.

Joshua Abelow conflates lo-fi figuration with painterly patterning and janky geometry. Abelow’s sardonic spectral figures or running witches offer evidence of an attitude prevailing in the painting of his generation.

Yuli Aloni Primor’s disembodied figures with exorbitantly long necks or headless bodies contained in glass, aptly constitute the concerns of an era bombarded with a deluge of stimulus, figures who are cognitively disconnected from their own bodies and constantly interacting beyond their corporal boundaries. Aloni’s edible body parts, scanned and printed using 3D technology, invite viewers to “consume” the artist’s “body”, raising questions about consumer culture, digital presence, and bodily autonomy.

Sera Ilel’s Constellations reimagines porcelain’s cross-cultural history through hand-cast, hand-painted three-dimensional tiles. By deconstructing traditional motifs, she creates dynamic compositions that reflect the fragmented, ever-shifting nature of identity and culture in today’s age, challenging our perception of cultural heritage in a rapidly evolving world.

Stanley Casselman makes paintings by compressing paint through the mesh of a silk screen. The unique methodology employed by Casselman in his practice uses scientific processes to create gestural abstract paintings. Casselman’s method allows him to push paint through both sides of the surface, occasionally he even glazes one side with silver to create a mirrored finish. The result of which are dynamic process-based paintings which could be considered a type of mechanical abstraction.

Nick Farhi is a skilled representationalist, amongst other things he paints gutters welled up in puddles which could be perceived as dramatizations of banality. Further consideration of his subject reveals his work may serve as evidence of the natural world’s relentless forces eroding our attempts at order. Perhaps a more romantic read of the works reveals his penchant for the dreary, bleak, and somber subjects like Morissey’s silent and grey Sundays.

The works presented in Goodbye Horses reflect a moment in which artists are responding to the vast, often overwhelming, tide of digital and cultural stimuli that defines the current era. Through their distinct, sometimes irreverent practices, these artists challenge traditional narratives, embracing a fragmented yet vibrant approach to understanding the self and the world around them. In doing so, they offer us a glimpse into the complexities and contradictions of contemporary existence, where the boundaries between the physical and the virtual, the real and the imagined, the natural and the artificial, are increasingly difficult to discern.

For more information, press inquiries, or to request high-resolution images, please contact:

Lara Kamhi: lara@ecfa.com

Isaac Aden: isaac@ecfa.com