Open to the public: 

Wednesday, Aug 9 - Tuesday, September 19, 2023

Project: ARTspace is pleased to present Summer Gathering, an invitational group exhibition introducing artists from the US and abroad to New York audiences. 

Works by Barber, Jin Yong Choi, Jen Clay, Aby Mackie and Gizela N. will be on view Monday to Thursday, 11am - 5pm and Fridays 11am - 2 pm, from August 9 to September 19, 2023. Friday hours will be extended to 5pm after September 1.

While the artists hail from different regions of the world, their works collectively address the possibility of using diverse materials and objects to create new narratives.

The artists in Summer Gathering were invited by Leslie Kerby and Michelle Weinberg.

Works by bARBER (Chicago), Jin Yong Choi (New York), Jen Clay (Miami),Gizela N. (Lisbon) and Aby Mackie (Barcelona) are rooted in craft, wielding a variety of materials (string, paper, text, textiles, electronic components) fusing the found and made to generate empathic objects.

bARBER’s work employs a collage aesthetic to articulate testimonies within and surrounding Black culture. He re-purposes everyday materials such as junk mail and other ephemera, mining childhood memories and family lore to express new meaning.

Choi is a digital shaman working at numerous intersections of culture, religion, technology, mythology and history. His apocalyptic fiction inspires the production of relics that translatespiritual knowledge from the past into hope for the future. 

Clay’s hooked rugs reference hybrid life forms whose lush tactile surfaces welcome ambiguity and soothe anxiety. A multi-hyphenate artist, she works in animation and performance in addition to soft materials.

Mackie de-constructs found vintage and ethnic textiles, engaging processes of conservation and destruction to create monumental, layered sculptures. Via application of new surfaces such as wax, resin, gold, copper and silver leaf, as well as needlework techniques, she forges a new material vocabulary.

Gizela N. is a plastic artist who thinks with her hands, transposing inner emotions spontaneously via material. A visceral approach to ink, thread, paint and the canvas as an object leads her to delicate expressions that straddle painting and sculpture. 

BIOS and Statements

bARBER (b. 1982, US) lives and works in Midwest America. He uses his art practice to articulate various testimonies within and surrounding Black culture. Inspired by the quotidian of cultural customs, he repurposes everyday materials, such as junk mail, found objects, etc., for his collages and three-dimensional constructions. Barber received his MFA from the University of Iowa, BFA from SCAD, and is a current resident of Chicago Artists Coalition’s HATCH program. Personal recognitions, aside from collaborations with Propelled Animals, a site adaptive art collective, include Graduate Cum Laude at the University of Iowa, 2020 Biennial Artist Research fellowship at Sam Fox Island Press, and New American Painting entry issue #150. Please learn more at www.PropelledAnimals.org and @BarberPaintsPeople on Instagram.uses interdisciplinary art practices to articulate various testimonies within and surrounding Black America. Personal recognitions include the 2020 Biennial Artist Research fellowship at Sam Fox Island Press, Washington University, St. Louis, publication in New American Painting, and a nomination for the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Award. He is from Detroit and currently based in Chicago.@barberpaintspeople   

Jin Yong Choi is a New York-based artist born in South Korea. Choi’s artwork has been shown in galleries and museums in South Korea and the U.S., including Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA), Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning (JCAL) in NY, Shin Gallery in NY, A.I.R Gallery in NY, Wassaic Project in NY. He has participated in the Artist Residency Program at Sculpture Space in Utica and ChaNorth in Pine Plains, and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) Art Center Residency Program, NY. He has been awarded the Stutzman Foundation MFA Fellowship and won the Gold Prize from AHL – T&W Foundation Contemporary Visual Art Awards. 

Artist Statement

In my artwork inspired by the apocalyptic fiction I write, I explore tactile desire and visual pleasure to create narratives. Envisioning  an apocalyptic world, I focused on the intersections of culture, religion and identity and how individuals navigate the challenges of a hopeless world. I call myself a digital shaman, and I also create 2D and 3D works. Digital shaman is a medium that delivers past knowledge to the new world. My works represent both past and future, reflecting different cultures, religions, and mythologies. They express the frustration of reality plus a tiny drop of hope. I aim to create and release haptic desire in sculptures using tactile and visually appealing materials that engage the viewer on multiple levels. By juxtaposing digital and non-digital images, natural objects and man-made objects, I create pieces that offer a unique material experience that can only be experienced in the real world.     @jin_nyc_     https://jinyong-choi.com/

Jen Clay creates elaborately sewn textiles of ambiguous non-human figures which speak to the audience through audio or sewn messages to make fear, anxiety, and uncertainty approachable. Clay earned a BFA in Sculpture from UNCC Charlotte and an MFA in Sculpture from University of Florida with a minor in applied behavior analysis and costume design. She has created performances for institutions including Girls' Club Collection, ICA Miami, and Norton Museum of Art, Palm Beach. Recent projects include "Welcome to Me & You," a large site-specific installation at Young At Art Museum in Davie, FL. Clay was awarded the 2019 South Florida Cultural Consortium fellowship for her wearable works. A short segment on her practice, "Jen Clay: The Texture of Anxiety, " won a 2020 regional Emmy through South Florida PBS. Clay was recently an artist-in-residence at Oolite Arts in Miami Beach, and she received a Knight New Work Award in 2023. Her work is represented by Emerson Dorsch Gallery in Miami. Clay’s works will open at Locust Projects In Miami in the Fall.  jenlynnclay.com @jenlynnclay

Artist Statement
These works are essentially doomsday creatures representing layers of fear of literal extinction and extinction of self due to anxiety and depression. Lush textures use the softness of quilted textiles, sewn wearables, and rugs to convey an intuitive, comforting feeling. This work is an attempt to soothe the uncomfortable and allow ambiguity to be approachable. These forms are influenced by depictions of otherness, from H.P. Lovecraft's fictional tales of Cthulhu and ghost and alien abduction stories to actual reports of hallucinatory experiences.    

Aby Mackie is a British Textile artist based in Barcelona, Spain. Inspired by the abundance of unique and cheap antique textiles available at the local flea market, Aby explores the transformative possibilities of existing materials. Taking a material-led approach, Aby uses the materials themselves as both inspiration and a starting point, exploring the deconstruction and reconfiguration potential to create her work. Aby has exhibited both nationally and internationally, most recently in Connecticut with BrownGrotta (2022) Arts and Madrid with Galeria F&deo (2023) Aby’s work is also held in private collections worldwide. Aby Graduated from Nottingham Trent University (2001) with a Textile Design Degree and a Masters in Fine Art (2004).   @abymackie   www.abymackie.com

Artist Statement
My work is an exploration of how existing materials can be transformed, and the dichotomy in using these unique antique textiles, which simultaneously require both the salvation and the destruction of the material itself. This balance between salvation and destruction, and of transformation and retention is at the heart of my artistic practice. Another important aspect of my work is the use of unconventional materials, such as cement, resin and wax and/or the use of fine art materials such as oil paints, pastels and acrylics with traditional textile techniques such as embroidery, weaving, tapestry, applique and patchwork.

Gizela N graduated in Sculpture at the University of Fine Arts in Lisbon and her career is marked by exhibitions of Sculpture, Painting and Medals (FIDEM). Collective and individual. Nationals and internationals. She is also a Postgraduate in “Architecture and Design of Ephemeral Montages” at the University of Cataluña, in Barcelona. It is while living in Barcelona that she developed a refined aesthetic in the universe of integrating interior design, architecture and art. At the moment, Gizela N and Cláudia Afonso Gallery, located in Cascais Art District (Portugal) is her most recent project, where art and jewelery are presented to the public. It is through sculpture and painting that she finds new ways of experiencing life, exposing her emotions, sometimes in a visceral way, to an audience that allows itself to be moved.    @gizela_n     www.gizela-n.com

Artist Statement
Gizela N has always manifested herself through art, in different ways. The will to create is an emerging need. Thinking with her hands, transposing her inner emotions spontaneously,is her purest way of expression.The visual artist distances herself from figuration, becoming more interested in intuitive art, where she is free to experiment, explore and express herself. Via sculpture and painting, there is a natural delicacy in the forms, through the pure emotion that she transmits in the act of molding and the use of the natural flow of ink, contradicting the idea of perfection. She also uses the back side of the canvas, exploring its three-dimensionality and sometimes reinventing a truly sculptural dimension of the painting. The woolen thread and the color red in her art are her symbols of life, which contains death, pain, joy and birth. All vibration at its peak. Like an umbilical cord, sometimes the path becomes an explosion, other times a moment of silence.

Images below:
Left: Aby Mackie, We Can All Be Saved (in pieces) 2023 Textile, gold and copper leaf, shellac 78" x 51"
(two triptychs, 3 pieces each) 
Center top: Jen Clay, I’ll Make You Normal 2021 Watercolor paper cutout, bleeding tissue paper dye, ink, and PVA adhesive 15" x 16 1/2" x 1/2" 
Center bottom: bARBER, Piezas de Cristina con Judith in my stomach mixed media on vinyl 39” x 34” 
Right top: Jin Yong Choi, Yeom-La Daewang Crown-5 2022 LED light, LED goggles, epoxy clay, resin, print on paper,
acrylic color 
Right bottom: Gizela N, Red River IV 2023 Acrylic and wool on canvas 88 1/2" x 28"