Long Hello

SIMULATED 3D DOCUMENTATION HERE

The Green Gallery presents Long Hello, curated by Carter Foster and Evan Gruzis, a showcase of works made at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and just prior; a period marked by waves of panic, social upheaval, isolation, and public grief. During unprecedented times aesthetics can usher in new forms of thought which can make the ineffable known, and these works greet such uncertainty with patience and poise.

This diverse group of emerging artists engage with the present moment through a range of strategies. Figurative paintings reassess the politics of domestic space and the banal; images of bodies are presented as compressed, fragmented, and contorted. Domestic objects have been rendered strange, useless, or humorous. Illusions to glitching surfaces highlight our mediated connections and pixelated geometric forms suggest a new familiarity with digital socialization. Vulnerability and longing are felt throughout the show by way of a wounded centaur bleeding, a shield emulating porous bark, a melancholic portrait of a solitary figure, or a teacup bisected by  a handwritten letter. 

Many of these artists are on the cusp of their careers and, as the title suggests, the act of introduction against the backdrop of 2020 is riddled with delays and distances. 

The artists in Long Hello are: Dabin Ahn, Jose R. Aponte Bernardy, Cui, Decheng, Nicole Doran, Magda Dudziak, Cassidy Early, Liza Eilers, Xujun Han, Sahand Heshmati Afshar, Leasho Johnson, Dominique Knowles, Youra Lee, Judith Mullen, Ricardo Partida, Yongxuan (April) Shao, Linan Su, B’Rael Thunder, Christine Turner, Irene Wa.

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Carter Foster is currently Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs and Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas at Austin. Foster specializes in the history of drawing. In his twenty-five plus year museum career, he has held curatorial positions at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and, most recently, the Whitney Museum of American Art. 

Evan Gruzis is a multidisciplinary artist who received his BFA from the University of Wisconsin Madison and MFA from Hunter College, NY. He has exhibited widely including solo shows at Deitch Projects, Nicole Klagsbrun, The Hole, The Journal Gallery and The Suburban. His work belongs to collections including those of the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Milwaukee Art Museum. He is currently an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the Department of Painting and Drawing. He lives in Madison, WI where he owns and operates a restaurant called The Heights.