Dead
Center / Marginal Notes: Peter Downsbrough / Jeanne Silverthorne
is the second in a yearlong series of exhibitions for Western Exhibitions' Plus Gallery curated by John Neff. Each show in the program will present one piece each by two artists or a small selection of works by a single maker. All of the works exhibited will deal – directly or indirectly – with the relationships of centers to margins (culturally, geographically, politically and within works themselves as a formal concern). The second show in the series partners an untitled sculpture by Peter Downsbrough with the 1998 work Wires with Computer by Jeanne Silverthorne.
Jeanne Silverthorne’s twisted network of cast-rubber electrical wiring plays on oppositions between energy / dissipation, image / object, and sculpture / environment. Peter Downsbrough’s exactingly installed, perceptually challenging arrangement of two black pipes is likewise activated by tensions between the graphic and the volumetric and also works to disturb the distinction between the object and its setting. Dead Center / Marginal Notes: Peter Downsbrough / Jeanne Silverthorne juxtaposes these two works – which appear, initially, quite different – to investigate how artisanal and de-skilled, studio-based and post-studio, representational and abstract practices address similar concerns.
Since
the 1960s, Peter Downsbrough’s work in
installation, print, sculpture and video – among other
media – has been exhibited throughout Europe and the United
States. Downsbrough’s wide-ranging practice was the subject
of a 2003 traveling retrospective organized by the Palais des
Beaux-Arts in the artist’s adoptive hometown of Brussels,
Belgium.
Jeanne
Silverthorne has been exhibiting her work in installation,
photography and sculpture nationally and internationally for
over twenty years. Her recent projects have included solo presentations
at the Butler Gallery in Kilkenny, Ireland and at Seoul’s
Gallery Seomi. Additionally, the artist is a widely published
critical writer and a noted educator. Silverthorne is represented
by McKee Gallery in New York, were she lives and works.
Dead
Center / Marginal Notes series curator John Neff
lives and works in Chicago. His artwork is represented by Western
Exhibitions, where he will be presenting a solo exhibition in
May of 2008. Neff's past curatorial projects have included “Hysterical
Pastoral” at the Ukrainian Museum of Modern Art and “Cold
Conceptualism” at Suitable Gallery, both in Chicago. |