March, 2006, Frisky Flaming Hot
March 17 - April 22
Galleri Christina Wilson
Copenhagen, Denmark

Featuring: Katherine Bernhardt, Justin Samson, Sarah Braman, Brian Belott, Brendan Cass, Tyson Reeder, Scott Hewicker, Jocelyn Shipley

For the exhibition Frisky, Flaming, Hot, we have invited eight young, internationally-recognised American artists. A common feature of the works of these artists is the unforced way in which they treat motifs, styles and materials. The motifs range widely, from medieval castles to Dutch tulip farms, dreamcatchers, planets and flamingos, or are non-existent, as in Sarah Braman's ingenious constructions in plastic and card.

The references are diverse and have been collected from such sources as comics, colouring books, African and pre-Columbian primitivism, landscape paintings, seventies psychedelia and underground and folk culture. The inexhaustible possibilities and ways of combining different elements also characterises the choice of materials, which encompass chalk, markers, synthetic paints and watercolours, latex, plastic, feathers, fur and pearls.
With the group exhibition Frisky, Flaming, Hot, we are seeking to introduce Scandinavia to some of the best young artists on the American art scene, and we aim to communicate a broad impression of the unimpeded and inventive ways in which they work.

With its raw style and uninhibited expression, Frisky, Flaming, Hot is moreover right up to date, as it can be seen as a (conscious or unconscious) reaction against the refined, detailed style which has dominated the art scene for the past couple of years (as exemplified by the exhibition New Figuration, Galleri Christina Wilson, 2005).
Last but not least, our goal has been to create a spectacular exhibition in which wild colours, shapes and patterns are juxtaposed, producing an almost hallucinatory effect.

Brendan Cass (1974) produces shrill landscape paintings on the basis of travel catalogues. The paintings communicate a fascination with the idea of travel as such, but also a longing for some kind of European Arcadia. Brendan Cass describes his paintings as “a subliminal reminder or activator in the hopes that, American culture today can regain some of its Europeaness, socially and behaviorally to be a kind of social antidote temporarily for the awkward times. Almost as if things are such a mess culturally, I'm hoping a scene of Holland painted in a funny serious way, could make someone think twice about our culture, educational systems, social patterns, ways.”

Scott Hewicker (1970) creates original paintings decorated with psychedelic chic. His acrylic paintings form flowing, cliché-like landscapes, often strewn with mushrooms, sunsets, castles or clouds. Like other artists of his generation, such as Chris Johanson and Justin Samson, Scott Hewicker is greatly influenced by the American sixties counterculture movement.

Katherine Bernhardt's (1975) neo-primitivist paintings are influenced by Afro-Caribbean, Afro-American and African culture. With almost careless, dripping brush strokes and lively colours, she portrays female figures against a dark background.
In her works, Katherine Bernhardt explores the new territories within feminism (or post-feminism), and relates amongst other things to race, class and fashion.

Sarah Braman's (1970) abstract geometric sculptures resemble gigantic crystals in formation. Braman creates her sculptures from low-status materials such as painted card and neon-coloured plexiglas sheets, placed at right-angles to one another. The materials and the screaming neon colours cause the works to resemble ironic paraphrases of the cool, hard-edged sculptures of modernism. The works also contrast with the objectivity of minimalism in their feminine and often personal titles, such as Forest Home: for my mother and the house she built for us on a hill in Ashfield.

Brian Belott's (1975) photomanipulations are low-tech, in an idiom that resembles cut-and-paste. His colourful collages and collage-books are created from magazines, sweet papers, comics and children's books, with occasional additions of paint, fabric, glitter or cat litter. Together, the various elements form dreamlike landscapes, half fairy tale and half science fiction. Belott is also known for his worn old photo albums, which, despite their highly nostalgic appearance, are deceptive in that they contain completely random, found photographs.

Jocelyn Shipley's (1970) sculptures can best be described as blotched/spotted lumps of meat, simultaneously frightening and comic. Jocelyn Shipley's works call to mind horror films, gothism and such artists as Paul McCarthy and Mike Kelley, who also work with the abject.
At the exhibition, Shipley’s contributions include a pentagram (Pantygram) which consists of panty-clad lower bodies.

Tyson Reeder (1974) produces paintings in phosphorescent colours on everything from canvas to index cards. His motifs vary, and range from feet and shoes to landscapes, various animals, comets, clothing and stars. Hip hop and pop culture are obvious sources of inspiration, but nature also plays a major role. Reeder utilises a crying child with a rainbow Mohican hairstyle as a kind of logo, in the manner of Keith Haring's Radiant Child.

Like most of the artists in the exhibition, the works of Justin Samson (1979) approach visual overload. African (Indian) pearl embroidery, synthetic fur and soft porn collide in his ethnic and fragmented collages and sculptures, introducing the observer to understated points on exhibiting foreign peoples and cultural otherness.

Jocelyn Shipley, Justin Samson, Sarah Braman, Katherine Bernhardt and Scott Hewicker will be present at the private viewing.