Opening Reception Saturday June 9th, 8 - 10 pm,
featuring a temporary outdoor work by Brendan Harman and a performance by nic xedro.
Second Gallery is pleased to present new work by New York based artists Brendan Harman and Tyler Drosdeck. This show is Second Gallery's twelfth and final show, though a new gallery will open in the current Second Gallery location in the fall of 2007. Detailed information about this new space will be announced as it becomes available. Second Gallery opened in January of 2006 and has exhibited the work of more than 40 artists from the US and Canada. A detailed archive can be found at www.secondgallery.org, and an archival book will be in wide release mid summer.
Brendan Harman and Tyler Drosdeck will be showing two independent projects in distinct areas of the gallery, though they developed these bodies of work and their conception for the show in collaboration. A phrase that gathers meaning in its repetition, "Same Old, Same Old" encapsulates the feelings and ideas being explored by these two disparate sets of work. The work is an exploration of representation, boredom, and formalism, complete with a dry sense of humor. The title ironically comments on the art world's endless striving toward originality coupled with the pervasive fear that one's artwork will unknowingly mimic existing work. This title is further complicated by the fact that Drosdeck's works are themselves impeccable duplicates of everyday objects such as cd's and promotional credit cards, though crafted from unlikely materials. In Warholian fashion these objects operate as reproductions of originals themselves, further comically confounding the artistic goal of forward progress towards increasingly original work. Tyler Drosdeck's body of work provokes the viewer to reconsider the siginificance and placement of everyday objects in the gallery setting, as the objects themselves are not, in their material actuality, what they seem to be. Tyler Drosdeock is represented by Newman Popiashvili Gallery in Chelsea, and has a BA from Bard College. He has exhibited at PS1's Greater New York show, Suit 106, Bortolami Dayan, and Planaria Gallery, among others.
Brendan Harman built his installation Apocalypse Floral Shoppe and The Young Artists Wishing Well in WE MADE IT, Second Gallery's inaugural show , and it is fitting that his work should also be the last work exhibited at Second Gallery. In Same Old, Harman will fill the gallery to capacity with isolated sculptural moments, monuments and flat domestic sized bulletin boards. This work represents a divergence for Harman away from his busy accumulative projects towards a more minimal and focused communicative orientation. The communicative language employed is multi-faceted, "ranging from Modernism to Myspace". According to the artist, he "will stage his belief in the ghost of what-ever, the ghost of style, the ghost of art history, the ghost inside the space which gets privileged as an art object". On opening day, Brendan Harman will also be streaming an enormous banner out of the top floor of the Distillery building, in a gesture which organizes itself around the artist's perception of the impossibility of communication, but makes the attempt nonetheless. Brendan Harman has a BA from Bard College and is an MFA candidate at Columbia University. He has exhibited at Planaria Gallery and Tank Annex, among others. At the opening there will be a short performance of experimental sound art by nic xedro, curated by Brendan Harman and Tyler Drosdeck. The opening and exhibition coincide with The Distillery Open Studios on Saturday June 9th and Sunday June 10th. For more information or images please visit www.secondgallery.org, or contact the gallery at secondgallery (at) gmail.com.
Same Old by Tyler Drosdeck, Same Old by Brendan Harman <> June 9th - July 7th, 2007 <> Opening Reception Saturday June 9th, 8 - 10 pm, featuring a temporary outdoor work by Brendan Harman and a performance by nic xedro. <> Gallery hours: Wed - Sat, noon - 6 pm.
Second Gallery The Distillery 516 East 2nd Street South Boston, MA 02127
W: www.secondgallery.org E: secondgallery@gmail.com T: 617 413 9395