The Big Empty
Arte Institute suggests “The Big Empty” at Rooster Gallery.
The Big Empty
By Rachel Wren and Gianluca Bianchino
Curated by Jeanne Brasile
Exhibiting | March 18 – April 17
Opening | Friday, March 18 – 6 PM
Rooster Gallery
190 Orchard Street, Lower East Side – NYC
www.roostergallery.com
Rooster Gallery is pleased to present The Big Empty, a two-person exhibition featuring the work of multi-media artist Gianluca Bianchino, and painter Rachael Wren, curated by Jeanne Brasile.
This two-person exhibition is an investigation into the qualities of light and atmosphere. Both artists have created all new bodies of work for this exhibition, which expands upon their ongoing interests in terrestrial and celestial space. Paramount to this exhibition is an emphasis on the ethereal conditions of space such as shifts in light, subtle particulate elements and its mutable structure. The Big Empty emphasizes the space around the subjects depicted by Bianchino and Wren, with the subject matter acting as a ground for the ever-shifting atmospheric conditions they portray.
Gianluca Bianchino’s wall sculptures often feature lenses, which offer views of regressive space depicting fictive universes. Filled with strata of materials, the lenses are set into wall sculptures comprised of overlapping planes that break down space into geometric order and/or disorder. Bianchino’s use of light, as well as varying finishes and textures, interrogate the predominantly vacuous qualities of outer space and dark matter. His work is inspired by source materials such as images from The Hubble Telescope and the Voyager space probes.
Rachael Wren’s oil paintings evince her love of nature. Wooded vistas disintegrate into layers of brushstrokes, geometric planes and oscillating colors and shapes. Subtle shifts in color act as a catalyst for exploring atmospheric conditions, as well as markers of time and space. Her paintings are often densely composed, but they convey an openness through her use of gestural brushstrokes and thinly layered paint which make them appear to shimmer and undulate.
Both artists’ work is characterized by intense observation and a curiosity about the natural world. Despite working in very different media, their mutual investigations entail the parsing of space into planes, shapes, colors and lines to illuminate the temporal. Overall their work suggests the underlying geometry of space as a means to explore its ambient qualities.
Gianluca Bianchino (American, born in Italy) lives and works in Jersey City, New Jersey. A multimedia artist, his work encompasses installation, sculpture, drawing and photography. He received his M.F.A. from Montclair State University. He has been an artist in residence at the Eileen S. Kaminsky Family Foundation and has shown in such venues as The Painting Center, Chashama Chelsea Project Space, The Hunterdon Art Museum and a solo exhibition at Index Art Center. His work is primarily concerned with cosmology and physics.
Rachael Wren (American) lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She received her B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and her M.F.A. from the University of Washington. She has had solo shows at The Painting Center, Schema Projects, and Providence College. Wren was awarded the Julius Hallgarten Prize from the National Academy Museum and residences at Chashama North, The Saltonstall Foundation and the Byrdcliffe Art Colony.