NADA Miami 2021
December 1–4, 2021
Ice Palace Studios
1400 North Miami Avenue
Miami, FL
![Kevin Tobin, Bat Legs [Hip-Replacement], 2021. Oil on panel. 12 x 27 inches.](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a5f7a366f4ca3fbe2730f13/1637536061981-OQSUB9DNQMBEDYECOUSM/Kevin+Tobin-6101.jpg)
Marsha Pels
Kevin Tobin
NADA Miami
December 1–5, 2021
Ice Palace Studios
1400 North Miami Avenue
Miami, FL 33136
VIP Opening Preview (by Invitation)
Wednesday, December 1, 10am–2pm
Open to the Public
Wednesday, December 1, 2–8pm
Thursday, December 2, 11am–7pm
Friday, December 3, 11am–7pm
Saturday, December 4, 11am–7pm
HUSBAND AND WIFE SPECIAL
Fuqi feipian, literal translation from the Mandarin ‘husband and wife lung pieces’, is thinly sliced beef heart, tongue and stomach bathed in chili oil, spices and Sichuan peppercorns. For American audiences; the translation is Husband and Wife Special.
Marsha Pels (b. 1950) and her spouse Kevin Tobin (b. 1989) have eviscerated corpses in their respective mediums for quite some time. For their debut presentation with Lubov together after their back-to-back solo presentations in the Winter and Spring of 2021; Pels’ recent sculptures and Tobin’s recent paintings meditate on the brevity of life, deterioration of the physical body, and absurdity of death with humor and pathos.
In the wake of 5.15 million human deaths worldwide, both artists have chosen to depict animals instead of humans for their apocalyptic tableau. Towards Bethlehem, 2021, is a cast iron playground pony fused with a fabricated steel replica of the walker Pels used during her recovery from a hip replacement during the first few months of the pandemic. A modified Israeli child’s gas mask adorns the infantile/geriatric ‘Horsewoman of the Apocalypse’ for protection while acknowledging the dangers of increased militarization.
Tobin’s four new paintings based on x-rays of bats push the abstraction of his figures into new territory. Doom Boogie Woogie, 2021 and Blue Bat, 2021, are loosely based on photos of partially decaying bats which continued to hang upside down after death. At roughly human scale, these foreboding figures are painted on hollow core doors which became a loaded symbol for the artist during the pandemic for stay- at-home orders, life and death, and modern civilizations futile attempts to separate the dangers of the outside world from sterile interior comforts.
Pels and Tobin’s wicked humor is foregrounded in their intimate works. Bingo’s Last Toy, 2021, is a direct burnout bronze casting of Pels recently deceased dog Bingo’s favorite toy flaunting a gas mask similar to her apocalyptic pony. Tobin’s Camouflage Bat, 2021, reimagines a bat pregnant with twins as a hysterical self-portrait with the artist’s mustache, a crown of teeth, and fecund abdomen against forest military camouflage. Bat Legs [Hip-Replacement], 2021 features bat leg bones with a human prosthesis and a waning crescent moon.
Woman with Her Torso Cut, 2019, the lone representative of the human figure, is a direct burnout bronze casting of the corset Pels was wearing when she was accidentally run over by a pickup truck in 2017. Although the piece was made before the pandemic; it distinctively evokes the uncanny power lost wax casting can have when used to conceptualize loss, the passage of time and ecstatic transformation.