Hard Cry
January 22, 2017–February 26, 2017
Reception: Sunday January 22, 6–9pm
Ian Swanson, Cristina de Miguel, Tariku Shiferaw, Ryan Oskin, Kyle Haddad Welch
organized by Gabriel H. Sanchez
Cristina de Miguel, Middle Finger Salute, 2016. Acrylic, flashe, spray paint and oil pastel on canvas.
"And perhaps in this is the whole difference; perhaps all the wisdom, and all truth, and all sincerity, are just compressed into that inappreciable moment of time in which we step over the threshold of the invisible."
– Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness
Lubov is pleased to present Hard Cry, curated by Gabriel H. Sanchez, which brings together a group of five NYC-based artists – Ian Swanson, Cristina de Miguel, Tariku Shiferaw, Ryan Oskin, and Kyle Haddad Welch – whose works of painting, photography, and installation, revel in the emotional sludge of contemporary living to create deeply psychological gestures of anxiety and fatigue. Hard Cry responds to the exhaustive stimuli we experience each day and highlights progressive strides in art among New York City artists, bridging the gap between what is internalized and what is visible.
It goes without saying that anxiety permeates throughout every aspect of contemporary life – in the choices we make and lives we lead both digitally and IRL, amid the company of megalomaniac politicians and nationalist bigotry, the continuous onslaught of new and obsolete technologies, and most profoundly, amid our social networks of friends, family, and strangers. More than ever, art's inherent ability for cathartic release finds itself vital to the well being, perhaps even sanity, of social order.
Gabriel H. Sanchez is a NYC-based writer and curator who completed his graduate studies in 2014 from Parsons School of Design. From nine-to-five, Gabriel is the photo essay editor at BuzzFeed, where his work spans genres of photo-journalism, art, history, and culture. At night he is a regular contributing art critic for Artforum International Magazine and the Aperture Foundation.
Ian Swanson lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. He received his BFA from Wayne State University, Detroit, MI; and his MFA from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY. Recent solo exhibitions include my tree stays tree at 315 Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; cynics milk at David Shelton Gallery, Houston, TX; our shallow psychic death at Simone DeSousa Gallery, Detroit, MI; feels like feels at ashes/ashes, Los Angeles, CA; and studios pretty much an office rn at Welcome Screen, London, UK.
Cristina de Miguel is a Brooklyn-based painter. De Miguel creates casual, funny, mischievous paintings. The images and motifs that feature in her paintings often are borrowed from old masterpieces, social media and absurd daily scenes. She received a MFA from Pratt Institute and a BFA from the University of Seville. De Miguel was awarded a Skowhegan residence in the summer of 2013. Her work has been reviewed in ARTINFO, NY Arts Magazine, Artsy Editorial and others. Recent solo exhibitions include Bad Habits at Freight + Volume Gallery, Extraños en la noche intercambiando miradas at Arts + Leisure Gallery, and Nike Head at Cuchifritos Gallery.
Tariku Shiferaw is a Brooklyn based artist whose work deals with mark-making in ways that addresses both the physical and metaphysical spaces of painting and societal structures. Shiferaw has exhibited throughout New York and Los Angeles. Recent exhibitions include Life Sized, Anthony Phillip Gallery (Brooklyn, 2016); Introduction 2016, Trestle Gallery (Brooklyn, 2016); The LA Art Show, Werd Gallery (Los Angeles, 2016); New Work New York, 1st MFA Biennial Presented by St. Nicks Alliance & Arts@Renaissance (Brooklyn, 2015). He currently resides in Brooklyn, New York.
Ryan Oskin investigates natural and constructed spaces through photography, sculpture, and installation. His work has been shown throughout the United States at Aperture Foundation (New York, NY), Johalla Project (Chicago), Press Street (New Orleans), Newspace Center for Photography (PDX), and underneath the 6th Street Bridge (LA). He recently had two solo shows at the Java Project and The Eagle in Brooklyn, NY. Ryan graduated from Pratt Institute with a BFA in Photography in 2012. He currently lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Kyle Haddad Welch lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. His work challenges the convoluted boundaries between humor, horror, and heroics in relation to his conservative upbringing and his opposing liberal values. Kyle was born in Flint, Michigan and raised in McKinney, Texas. In 2014 Kyle received a BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute.