Rina Banerjee
Rina Banerjee, Irresistible, irreplaceable Earth, open over interior screams, shouting in folds creased by vapors that thread fire and earth, between ground and sky Masculine Mythologies play upon us heavy heaving as Feminine Escapes embers beneath in exile breathe, 2022, Mixed media, Dimensions variable
Rina Banerjee, Sita, 2022, Textiles, seashells, silk thread, copper mesh, plastic mesh, beads, Dimensions variable
Rina Banerjee, The earth as a company grows octopi of tentacles rich on weavers, ancillary craft man, raw materials syphoned into the cities for a final urban display, where mercantile pleasures., 2020, Beads, shells, fabric, metal, mirrors, plastic, thread, 47 x 15.5 x 13.5 in (119.4 x 39.4 x 34.3 cm)
Rina Banerjee, Watering holes could not speak, like elongated wicks, drew from near to far milk and meat, holding food like holding feet from walking free., 2020, Moonstone beads, Czech glass beads, quartz , lava rock, cotton netting, sequin applique, sea conch, snail shells hand blown glass, Indian brass water head vessel, mohair, 55 x 21 x 23 in (139.7 x 53.3 x 58.4 cm)
Rina Banerjee, I am not afraid of you said the Elephant to the Rodent. In connection, recognition, exposed or opposed, out of the glorification of power and powerless grew root a death of all containers that resisted or weeded nature as fruit or female as excess., 2022, Mixed media on paper, 19.625 x 12.875 in (49.85 x 32.7 cm)
Rina Banerjee, When the bottom falls out and the weight of Earth against Us cannot center She will leap to drip drop all eggs black/brown and what not in heaps and dutiful slips leaps over flow. Make green grasses split. swing from hip to hip, catch fire of red twine. things tidy., 2022, Mixed media on paper, 19.625 x 12.875 in (49.85 x 32.7 cm)
Rina Banerjee, Fly me to saddle on Nature’s battles so I may will my arms high as paddles perhaps loose old balance, create a waddle in step to shift to hault marriage markets vulgarity of property contracts like crossfire take casualties of you and me to be buried in law’s riddles., 2022, Mixed media on paper, 19.625 x 12.875 in (49.85 x 32.7 cm)
Rina Banerjee, “Take me I am yours”…said the Worm to her Bird, devotion to surrender, be devoured in pleasure? masculinity, so clever to take what is forever and never hers, her life, her soul delivered by marriage, romance, family to be eaten and beaten., 2022, Mixed media on paper, 19.625 x 12.875 in (49.85 x 32.7 cm)
Max Colby, Elegy 1, 2019, Crystal and plastic beads, sequin patches, found fabric, trim, fabric flowers, magnets, polyester batting, Baltic birch plywood, thread, 62 x 45 x 5 in (157.48 x 114.3 x 12.7 cm)
Max Colby, Elegy 2, 2019, Crystal and plastic beads, sequin patches, found fabric, trim, fabric flowers, magnets, polyester batting, Baltic birch plywood, thread, 62 x 45 x 5 in (157.48 x 114.3 x 12.7 cm)
Max Colby, Elegy 15, 2020, Found fabric, trim, fabric flowers, ribbon, patches, toys, garland, polyester batting, Baltic birch plywood, thread, 44 x 30 x 15 in (111.76 x 76.2 x 38.1 cm)
Max Colby, Elegy 16, 2020, Found fabric, trim, fabric flowers, magnets, ribbon, patches, toys, garland, polyester batting, MDF, thread, 44 x 30 x 15 in (111.76 x 76.2 x 38.1 cm)
Max Colby, Elegy 17, 2020, Found fabric, trim, fabric flowers, ribbon, patches, toys, garland, polyester batting, MDF, thread, 44 x 30 x 15 in (111.76 x 76.2 x 38.1 cm)
Max Colby, They Consume Each Other (#1), 2019-21, Crystal and plastic beads and sequins, found fabric, trim, fabric flowers, ribbon, costume jewelry, polyester batting, thread, glass stands, custom pedestal, 66 x 40 x 40 in (167.64 x 101.6 x 101.6 cm)
Max Colby, They Consume Each Other (#2), 2019-21, Crystal and plastic beads and sequins, found fabric, trim, fabric flowers, ornaments, costume jewelry, polyester batting, thread, glass stands, custom pedestal, 66 x 40 x 40 in (167.64 x 101.6 x 101.6 cm)
Max Colby, Crewel Embroidery Study (Graphite 1-3), 2021, Graphite on Arches paper, approx. 10 x 13 in (25.4 x 33.02 cm)
Max Colby, Jacobean Embroidery Study (1-9), 2021, Ink on Arches paper, approx. 10 x 13 in (25.4 x 33.02 cm)
Alison Saar, Breach, 2017, Ed. 9/18, Woodcut on vintage linen seed sacks, 43.25 x 19.5 in (109.85 x 49.53 cm)
Alison Saar, Stanch, 2017, Ed. 18/18, Woodcut on vintage linen seed sacks, 41.25 x 19 in (104.78 x 48.26 cm)
Alison Saar, Is You Is or Is You Ain’t, 2017, Ed. 28/50, Intaglio, hand painted shellac, 13 x 9 in (33.02 x 22.86 cm)
Alison Saar, Cat’s Cradle, 2015, Ed. 11/30, Woodcut, 23.75 x 13.5 in (60.3 x 34.29 cm)
Alison Saar, Backwater Blues, 2014, Ed. 25/30, Woodcut, fabric dye, shellac, chine colle, 27.38 x 14.38 in (69.53 x 36.51 cm)
Jason Vartikar, Rug from memory, 2022, Oil on canvas, 20 x 24 in (50.8 x 60.96 cm)
T. Venkanna, Evergreen, 2019, Pencil and hand embroidery on linen, 43 x 58 in (109 x 147 cm)
T. Venkanna, Evergreen, 2019, detail
T. Venkanna, Black Moon, 2019, Pencil and hand embroidery on linen, 51.5 x 45.5 in (131 x 115.5 cm)
T. Venkanna, Pleasure, 2019, Pencil and hand embroidery on linen, 46.5 x 54.75 in (118 x 139 cm)
T. Venkanna, Pleasure, 2019, detail
T. Venkanna, Swimming Pool, 2019, Pencil and hand embroidery on linen, 43.75 x 51.5 in (111 x 131 cm)
T. Venkanna, Burning Desire, 2019, Pencil and hand embroidery on linen, 58 x 76 in (147 x 193 cm)
T. Venkanna, Sea of Desire, 2019, Oil on canvas, 60 x 72 in (152.4 x 184 cm)
T. Venkanna, Untitled (Fountain), 2019, Oil on canvas, 72 x 84 in (184 x 213 cm)
T. Venkanna, Circle of Love II, 2019, Pencil and hand embroidery on linen, 84 x 77 in (213 x 196 cm)
T. Venkanna, Untitled (Angel of Death), 2018, Ink on rice paper affixed on canvas, 22 x 30 in (56 x 76 cm)
T. Venkanna, Untitled (Burning Desire), 2018, Ink on rice paper affixed on canvas, 22 x 30 in (56 x 76 cm)
T. Venkanna, Untitled (Circle of Love II), 2018, Ink on rice paper affixed on canvas, 22 x 30 in (56 x 76 cm)
Autumn Wallace, Star, 2022, Acrylic, oil, and pastel on Dibond, 48 x 48 in (122 x 122 cm)
Autumn Wallace, Use case, 2022, Acrylic, oil, and pastel on unstretched canvas, 67.5 x 41.25 in (171.5 x 105 cm)
Autumn Wallace, Bean counter, 2022, Acrylic, oil, and pastel on PVC with mixed media artist made frame, 19 x 19 in (48 x 48 cm)
Autumn Wallace, Peer Pressure, 2022, Flocked Clay, Steel, Synthetic and natural fibers, Acrylic, Precious and Semiprecious Stones, Quartz, Swarovski Rhinestones and glass beads, 10 x 10 x 8 in (25.5 x 25.5 x 20 cm)
Autumn Wallace, Wire transfer, 2022, Flocked Clay, Steel, Synthetic and natural fibers, Acrylic, Precious and Semiprecious Stones, Swarovski Rhinestones and glass beads, 7 x 9.5 x 17 in (18 x 24 x 43 cm)
Charlie Williams, Ain’t Suga Cute I, 2020, C-Print from 35 mm, 17 x 22 in (43.18 x 55.88 cm)
Charlie Williams, Ain't Suga Cute II, 2020, C-Print from 35 mm, 17 x 22 in (43.18 x 55.88 cm)
Alisha B. Wormsley, The High Priestess as the Devil, 2021, Photo print on fabric, fabric and metal leaf, 35 x 24 in (89 x 61 cm)
Alisha B. Wormsley, The Sorcerer, 2021, Photo print on fabric, fabric and metal leaf, 35 x 24 in (89 x 61 cm)
Alisha B. Wormsley, Drexciya, 2021, Photo print on fabric, fabric and metal leaf, 35 x 24 in (89 x 61 cm)
Aicon New York is pleased to present Radical Enchantments, a guest-curated group exhibition featuring ambitious works by eight artists. The exhibition asks: how do contemporary artists resist oppression with enchantment—that is, with artwork that connects to the divine?
For example, in Rina Banerjee’s wall-bound sculpture, The Earth as a Company (detail left), neon-yellow, nylon tubes make an arterial connection between a pair of horns that seem to drip with hair. This form suggests a hairy beast summoned to life with a Frankenstein-like alchemy. Banerjee uses the enlivening, electrifying powers, what might be called the witchcraft of art, to resist the deadening, numbing, or killing effects of global capitalism. The horns, as if a carcass leftover after deforestation, capitalist extraction, the “earth as a company,” are now shocked into a new being, perhaps even a deity, emerging from the wall.
The artist Max Colby’s sculpture They Consume Each Other #1 is a group of eight baroquely beaded, textile-, floral- and feather-decorated sculptures with phallus-like forms emerging from catholicly trimmed pillows—some perched upon glass columns. Produced from mundane materials, yet sparkling like precious, gem-encrusted chalices pulled fresh from a rectory cabinet, this unapologetically luscious tableaux could be called an “altarpiece.” But, as she describes it, this altarpiece, if you like, “reimagine[s] our relationship to gender, sex, class, and the mundane from a trans and non-binary perspective.”
The artists in this show enchant with a subtle use of materials. But in so doing they voice resistance to oppression. Their works are like oracles or constellations in the sky: beacons that guide the viewer to imagine important forms of political and social change.
The exhibition deepens to consider the private, intimate spaces of the artists’ studios. These spaces might be understood as the artists’ “cloisters” or “chapels.” Personal items from their studios exhibited alongside their artworks demonstrate an intimate practice of delivering divinity to fight oppression.
Artists include Rina Banerjee, Max Colby, Alison Saar, Jason Vartikar, T. Venkanna, Autumn Wallace, Charlie Williams, and Alisha B. Wormsley. Curator Jason Vartikar is a Joan Tisch Teaching Fellow at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Co-Curator Erica Kyung is Sales Associate at Aicon.
Installation photography by Sebastian Bach
