Exhibiton: AARON PEXA: GARDEN PARTY
Video, Wallpaper, Neon Sculpture, Print
Date: March 5 - May 25, 2020
Location: ZAZ10TS 10 Times Square, New York
Cade Tompkins Projects is delighted to announce the presentation of new work by artist Aaron Pexa presented by ZAZ10TS AT 10 Times Square, New York, New York.
Times Square is famous for its sensational signage, evolving from neon-covered facades in the 1920s, to the modern day 25-story LED display. Through the many evolutions of this crossroads, it has always offered visitors a type of visual overstimulation with its over-the-top lights and advertisements. With this history in mind, the video "I Wander the Forest in Search of Mystery" offers a respite from the flashing, quick-cut editing of the surrounding images. In it, a chandelier slowly twirls in a forest by a lake. The optic qualities of the cut crystal are activated by sunlight and enhanced by pastel atmospheres that move through the frame. The video highlights the incandescence of light and the reflective effect of glass as fleeting moments that create a fictional romantic history. Tranquil movements offer a calm counterpoint to the saturated, sumptuous commercial displays and the hustle of New York City. The video is accompanied by a commissioned sound element created by artist Maralie, the fifth collaborative work with Aaron Pexa. "I Wander the Forest in Search of Mystery" is part of the permanent collection of the Museum of American Glass in Millville, NJ.
The interior of 10TS includes neon and LED light sculptures as a nod to Times Square's history of signage, accompanied by bright wallpapers and a large format print. In the elevator bank Poppies b&w wallpaper and collagraph are colored by the light of a neon poppy, repositioning how viewers experience color, light, and pattern.
About Aaron Pexa
Aaron Pexa is an American artist and architect whose work manifests curiosity and a sense of bewilderment through projection, optics and appropriated antique objects. His multimedia works and video fracture and reframe everyday environments through the creation of artifacts, sleight of hand actions, and experimental operations. The video work, in particular, captures and manipulates
a series of fleeting moments, framing a fantastical narrative while documenting the process by which artifacts are produced. Pexa received his MFA in Glass from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2014. He also holds a dual Masters in Architecture and Urban Design from Washington University in Saint Louis, and Bachelors in Studio Art from Carleton College. Prior to studying glass at RISD, Aaron worked as an architect and urban designer in London and New Orleans. In the fall of 2018, Pexa was awarded a prestigious artist residency at the Corning Museum of Glass in New York. In the summer of 2014, he received a travel grant to research glassmaking techniques along Finland's Glass Trail as well as a Chinese Government Scholarship at the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou to study Mandarin and promote cross-cultural exchange. He was a 2015 and 2019 Fellow at the Creative Glass Center of America at Wheaton Arts in Millville, New Jersey. The Lucent Parlor videos are in the permanent collection of the Ringing Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida and the Musuem of American Glass in New Jersey.
