Kori Newkirk
The Jessica Silverman Gallery
804 Sutter Street
San Francisco, CA 94109
May 17 – June 22
Jessica Silverman Gallery is pleased to present a subtle, forceful exhibition of new sculptures and photographs by Kori Newkirk. Based in Los Angeles, Newkirk explores issues of the body, alienation and location. Made in 2013, these works are poetic meditations on the artist’s progress through a landscape of vibrant commerce and listless dispossession. They discover and interpret beauty in contested environments, seeking bliss in transition and transformation.
Jet (Prototype 1) (2013) is the largest of the five works in the show. The floor sculpture consists of hundreds of transparent spheres that range in size from a marble to a golf ball. The spheres consist of a space age material that has partially absorbed the artist’s bodily fluids (tears, sweat, and saliva), making Jet (Prototype 1) a conceptual self-portrait.
Natter (2013) is comprised of a long arc of tin cans mounted on the wall. Some of the cans are lined with multi-colored glitter while others reveal their existing metallic interiors. The shape alludes to a rainbow or skid, suggesting an ever-turning wheel, a broken circle, the glint in an eye and a speech bubble.
Rhythm and Warmth (2013) is an embellished photographic diptych portraying two upside-down television antennas against a cloudy sky. The dislocating image evokes myriad associations including antiquated technological twins, subverted communications, airy ornaments, and a world turned upside down by change.
The exhibition also includes two works that evoke hands: a predominately black and white photograph of a paper towel with a sooty imprint of the artist’s right hand and a hanging sculpture that incorporates gloves, pigeon feathers, shoelaces and pennies.
Newkirk has long explored landscapes. This time, human presences – particularly his own – are more significant. Always interested in the skin of things, Newkirk now delves deeper into the DNA of his forms.
