BEN GRASSO
In My Own Backyard
APRIL 27 - MAY 27, 2006
Reception: Thursday, April 27, 6-8
Sixtyseven is pleased to announce the opening of In My Own Backyard, the first solo exhibition of Ben Grasso.
Grasso's most recent body of work includes large-scale charcoal drawings and oil paintings. Often involving things such as aircrafts or missiles crashing upon impact or into archetypal houses, the work
explores how tragic spectacles relate to modern-day sensory overload.
The paintings and drawings in the show depict natural disasters and man-made destruction. From afar, the disaster scenes in the charcoal drawings seem all too real, a quality that gives the work a certain
current-events feel. While the work might reference world events from the past few years, none of the drawings or the paintings include imagery from any of them in particular.
One cannot tell whether the work is based on true events, imagination, or both. Some disaster scenes seem physically impossible if not absurd, especially in the oil paintings, which at times are reminiscent of
action movie stills or video games. This mix of references - to tragic memories on one hand and to fantasy on the other - evokes a notion of the inconceivably real.
Ben Grasso lives and works in New York. He holds a BFA in painting from The Cleveland Institute of Art in Cleveland OH. He will receive his MFA in painting from Hunter College in New York this spring. His work was exhibited in group shows at Momenta in Brooklyn, NY; Bucket Rider Gallery, Chicago, IL; The J. McCullough Center Gallery, Arcade Gallery, and Reinberger Gallery, all in Cleveland, OH; and at the ECA. Gallery in Edinburgh Scotland. In My Own Backyard is Grasso's solo debut. The show opens on April 27th and will run through May 27th. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm. For further information please contact Claire Lemetais or Ron Segev at 212.967.2260.
Sixtyseven | 547 W 27 St., #309 (bet. 10th & 11th ave) New York, NY
10001 http://www.sixtysevengallery.com
