a rose is a rose is a cave

Annie Bielski
alexia welch
Carla Perez-Gallardo
Diamond Stingily and Austin Keultjes
Francine Hunter McGivern
Hilde Lynn Helphenstein
Rachael Starbuck

Curated by Amber J. Esseiva

November 5 - November 27, 2016
Opening Reception: Saturday, November 5, 7-10pm

In a rose is a rose is a cave the metaphor guides seven artists through a series of slippery rhetorical slopes in which momentum and friction take form as sculpture, painting, video and a series of television pilots. The works play with semantics and objects by imagining them as engulfing structures for many possible mutations.

We’d like to imagine a moment when:

Our reach extends its grasp, when a painting gives birth to multiple paintings, when longing and desire build up in the distance between bodies, when alternate realities are constructed by semantic perversions and when we cast another person to act out our perversions.

The things is, the thing, is, another.

alexia welch lives, works, jogs in Los Angeles where she also makes videos and texts. these projects often take up issues surrounding embodiment, dykeish sexuality and community standards. she graduated from the film and electronic arts department at bard college in 2013.

Annie Bielski is a painter, writer, and performer.  She has performed at venues such as September Gallery (Hudson), The Museum of Modern Art (NYC), Basilica Hudson, The Half Moon (Hudson), and living rooms elsewhere. She has collaborated with musician Jenny Hval and performed with her all over the US and Europe.  Her paintings have been exhibited in NYC, Hudson, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Mexico City, and have garnered acclaim in Hyperallergic, Artnews, iD Vice (Mexico), and New City (Chicago). Her first solo show at Paris London Hong Kong (Chicago) opens in January 2017.

Carla Perez-Gallardo is an artist-chef based in Hudson, NY. Her work errs towards the visceral and evocative, seeking to disrupt or disturb the viewer's emotional landscape via the (over)sharing of personal information. A deep belief in giving and receiving create a sturdy framework for building radical intimacy between herself and those with whom she interfaces.

Diamond Stingily is a writer and artist from Chicago, Illinois based in Brooklyn. She recently had her second solo show at Ramiken Crucible in New York City.

Francine Hunter McGivern is an Artist & Founding Director of The Frank Institute @ CR10.

Hollywood 50’s beauty. Hellenistic
Body. Roman brain. Japanese soul.
40. Never married. Irish Catholic
convent girl. Failed Debutante.
Collector. Entertainer. Athlete.
Experience-Junkie. Pop business
woman. Traveler. Looking for
meetings with remarkable men 33-35
who can concentrate. R.S.V.P w
Letter & Photo

(text excerpted) “Victory in a Void” 1992, multi-media installation. Currently on view at The Frank Institute.

Hilde Lynn Helphenstein is an artist, curator, art dealer, art consultant, art advisor, gallerist, and Instagramer (897 followers.) She holds numerous degrees in art. She exhibits rarely, mostly in places you've never heard of.

Rachael Starbuck is currently living and working in Austin, TX where she is attending the Studio Art MFA program at the University of Texas at Austin. She received her BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2011 and has been a resident at ACRE Projects, The Contemporary Artists Center at Woodside, The Wassaic Project and The Vermont Studio Center. She has shown work in Richmond, VA, Providence, RI, Chicago, Austin, Houston, New York, and London.