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The Lehman College Art Gallery has been taken over by the artworks of eighteen featured artists in its exhibition Space Invaders. Through structures of the building, both inside and out, works are peering, creeping, growing, and hanging through the floor, ceiling, walls, and even the balcony. Working with a specific location in mind, the unique spaces at Lehman College become the artist’s canvas. The distinctive architecture allowed each artist to approach their given space differently, creating site-specific installations that are organic, expressive, thought-provoking, and even primitive. |
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Carol Salmanson, Hercules’ Light, 2012, Plexiglass. Courtesy of the artist and Lehman College Art Gallery
The Lehman College Art Gallery has been taken over by the artworks of eighteen featured artists in its exhibition Space Invaders. Through structures of the building, both inside and out, works are peering, creeping, growing, and hanging through the floor, ceiling, walls, and even the balcony. Working with a specific location in mind, the unique spaces at Lehman College become the artist’s canvas. The distinctive architecture allowed each artist to approach their given space differently, creating site-specific installations that are organic, expressive, thought-provoking, and even primitive.
At the opening, artist Cora Jane Glasser stated, “I loved that I didn’t see it (the artwork) at first, that despite its brilliant color and form it fit right into the structure of the space. Once noticed, it could not be ignored. A beautiful intervention.”
Organized by guest curator Karin Bravin, Space Invaders features eighteen artists creating varied mixed media installations, from Rachel Hayes’ boldly colored fabric installation to Kim Beck’s vinyl decals of commonly overlooked weeds that grow out of cracks and up walls. Gandalf Gavan’s neon and mirrored wall installation alter the viewer’s perception of the exhibition space, and Halley Zien will make use of a hidden gallery kitchen that will be invaded by hundreds of her collaged and psychologically expressive characters. Lisa Kellnder uses the language of diseased cellular activity in her large-scale installations, while Nicola Lopez uses woodblock printed Mylar to transform a portion of the space’s sloping ceiling.
Among the many artists, Carol Salmanson’s installation Hercule’s Light on the gallery’s concrete columns appears primitive in its given space, mimicking the existing architecture, and yet, once noticed, becomes thought-provoking and difficult to peel one’s eyes away from.
Karin Bravin said she was determined to work with Carol Salmanson on a site-specific installation:
“I first saw Carol’s work glowing in the window of Mixed Greens gallery one evening. I loved the way she transformed the space with color and light, mimicking the existing architecture. I visited her studio and was determined to work with her on a site specific project. For Space Invaders, Carol’s work successfully banters with Marcel Breuer’s concrete columns. Her transparent, reflective work makes us think differently about the space it is inhabiting.”
Carol Salmanson said her installation in “Space Invaders” was inspired by the building’s architectural period, and the weight and scales of its structures:
“When Karin Bravin asked me to do a site-specific installation at Lehman College as part of the show Space Invaders, we met to take a look at the art gallery and the campus as a whole. Since my installations start with the architecture of their sites, I was immediately struck by the way that Marcel Breuer extracted a sense of light and air out of such massive, heavy materials. The Art Gallery building and his Shuster Hall nearby, both from 1960, are beautifully woven into the earlier Neo-Gothic architecture of the campus, in spite of such a difference in style and feel. I loved the idea of heavy buildings done without a heavy hand, and wanted to pay homage to this deftness.
Within the art gallery itself, one is immediately confronted with the massive support column in the lobby. It is unmistakably twentieth century, yet in its scale, it becomes the building’s central salient feature and a clear reference to the Neo-Gothic style of the campus’ older buildings. My installation “Hercules Light” replicates this form in a transparent, glowing green plexiglass. It uses light and suspension to contrast with Breuer’s sense of weight, simultaneously calling attention to his achievement and entering into a dialog with it.”
“Space Invaders”, organized by guest curator Karin Bravin, will be on view at Lehman’s College Art Gallery through January 9, 2013. All artists featured include: Carol Salmanson, Kim Beck, Diana Cooper, Abigail Deville, Dahlia Elsayed, Franklin Evans, Gandalf Gavan, DeWitt Godfrey, Rachel Hayes, Lisa Kellner, Nicola Lopez, Rita MacDonald, Robert Melee and Erik Hanson, Sheila Pepe, Mariah Robertson, Cordy Ryman, Heeseop Yoon, and Halley Zien.
