Curatorial — Nakai Falcón

Swallowed by the Light

Photos courtesy of :iidrr Gallery

:iidrr Gallery
162 Allen Street
New York, NY 10002

October 7 - 15, 2023

:iidrr Gallery presents Swallowed by the Light, a group exhibition showcasing the work of Matías Alvial, Joshua Ben-Dylan, Mara Corsino, Lloyd Foster, Gia Han, and Oji Haynes. Revolving around ideas of identity, mental health, and cultural relations between people, materiality, and states of being, the exhibition centers around the theme of illumination; its various iterations and the vast range of perspectives tied into interpretations across the tangible and intangible. How it can provide clarity to the misunderstood and reveal new viewpoints within both pop and subcultures. Scenes that have the potential to establish comfort and reinvigorate or tap into the senses in unpredictable ways. Adversely, the presence of illumination also alludes to hidden meanings - the concealed and what can be disregarded as inconsequential, lost, or mistreated.

The presence of light - both in its literal and figurative implications, is a bridging between the physical and spiritual. Whether it be its relations to natural and artificial formations and people to the conditions of a site where interaction occurs or have taken place. In a way, a trait shared between this process of illumination and the snapshot of a photographic composition is this inherent quality of magic that transpires during the moment. A mythical process where extraordinarily, what has been captured in the active is excused out of our realm of temporality, and is then capable of showing the viewer things that may never have been considered otherwise. To this extent, the exploration of illumination’s multifaceted definition can reveal the transformative nature and fluidity of photographic practices, while simultaneously demonstrating an ability to convey thoughts between the material and immaterial world. What is captured behind the lens is capable of expanding on the untapped potential of moments that transpire right in front of us, and allowing for richer understandings of how this potential can be released. Translating over into possibilities that are insightful, healing, challenging, but always revealing.

In Swallowed by The Light, the works displayed are indicative of photography’s versatility in moving past a simple image. Artists like Corsino expand on the historical implications of material such as gold within Latin American culture. Interrogating this through the guidance of her gilding experience and application of the photographic lens from a contemporary standpoint, confronting the conventional glamorizing and luxurious sentiments towards gold use. While a conceptual artist like Haynes reflects from positions that consider art, music, design, and history within the context of Black American aesthetics to craft scenes of intimacy and strength. Pushing the boundaries even further through their hybridized photographic sculpture. The photographic works here make way for an embrace of visual freedom and an investigation of socio-cultural structures within distinct visual languages. A dance between meticulously crafted scenes and uncandid snapshots that draw from the historic influences of art nouveau, pop, punk, and surrealism through approaches that address the figurative and conceptual. Swallowed by the Light homes in on the voices that have historically found themselves faded into the background, and through a combination of material bending, taming of color, mise en scène, and sheer miraculous circumstance, brings these conversations and perspectives to the foreground in dazzling effect.

Matías Alvial (b. 1997) is a Chilean multimedia visual artist, community organizer, and activist based in New York. He explores themes of identity, human connection, gender and sexuality. In Alvial’s words, his practice is compartmentalized, where he captures the real world through documentary-style analog photography and escapes reality through drawing & painting. Yet this dichotomy is unified by his wish to capture the essence of the queer experience. Alvial received a BA in ‘The Aesthetics of Commerce’ from New York University, and has exhibited in New York, Massachusetts, Italy and Norway, while also having their work held in private collections.

Mara Corsino (b. 1979) is a self-taught Puerto Rican photographic artist based in New York. Having delved into the world of photography while living in Milan, Italy during the 2000s, her self-taught approach to the medium explores still images and moving portraits. Work characterized by clear lines that still find a way of embracing imperfections, both in the subject and the process. Through physical and digital manipulation, Corsino creates collages that evoke motion or the juxtaposition of shapes. Additionally, this physical manipulation can take the form of the artist gilding or painting over her digital or silver gelatin prints. Corsino has exhibited in Milan, New York, and Puerto Rico, while having been published in the New York Times Magazine, T Magazine, TIME, Vogue Paris, W Magazine among others.

Joshua Ben Dylan (b. 1997) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Montana and New York. From photography and painting to film, the photographic images taken by Ben-Dylan, synthesize features from each of these fields and combine them into singular compositions that burst with complicated myriads of color. This “hypercolor” morphs the piece into something malleable by the mind, softening the heat and brightening the iridescent blues. The subtle beauty of life becomes enveloped by rapturous colors, recontextualizing its existence. Their work gifts something extreme to stagger the viewer away from the mundanity of the everyday captured at first glance. Ben-Dylan received a BFA in Film from SUNY Purchase and has exhibited in New York and Washington D.C.

Lloyd Foster (b. 1990) in an interdisciplinary artist based in New York. Paired with their primary medium of photography, Foster highlights the emotional intention within his practice by transforming photos into more theatrically charged, mixed media works alongside sculptures and drawings. Tapping into elements of community and ancestry, his practice reflects on personal connections, memories and authentically dual perception of the self. He is a founder of Yeboah Studios: a platform that bridges African countries and the diaspora through culture and collaboration. Foster received an MFA from New York University, a B.Sc. from Saint Francis University, Loretto, PA and has exhibited in Baltimore, New York, Germany, Maryland, Virginia, and Washington D.C.

Gia Han (b. 1993) is an artist based in New York. Her work examines self-image, care, family structures, and the divide that takes place when cultural identity and physical location don’t align. Han received her BFA in Photography from SUNY Purchase and has exhibited in New York, Utica, and South Korea.

Oji Haynes (b. 1999) is an American photographic artist based in New York. With his poetic outlook on life, Haynes works toward making images that evoke emotions and pridefulness. Pulling inspiration from music, art, and the history of Black aesthetics in America, his work aims to put the Black figure at the forefront of his frame giving his lens, viewer, and the world a sense of rich intimacy. Haynes received his BFA in Black Studies and Studio Art from the City College of New York and has exhibited in Atlanta, New York, and London.

Mara Corsino, Agatha. Buyé, Puerto Rico, 2015-2021, Silver gelatin print on satin paper, 24k gold, and gold enamel paint , 14” x 11”

Lloyd Foster, Untitled, 2023, Cotton print and bicycle grips, 12” x 10”

Gia Han, Untitled (Nude #1), Archival inket print, 24” x 28”

Joshua Ben-Dylan, Chaos City, 2021, UV ink on metal paper, 4.6” x 6”

I Feel Everything at a Moment’s Notice

Photos courtesy of Ed. Varie

Ed. Varie
184 East 7th Street
West Storefront
New York, NY 10009

February 25 - March 26, 2023

Ed. Varie is pleased to present I Feel Everything at a Moment’s Notice, a two-person exhibition showcasing works produced by Matías Alvial and Tin Nguyen, curated by Nakai Falcón. Sifting through the gem-like qualities of the human experience captured through painting and photography, I Feel Everything at a Moment’s Notice meditates on the subtle details and complexities that lay within instances of intimacy, embrace, benevolence, and care. The dynamics and states of being we encounter in both solitary and social spaces. Excitement and fear, sadness and wonder, joy and disappointment; vital elements that contribute to the sculpture of each individual and can be reflected through the works of Alvial and Nguyen. The gathering of photographs and paintings on display carry distinct narrative qualities that feel like fragments of several stories that the viewer can piece together while following the artists’ respective protagonists.

Nguyen’s painting practice explores acts of observation from every angle of their surroundings, and this is evident whether it be a landscape scene of fields and trees, a still life of flowers huddled together, or even the artist’s body lounging in sunlight. Often delving into their emotional states while grappling with the chaotic environment of New York city, the subjects of Nguyen’s paintings are frequently quiet moments that draw him inwards in a practice of self-inquiry. While painting enables the artist to interrogate his own memories and reflect on his subconscious world during the making-process, “the act” of making also provides a connection to his spiritual state by transposing himself into different scenes in time. In turn, creating a healing ritual that establishes a dialogue between past and present introspection. Nguyen’s work is autobiographical and with many of the pieces based on archival photographs that could have been taken a day, a month, or even a year ago, it is the artist’s natural approach to oil painting and use of warmer tones that evokes feelings of remembrance, comfort, and tenderness. Using a combinatory technique of calculated but loose movements, Nguyen’s hand enables the oil to sit with less restriction and engage with the canvas organically, making the paintings playful in their textural detail. Freedom becomes inherent within the work on a material and emotive level as the artist is able to uncover subconscious aspects to their lived experiences and enrich them in a new and expansive light.

As a multimedia artist, the root of Alvial’s work is in photography. Touching on identity and human connection through a documentary-style approach, the focus of his subjects often have the artist recording the activities of himself and others in and in proximity of the queer community. Chronicling movements in between functions as he meets up with friends and strangers, Alvial’s work is informed by a surrealist intentionality that captures scenes where figures from every walk of life appear as though they are all part of an interwoven community of individuals not confined to restrictions of time, place, or even worry. The artist’s photos act as freeze frames of liberated acquaintances and loved ones that meld elements from both the public and private spheres into singular harbors of intimacy. The essence of his photographs is captured through his “fly on the wall” viewpoints that embrace levity and sensual freedom in their candidacy, while peeling back the layers within his visuals to sit with their details. Drawing inspiration from old masters within the art historical vanguard like Caravaggio to more contemporary figures like those from the downtown NY art scene of the early 2000s, Alvial is transparent in his recognition for creatives of the past by exercising and questioning familiar symbols, gestures, and motifs within his own photography. It is through this combinatory lens that the artist creates a refreshing blend of acknowledgment for the past in movements and styles while expanding on their own practice grounded in communal love and a vital awareness for discussions surrounding the self, disruption of societal conventions, and the constantly evolving nature of queer lifestyle.

The works in this exhibition are meant to explore the emotional fluidity that permeates throughout the human experience and the connections we establish over time. Acknowledging how all the variables playing into the interactions between ourselves and our surroundings fall into categories of necessary under goings that can provide insight into things that we may not have recognized at first glance. I Feel Everything at a Moment’s Notice bridges these ideas together by following Nguyen and Alvial’s subjects through two distinct mediums that in the end, share commonalities within their differences and communicate these over themes of person/place relationships, sexuality, and identity.

Matías Alvial (b. 1997) is a Chilean multimedia visual artist, community organizer, and activist based in New York. He explores themes of identity, human connection, gender and sexuality. In Alvial’s words, his practice is compartmentalized, where he captures the real world through documentary-style analog photography and escapes reality through drawing & painting. Yet this dichotomy is unified by his wish to capture the essence of the queer experience. Alvial received a BA in ‘The Aesthetics of Commerce’ from New York University, and has exhibited in New York and Massachusetts, and abroad in Italy and Norway, while also having their work held in private collections.

Tin Nguyen (b. 1989) is a Vietnamese-American visual artist based in New York. He makes observational and autobiographical paintings of what has occurred within his space and surroundings. Working within spontaneous lines and relaxed but precise brushstrokes, the artist is engaged in capturing the beauty in the quotidian, reflecting in these softer moments of life, which otherwise could easily be overlooked. As Nguyen shifts the gaze towards himself, he aims to embrace its lens as a modality for self-inquiry, touching on themes of queer identity, intimacy, and vulnerability. Nguyen has received his BA from the University of Virginia, an AAS from Parsons School of Design and has exhibited his work in China, Greece, and New York while also being held in private collections in the USA, the UK, Europe, Africa, the UAE, and Hong Kong.