Working in painting and video, Brooklyn-based artist’s first solo show at a university gallery
references the looming fate of life cycles through animals and literal tombstones — September 6 – October 20
Boston, MA – Boston University Art Gallery at the Stone Gallery Boston University College of Fine Arts (CFA) is proud to present Lazy River:Leidy Churchman, Brooklyn-based artist Leidy Churchman’s first solo show at a university gallery — September 6 – October 20.
Lazy River: Leidy Churchman
Dates and Events: Friday, September 6 – Sunday, October 20, 2013
Opening Reception: Thursday, September 5, 6–8pm
Location: Boston University Art Gallery at the Stone Gallery (855 Commonwealth Ave)
Exhibition and Gallery Events are Free and Open to the Public
Amy Sillman in Conversation with Leidy Churchman and Book Release
Date and Time: September 24, 2013, 6pm
Location: Boston University Art Gallery at the Stone Gallery
“Notorious for its transient qualities and unstable chemical properties, the color green has proven the bane of many artists, and was even discarded from the palette of Dutch painter, Piet Mondrian,” said Kate McNamara, Director and Chief Curator, Boston University Art Gallery at the Stone Gallery. “Yet, the rich hues of this fleeting color are gloriously cast as the most prominent pigment in Leidy Churchman’s series, Lazy River and Graveyard.”
Counter-intuitive to the images conjured in one’s imagination by the series’ title, Graveyard, lush green lawns with equally rich shrubbery and vegetation engulf the pictorial plane producing a quiet and tranquil environment rather than a moribund atmosphere reminiscent of death.
Here (2011), part of Churchman’s Graveyard series is stark in its compression of space, achieved not only through a non-existent horizon line, but also through the linear geometry of the grave plot, rigidly rendered in a quasi-naïve fashion. Suspended within a pristine, manicured green lawn and decorated by a solitary tree, the freshly disturbed earth becomes an ambiguous entity, harboring the newly consecrated resting place of Rolf Guhl (indicated by the epitaph). The disproportionate tree adds to the painting’s spatial ambiguity and works to further emphasize the burial mound, presented as a peaceful resting place, rather than a morbid indication of imminent demise.
Working in various medias, Churchman’s oeuvre presents a spectrum of styles, from folkish paintings and abstract expressionism to videos that straddle the line of painting and performative narrative.
In his most recent exhibition, Monte Cristo, Churchman collaborated with LA-based artist math Bass, using the deserted, desolate, and barely habitable island of Monte Cristo as a point of departure, skillfully testing the limits of the compositional space, which seems to extend seamlessly from one frame to the next. Churchman’s masterful handling of both video and paint produce work that effectively utilizes the slow reveal,” continued McNamara, “where prolonged observation offers a deeper — and satisfying — grasp of the meaning and emotion imbued within Churchman’s art.”
An illustrated catalogue will accompany the exhibition.
About Leidy Churchman
Leidy Churchman is a painter who lives and works in New York City. He has shown his work at Silberkuppe Gallery (Berlin), Gallery Crevecoeur (Paris), The Stroom (Den Haag), Annet Gelink Gallery (Amsterdam), CDA Projects and Gallery Zilberman (Istanbul), Museum of Art at Rhode Island Museum of Design (Providence), MoMa Ps1 (Long Island City, NY), The Nerman Museum (Kansas), Robert Miller Gallery (New York City), American Contemporary (New York City), Nicole Klagsbrun (New York City), Leo Koenig Projekt (New York City), and Horton Gallery (New York City), among others. He received his MFA from Columbia University in 2010, and his BA from Hampshire College in 2002. From 2011–2012, he was a two year resident artist at Rijksakademie in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. His work has been reviewed in The New York Times, Art Forum, Frieze d/e, Art in America, and Vogue Paris.
About Boston University Art Gallery at the Stone Gallery
The Boston University Art Gallery at the Stone Gallery is located at 855 Commonwealth Avenue inside the College of Fine Arts. The gallery is located on the Boston University campus (BU West T stop on the “B” Green Line). Gallery hours are Tuesday–Friday from 11am–5pm, and Saturday and Sunday from 1pm–5pm (Closed Mondays and Holidays). For more information, visit bu.edu/art.