Featuring: Nathalie Alfonso, Elizabeth Betzen, Ciara Elle Bryant, Leah Flook, Brandon McGahey, Tino Ward
February 29 – March 7, 2020
Opening Reception | Saturday, February 29 | 3 – 9 pm
Open Hours | Monday, March 2 – Saturday, March 7 | 12 – 6 pm
or any time by appointment
Closing Brunch | Sunday, March 8 | 12 – 5 pm
ECHO STOP is a moment of reflection, simultaneously a beginning and an ending, a vertex of collapse and expansion. Hosted by Sweet Pass Sculpture Park and ex ovo projects, we present ECHO STOP, a multidisciplinary exhibition featuring the work of six artists working and studying in close proximity to one another: Nathalie Alfonso, Elizabeth Betzen, Ciara Elle Bryant, Leah Flook, Brandon McGahey, and Tino Ward. The work in ECHO STOP mines personal and cultural memory, historical narratives, and uncovers hidden traces embedded in objects and the environment. With divergent approaches, the artists in ECHO STOP respond directly to the landscape and structures found across two art spaces, offering alternative narratives and restorative gestures through various materials, bodies, and images.
Nathalie Alfonso’s large scale installation, videos, and drawings bring attention to the use of the line as the primary conduit for her notions of invisible labor.
Elizabeth Betzen’s site-responsive installation masks kitchen surfaces in cardboard and encaustic to uncanny effect, suspending a moment in time in wax and pigment. In the park, Betzen’s decomposing cardboard playhouse painted with glue and pigment recalls child-like ideas of home.
Ciara Elle Bryant explores the structural inequality and systematic oppression at the root of generational poverty in the United States through imagery and immersive installation that reflect mundane, day-to-day experiences of life “in the ghetto.”
Leah Flook’s installation explores a personal paranormal experience and her subsequent investigations into the “Goat Man.” Disembodied sounds, fragmented architecture, and video screens evoke an ineffable dream-state.
Brandon McGahey’s sculptures explore family history and events that informed much of his childhood. Their playful and haphazardly constructed exterior conceal elements of discomfort and dark humor.
Tino Ward presents three gestures that aim to heal place and memory. At ex ovo, a wall work in paper that evokes the paintings of Niele Toroni amends a moment of false recognition. An installation of baking soda in the vicinity functions as a purifier of space, and at Sweet Pass, Ward will poultice the ends of all the cut tree branches with colored paper pulp.
ECHO STOP opens with a reception Saturday, February 29 from 3 – 9 pm, and will be on view for the following week, culminating with a closing brunch on Sunday, March 8 from 12 – 5 pm. ECHO STOP is open Monday – Friday 12 – 6 pm or by appointment with the artists.