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FISSURAL | Solo exhibition by Alex Schechter

FISSURAL | Solo exhibition by Alex Schechter

Join us for the opening reception of 'Fissural' by Alex Schechter on Friday, June 3rd from 7-10pm in conunction with Alloverstreet.

This is also Terrault's very last exhibition in the Copy Cat before we move to our new location of the 3rd Floor of Maryland Art Place! Come say goodbye to us!

Fissural is an exploration of boundaries. Whether physical, temporal or political, these works examine the arbitrary divisions in natural landscapes. Drawing inspiration from political boundaries in the American West, these abstracted landscapes are carved from stacked and laminated wood. Their hills, grooves and valleys mimicking the tumult of the state where Schecter was born. For him, they are intuitive miniaturization of the landscape of his youth, burnished terrains split by arbitrary lines. They are breaking and are broken. They are cared for. Their divisions point to loss, to empty space, but also to connection. The schism is the thing that holds them together, transitioning them from isolated forms to a connected group.

All of Schechter's work is about rules. Much like the scientific method, his process involves the investigation of phenomena, the acquiring new knowledge, and the correction of what is known. His process differs in that it does not favor the empirical or measurable evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning. The objects created are the products of experiments which aesthetic, emotional, and rational truths compete for primacy. Objects sit in between the spaces of architecture and sculpture, between functional, performative, and static. They fight against taxonomies that give us easy categorization. Schechter's work to pushs against itself, containing contradictory conclusions, and is informed by research and spontaneity, by extensive planning, as well as the improvisations of his hand.

There is a difference between seeing a thing and experiencing a thing. The creation of objects demands a concreteness and a physicality that is only understood through the sharing of space. There is truth gained in feeling the grain of wood. There is knowledge in bonded polymers, in soil, in house paint and in fabric. With objects, we experience an un-selfing; a moment of connection between the physicality of ourselves and the physicality of the other, a realization that we are bodies. The object-ness of Schecter's work seeks to ground the arbitrary nature of our cosmologies. It seeks to remind us of the rational tactility in an increasingly visual world.

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Alex Schechter was born in Moose, Wyoming in 1988. He received an MFA in Sculpture from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2016, and a BA in Studio Art and Religious Studies from Grinnell College in 2010. His work focuses on using construction and industrial fabrication methods to explore the arbitrary use of biology and mathematics in informing cosmology. He has shown nationally, including group and solo shows in Seattle, New Orleans, Baltimore and Philadelphia.

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Opening Reception: Friday, June 3rd 7-10pm
Exhibition Runs: June 3rd - June 25th
Gallery Hours: Saturdays 1-5pm

Event Contact

Carlyn Thomas
443-540-1234

Event Details

Friday, June 3, 2016, 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM
Repeats weekly Saturday -- until Saturday June 25, 2016.
Free

Location

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