PAUL BRAINARD

The Lodge Gallery is proud to present Paul Brainard: ROASTED, opening at the gallery on February 24th, and Paul Brainard: VOLTA NY 2016 opening March 2nd.

Paul Brainard: Roasted is a group exhibition celebrating an artist and curator who has impacted the careers and influenced the studio work of many of today’s most relevant contemporary artists. In the spirit of the Friars Club Roasts, each participating artist has made new work “roasting” Brainard with artwork paying tribute to or poking fun at him. All attendees at the opening will have a chance to “roast” Brainard with a toast sponsored by Peroni Italy. Doors open from 7pm to 9pm with a reception following after at Fig. 19.

Set to run through Armory Arts Week, Paul Brainard: ROASTED will feature over 30 artists from New York City, Los Angeles and Europe including Ron Amstutz, Michael Bevilacqua, Miriam Carothers, Michele Colomer, Carl D’Alvia, Daniel Davidson, Pia Dehne, Dawn Frasch, Rebecca Goyette, Duncan Hannah, Karen Heagle, Volker Hueller, Liz Insogna, Aaron Johnson, Irena Jurek, Erika Keck, Emily Noelle Lambert, Hayley McCulloch, Frank J Miles, Heather Joy Morgan, Nick Naber, Hyun Jin Alex Park, Kanishka Raja, Walter Robinson, Tom Sanford, Hazel Lee Santino, Samantha Keely Smith, Alfred Steiner, Ulrike Theusner, Lane Twitchell, Frank Webster, Doug Young, Aaron Zimmerman.

Additionally, The Lodge Gallery will be presenting a solo booth (X9) of Paul Brainard’s work at VOLTA NY 2016 featuring original drawings and sculpture. VOLTA NY 2016 opens to the public on Wednesday, March 2nd (8pm) at the west side piers adjoining the main Armory Show (Pier 90, 92, and 94) and will be on view through Armory Arts Week, concluding March 6th.

Paul Brainard’s works are made up of portraits of friends, family and people from his life, imagery from advertising, the internet, celebrity culture, celebrity counter-culture and American puritanical religious imagery. A common aesthetic theme throughout Paul’s work is a dark and cynical sensibility that stems from the artists existentialist and absurdist philosophy. Formally, the drawings are rendered in a constant state of flux and are woven together from moments of expressive bursts and carefully calculated precision. There is an overt rebelliousness in both the execution and the subject matter of his work that services the viewers imagination with recollections of a kid in the back of a high school classroom, clad in a leather motorcycle jacket, carving away his frustrations and his fantasies into a desktop with a switchblade. Through a malestrom of drawings and scrimshawed desk sculpture, the artist channels a rebellious spirit against media-saturated contemporary American society. Brainard’s CV is extensive, including fall 2003’s “Kult 48 Klubhouse”, a seminal takeover of Deitch Project’s Brooklyn space (curated by Scott Hug), to “Heathen Fundamentalist”, a group exhibition in ode to Phillip Guston at The Lodge Gallery this past summer.