Barnaby Whitfield at 31GRAND

Press Release from Barnaby Whitfield:

31GRAND is pleased to announce Barnaby Whitfield’s third solo exhibition with the gallery.

Barnaby Whitfield, "Little Deaths, All The Same", March 20 – April 19, 2008, Reception: Thursday, March 20, 7-9pm, front gallery

In what he views as the final installment in a trilogy for 31GRAND; Whitfield’s Episode VI has the Ewoks drunk and randy with no sense of the impending tragedy, as water licks at their treetop climbing toes (except in Barnaby’s world the Ewoks are more likely to be Abraham Lincoln clones.) Narratives woven through the last two shows crash and burn, then intertwine again to take on new life in this boisterous suite of pastel paintings.  Barnaby Whitfield considers his works on paper, paintings, as defined in this beloved and oft cited quote from the Pastel Society Of America “Generally, the ground is toned paper – if the ground is covered completely with pastel, the work is considered a Pastel Painting; a Pastel Sketch shows much of the ground. When protected by fixative and glass, pastel is the most permanent of all media, for it never cracks, darkens or yellows.” However he requests you do not ask him to quote it at the artist’s reception.

From lovingly using his art dealer to anthropomorphize the ‘Bird Flu’ to finding fictional passion with Hernan Bas on a men seeking men website, we continue to get amusing and rather untrustworthy glimpses into Whitfield’s experience in the art world. And besides an over all theme the artist states as “sexualizing the environmental crisis within the context of American politics” we also see the end to Barnaby’s quest for his real parents (Whitfield was one of those children that always suspected they were adopted even though they knew quite well they were not), and a startling turn of events in his ongoing Clonie series (a character created when the momentarily impoverished artist decided to sell nudes on eBay inadvertently gaining the attention of 31GRAND and being welcomed into the fold). 

Never one to ignore a good bandwagon, this show is rife with imagery of Mother Nature’s rapidly declining health. It all comes to a questionably hopeful end in the piece “Wild! Woman! On The Water! (My Imaginary Friend She’s Just Pretend)” featuring Barnaby (in toddler form) and his Mother, Clonie, (along with Sarah Jessica Parker as Lil Orphan Annie) riding out the flooding from "Al Gore’s global warming" in search of dry land and greener pastures. 

Above Right, Barnaby Whitfield, Fit To Burst (Heather Stephens As The Bird Flu), 2007, Pastel On Paper, 28.5 x 36" 

31GRAND is pleased to announce a group exhibition curated by Barnaby Whitfield.

“Warm, Red, Salt And Wet” curated by Barnaby Whitfield

Artists: Zea Barker, Amelia Biewald, George Boorujy, Jennifer Coates, Amir H. Fallah, Debra Hampton, Erik Lindman, Michael Pope, Christian Sampson, Allison Schulnik, Jason Weatherspoon.

March 20 – April 19, 2008, Reception: Thursday, March 20, 7-9pm, back gallery

What started off as a conceptualized "links" page from the artist’s website was elevated to what Whitfield states is an "exciting dialogue" amongst this group of artists (along with himself) that roam from watercolor to ceramic, from bleach on velvet to film and more. The show’s title, in the long standing tradition of numerous 31GRAND group exhibitions, is a song lyric. This time it is from The Hidden Camera’s "The Man That I Am With My Man"; a line that the agoraphobic synesthete Whitfield claims is not only sexual in nature but makes him "see an American flag every time I hear it."

31GRAND, 143 Ludlow St. New York, NY 10002, 212.228.0901, hours: Tues. – Sat. 12-7pm