Curated by Megan DiNoia
Artists: Olivia Andrews, Ila Krishnamoorthy
February 7 – 13, 2017 at 80WSE Gallery
The New York University Curatorial Collaborative present s 11:30 playdate, the first show in the 2017 Senior Honors Studio exhibition series. The series will feature five, single-week exhibitions and will run from February 7th through March 11th at the 80WSE Gallery Project Space. This is the third year of the student-led initiative designed to connect graduate students in art history from the Institute of Fine Arts with undergraduates in Steinhardt School’s Department of Art and Art Professions.
11:30 playdate, a collaborative installation of works by Olivia Andrews and Ila Krishnamoorthy, serves as a physical and conceptual playdate between artist, curator, artwork, and viewer. The exhibition features entirely new works that exist in dialogue with one another and should be considered as a whole. 11:30 playdate contemplates youth, the passage of time, the formation of identity, and the awkwardness of becoming older. These objects manipulate the viewer, forcing them to crouch, look up, feel huge, or seem tiny. Viewers must, therefore, play along – reflect, participate, and self-situate in time and space. Fragments of both artists’ writing unfurl along the gallery’s walls on paper tinged by the remnants of sugary fruit strips that long ago stained the teeth of their young (or not-so-young) consumer. Their words are moments on a timeline, explorations of self, places seen, and stories heard – a jumble of prose perpetually echoed in other works with objects like fruit, moss, tile, and socks. These moments accumulate to form a collective memory, much like the sticky-slobbery build-up of chewed gum on the underside of Krishnamoorthy’s bathroom-tiled bench.
Andrews’ paintings likewise capture moments in real and imagined time – a swim lesson, a peek at hardened feet through the garden, a pile of persimmons. The colors and forms within her paintings echo those in Krishnamoorthy’s works, creating a dialogue that encourages the viewer to find connections, an aesthetic game of hide and seek.
11:30 playdate is documented in an accompanying publication featuring a curatorial essay by Megan DiNoia and reproduced images of additional works by Andrews and Krishnamoorthy.
