“Hallucination”
Exhibition Dates: September 15–November 18, 2023
Opening Reception: Friday, Sept 15. 6-9pm
Ati Maier
Darina Karpov
Sarah Walker
Press Release
Darina Karpov
Ati Maier
Sarah Walker
Hallucination
September 15 — October 21, 2023
Pierogi is pleased to present Hallucination, an exhibition of recent paintings and drawings by three artists: Darina Karpov, Ati Maier, and Sarah Walker, on view September 15 through October 21, with an opening reception Friday, September 15 (6–9pm).
The works presented here convey different meanings and are hard to classify as abstract, conceptual, or surreal but they are developed and rendered with a sense of certainty. They present “an experience involving the apparent perception of something not present,” the definition of “hallucination.” In a clinical sense, hallucinations can be caused by mental or neurological issues—of course we’re not suggesting this—but the idea of perception and non-presence drives our interest in the concept of hallucination here. Are there issues of interpretation? Who’s to say, it’s inherently subjective and intuitive. What the work in this exhibition does allow for are possible ways to enter and experience what may seem elusive or impossible.
These artists turn the diagnostic notion of hallucination on its head, inviting visions and perceptions of things not actually present. They each develop their work by layering imagery over time, discovering the final composition through the process, and leaving traces of its evolution visible in the composition.
“Multiplicity is inherent in our neurology (as anyone who has taken a hallucinogen knows), but up until recently it took time to get from one thing to the next, one place to the next, one space to the next. We can position parts of our attention in different places, spaces, and states simultaneously. This prepares us for an altogether different sort of experience, one where space and time behave as varying forms of connection and attachment.” (–Sarah Walker)
“Although my work is largely abstract, it is very much about making invisible energies and wavelengths visible. I start with overlapping sketches” which suggest a provisional composition. “I might begin with an abstract grid, add a galactic structure, then landscapes on top. It is in this period that shapes begin to form and subside, subdivide and cut through and across one another. I weave the layers of space together in such a way that foreground, middle ground, and background along with past, present, and future become one dense coherence.” (–Ati Maier)
“Drawing has always been an immediate way for me to navigate between disjunctive thought, memories, and abstract associations, connecting my distant past with the present. In my present work, I draw and paint glimpses of memories, personal or familial, recognizable objects interwoven with abstract forms inspired by nature.” (–Darina Karpov)
Darina Karpov was born in St. Petersburg, Russia and studied in Moscow before immigrating to the US in 1991. She studied at the Maryland Institute College of Art and received an MFA from Yale University. Her work has been included in exhibitions at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, the Neuberger Museum, and the DeCordova Museum, and is in the permanent collections of Princeton University Art Museum, Zabludowicz Trust (London), among others. She is a recipient of a NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship, a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, and has been awarded residencies and fellowships at MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, and Ucross Foundation. Her work was featured in Frozen Dreams: Contemporary Art from Russia, by Hossein Amirsadeghi (Thames & Hudson). She currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
Ati Maier was born in Munich, Germany and has studied, lived, and worked in Vienna, Berlin, and New York City. She is the recipient of a Joan Mitchell Her work is included numerous public collections, including the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art (NYC); the Museum der bildenden Kuenste Leipzig (Leipzig, Germany); MART, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Rovereto and Trentino, Italy; Guilin Art Museum, Guilin, Guangxi P.R. China, among others, and has been included in exhibitions at the Städtische Galerie Wolfsburg (Wolfsburg, Germany), “Remote Viewing” at the Whitney Museum (NYC), the Herbert F. Johnson Museum (Ithaca, NY). Her 3D video animations were included in the Fokus Bienial in Lódz. She also works in film and created the SpaceRider Cycle, a series of six films to date, exhibited at the Städtische Galerie Wolfsburg and included in numerous film festivals. She currently lives and works between Santa Fe, NM and Brooklyn, NY.
Sarah Walker’s work has been included in numerous museum and gallery exhibitions and is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art (NYC); National Academy of Design (NYC); Milwaukee Art Museum (Milwaukee, WI); DeCordova Museum (Lincoln, MA); Neuberger Museum (Purchase, NY), and Rappaport Foundation (Boston, MA). She is a recipient of a Joan Mitchell Grant for Painters and Sculptors, the Rappaport Prize, and the Jacob Lawrence Award, American Academy of Arts and Letters, and has received Fellowships and Residencies from the MacDowell Colony, Lademoen Kunstnerversksteder, Trondheim, Norway, UCross Foundation, and visiting Artist / Scholar at the American Academy in Rome, Italy. She has received degrees from California College of the Arts, Oakland, CA (BFA) and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC (MFA). She currently lives and works in New York City.