Check out the 2nd Issue 

Stilllife_010 (a classic, Coca Cola, talent show), 2014, 30 x 22 in, watercolor on paper

Compression (39 pages and counting), 2014, 16×20 in, digital print on archival matte paper

Baggage (detail), 2014, size variable, digital prints on fabric and thread, 10 piece installation

LAUREN COMITO: Artist Statement

“The Menagerie” presents a selection of works taken from my ongoing Search Engine Project that has persisted over the last three years.  Initially I was interested in how commonplace Google Image Search has become and how it is utilized in everyday life. The project began by conducting a series of image queries using the phrase “no comment”. I chose this phrase for its ambiguous meaning and for the potential variation within the query.

The search engine also became a place for aesthetic inquiry. The formal display of Google Image Search is gridded in such a way as to be reminiscent of Modernist painting and architecture. Relationships between images are coalesced through formal devices such as resizing and containment. The viewer is left to have a fluid and cohesive aesthetic experience, via unitization of disparate images, although the viewer’s sense of scale and resolution (quality) of these images is always indeterminate.

The two large paintings in the exhibition pay tribute to this formal display. Over the years Google has added further customization features to its image search. One of the more recent features is a time-based search. For seven days I tracked both the 24-hour image search query and the default search query. These two paintings used the first “page” of results as a formal mapping. Each image was reduced to a rectangular block of color that was dictated by the most dominant color found within the image.

The varied material investigations employed attempt to mimic common digital image manipulations, such as applying filters, superimposing and skewing. The resultant physical manifestations investigate how the display of the search engine, as well as the images themselves, operate when placed into the physical realm.

The Stilllife works on paper began by printing the query images at their actual size rather than their display size. These image prints were mounted to individually cut pieces of foam-core that correspond to their print size. The digital images thus become transformed into literal building blocks that can be physically rearranged. I assembled these image-objects into stacks, which then served as a still life to paint from.

The query images are at times printed onto different types of fabric and either stretched over an armature or allowed to embrace the sag of that particular fabric. The Search Engine Nightlights are paintings comprised of stretched digital prints on fabric and many layers of mark-making, which create a literal physical thickness. In order to see the previous underlying layers the paintings must be illuminated from the backend. Baggage is comprised of ten enclosed cotton voile pouches. The images were first digitally superimposed and printed onto transparent fabric. These pieces are deflated shells; the surface image now a transparent flaccid skin lacking a skeletal structure.

Baggage (installation detail), 2014, digital prints on fabric and thread

“The Menagerie” June 13-July 13, 2014

Opening Reception, Friday, June 13, 7-9 PM

Slag Gallery is pleased to present “The Menagerie” featuring new works by Lauren Comito.

Mining from mediums of mass culture like Google image search, Comito’s work explores the implications of several genres of art making. The work brilliantly succeeds in establishing a constant, resonant voice throughout the exhibition. Working with the limitations and possibilities of new media, Comito renders answers that are both creative and critical, her entire oeuvre conveying a unique sensibility.

All of the images that make up the work featured in this show were retrieved from the Google image search of the phrase no comment. This search was conducted several times over the last three years. The term was chosen for its blanketing ambiguity as well as for the concrete variations attained in the resulting search.

“In my studio I engage with multiple projects that may have divergent trajectories. Shifts in perception and the way in which we navigate through ‘space’ occur frequently. I cannot choose a fixed position but rather attempt to locate temporary placements. I produce work that is reactionary and in correspondence to a sensibility to control. I am interested in exploring notions of image construction, as seen in both painting and common digital processes. My work utilizes a combination of procedures that alternate between digital processes and physical/material manipulations. Reformatting and mechanisms of cropping, duplicating, scaling and saturating are simple devices that create a shift in perspective and urgency.”

Comito received her MFA from Rhode Island School of Design, 2013 and her BFA from Tyler School of Art at Temple University, Elkins Park, PA, 2007. This is her second solo show in New York. Her works are featured regularly in group shows in the US and are a part of numerous private and public collections around the globe.

For press inquiries and reproductions, contact Irina Protopopescu at 917.977.1848.

For general inquiries, contact the gallery at 212.967.9818, or visit www.slaggallery.com

Slag Gallery

56 Bogart Street, Ground Floor, Brooklyn NY 11206
LOCATED ACROSS THE STREET FROM THE MORGAN L TRAIN STATION

GALLERY HOURS:

THURSDAY – SUNDAY, 1 pm-6 pm

MONDAY – WEDNESDAY BY APPOINTMENT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


Brooklyn, NY—February 12, 2014


Lauren Comito: Trying to Read Between the Lines

Exhibition: February 20th to March 15th, 2014.

Opening Reception: February 20th 8PM. Idiosyncrasy Gallery

Idiosyncrasy Gallery proudly presents “Trying to Read Between the Lines”, a solo-exhibition featuring the most recent works by contemporary artist, Lauren Comito. This latest work includes mixed media and installation pieces that celebrate the ambiguity of perception and the power of sensory experience. Comito’s work blends new media and more traditional technique, producing self-lit paintings and an impressionistic element in her film pieces. The low-lit exhibition invites the viewer to explore his or her relationship with light and image in a way that is simultaneously challenging to the senses and alluring to the intellect.

The work will be available for viewing at Idiosyncrasy Gallery beginning February 20th with the opening reception through March 15th. The Gallery is open weekends 12-5 and by appointment.

Contact: Pritchard@idiosyncrasybk.com for more information.

976 Grand Street, Studio D Brookyn, New York 11211 idiosyncrasybk.com