V1 GALLERY PROUDLY PRESENTS
Under Heavy Manners
An exhibition curated by Cali Thornhill DeWitt
Works by:
Emma Kohlmann, Nathaniel Matthews, Lee Perry, Brendan Fowler, Alison Peery, James Rockin, Matthew Bellosi, Lele Sevari, B. Thom Stevenson, Alexis Ross, Sonya Sombreuil, Cali Thornhill Dewitt, Matt Damhave, Erika Ceruzzi, Maia Ruth Lee, Nina Hartmann, Fitzpatrick/Adian, Misha Hollenbach and Tamara Santibanez.
“Since a very young age I have always been attracted to and inspired by underground and outsider communities. The people who are working on their specific vision, regardless of the generally accepted rules, whatever their creative medium, these are the bodies of work that thrill me most. It's where I find the most authentic voices, and where I have most often felt the shock of connection. This group of artists represents a slice of that vitality. The dots connect for me here, because first and foremost these are creative minds that aren't easily defined, are not easily categorized. There is a personal purity in each of these artists’ works, a solitary voice and an independence I can see and hear.” – Cali Thornhill DeWitt
V1 Gallery is pleased to present Under Heavy Manners curated by Cali Thornhill DeWitt.
The exhibition presents a web of diverse artists working in a variety of media; video, textiles, painting, collage, photography, sculpture, drawing, coding and other interesting variations. The oldest artist in the show is the legendary Lee “Scratch” Perry, key architect of the Jamaican music revolution, painter and innovator born in 1936 in Kendal, Jamaica. In the exhibition Perry presents an explosive expressive painting titled “Good Lucky Me”. The youngest to take part are Erika Ceruzzi, Nina Hartman and Alison Peery all born in 1990. Peery, currently a student at Cal Arts, makes works in a variety of media. For the exhibition she has created a video, with frequent collaborator Dasha Nekrasova – a fitness/energy drink scenario gone manic on THC. She also created a large flag, Emblem 2015, based on the image on disposable plastic bags for sanitary pads found in public restrooms in Copenhagen. From Perry to Peery a current of independent energy runs through Under Heavy Manners.
The artists are connected, not by generation or aesthetics, but by an undefinable energy that has engaged Thornhill Dewitt. An alternative approach to curating in a time where curatorial practices are often tied to elaborate world crisis solving themes. Energy as protagonist.
