Superchief Gallery Miami has teamed up with Strangeway Projects for a pop-up exhibition curated by Luis Pinto and featuring Andrew Durgin-Barnes and Dana Lauren Goldstein. Alluding to self-image and externalized illusion, Parallel Paradisecaptures the reality of the 'everyday' to move away from consumer desirability and reveal the reality of the intimate.
The manner we perceive ourselves and relate to others is a social construction. Lived experiences often perceived through pictorial and photographic documentation rely heavily on fantasy. These fantasies are influenced by factors of culture, family, reference groups, and social class, composing of motivations, needs, and wants in which self-image is molded.
Expressed in work and leisure patterns, lifestyle anecdotes are consumed with an association to desirability. Barnes and Goldstein establish motifs that encompass the 'every day', a separation from regurgitated fantasy yet fantastical depictions of life.
Coupled with allegorical motifs, Andrew Durgin-Barnes' drawing and form rendering are important tools for communicating his thoughts and feelings about the world. He evokes raw emotion and irony in often forgotten subjects and settings. Viewers can't help but be overwhelmed with feelings of unease when they come in contact with his subject matter. Eloquent female figures depicted with illicit drug paraphernalia highlight Barnes ability to dance around struggles of the human condition and one's interaction with vice. Although Barnes' work appears to be grim at first glance, overwhelming beauty is captured in his subjects' ominous narratives. Barnes describes his work as “a classical approach to making orderly compositions from abrasive subject matter.”
As an American photographer living and working in New York, Dana Lauren Goldstein draws inspiration from everyday life, including paintings, film, and music. On view, from September 19th through 30th, is a new series of images from this acclaimed young photographer who has shot for international magazines, such as VICE, iD, and Dazed and Confused, among others. Her documentary-style photography is influenced by theosophical and neoplasticist principles, with a religious undertone that explores themes of fate, chance, and free will. Goldstein was born in Louisville, Kentucky but spent most of her life traveling and living in different areas, such as Georgia, where she received her BFA in photography from the Savannah College of Art and Design. Goldstein since returned to New York City where she spent a year interning and assisting fashion photographer Kenneth Cappello.
Parallel Paradise is on view at Superchief Gallery MIA, 777 International Mall, 145 E Flagler St. Miami, FL 33132, from September 19th through September 30th. An opening reception will be held on Thursday, September 19, from 6 pm to 12 am, and features a performance from Ebina Florine and DJ sets from 74.97 and Jones Drew, with refreshments provided by PBR.
