Ronald Feldman Gallery

Alexander Brodsky Grey Matter November 20 – December 18, 1999 ARTnews Art in America The Village Voice artnet.com
Grey Matter (table), 1999 unfired clay 61 x 36 x 498 3/4 inches overall	Grey Matter (table detail), 1999 unfired clay
Grey Matter (table detail), 1999 unfired clay	Grey Matter (bathtubs), 1999 unfired clay 111 x 128 x 61 inches overall
Grey Matter (glasses), 1999 unfired clay 14 x 36 x 35 inches	Grey Matter (vase), 1999 unfired clay 160 x 108 x 72 inches overall
Grey Matter (bed), 1999 unfired clay 42 x 119 x 85 inches	Grey Matter (dog), 1999 unfired clay 30 x 24 _ x 85 inches overall
Click here for a PDF version of the following Press Release.
For immediate release: November 1, 1999 ALEXANDER BRODSKY GREY MATTER November 20 – December 18 Alexander Brodsky in his new installation at the Feldman Gallery, Grey Matter, creates a dreamlike environment that alludes to the passage of time and the power of memory. Playing with the idea of accumulation and range of scale, the artist investigates alterations in perception. From clay, the most elementary of substances, Brodsky fashions humble and functional objects that surround one’s childhood – clothing, kitchenware, books, radios, sewing machines, domestic animals, and sea life. Architectural models replicate brick factories. Modernity intrudes in the form of cellular telephones and guns. A twelve-feet-tall urn on a cinderblock pedestal has collected the detritus of the city. Three bathtubs, lit from within, contain mini-environments of water and objects. A clay dog watches a clay television. Scattered throughout are dozens of buttons and bones as well as pieces of clay and dust, reminders of the matter from which the shapes are formed. Sculpted from clay that has been allowed to remain unfired, in its natural state of grey, the objects range in size from the miniscule to the monolithic. Working from memory, the artist molds a remarkable likeness as well as abstracting the object's essential shape, creating an archetypal form with collective associations. With this installation, the artist echoes the words of the Russian Nobel Prize laureate, Joseph Brodsky (no relation), who writes that memory triumphs over reality within the grey recesses of the brain. Grey Matter suggests an archeological site in which objects come to life, recapturing what has been lost. Large-scale public art commissions by Alexander Brodsky include Palazzo Nudo, currently on view in Pittsburgh, which incorporates façade remnants from demolished buildings and The Canal Street Subway Project, 1996-97, a vision of Venice on an abandoned subway track, sponsored by the Public Art Fund. Previous exhibitions at the Feldman Gallery are Visible Parts, 1996, displayed in its sidewalk vault, and Portrait of an Unknown Person or Peter Carl Faberge’s Nightmare, 1990, created in collaboration with Ilya Utkin. In 1990, the gallery published Projects, a portfolio of etchings of paper architecture proposals for which the Russian collaborative team, Brodsky & Utkin, received numerous international awards. There will be an opening reception November 20 from 6:00 – 8:00. Gallery Hours are Tuesday – Saturday, Monday by appointment, 10:00 – 6:00. For information and photographs, contact Breck Hostetter (212) 226-3232 or breck@feldmangallery.com. www.Feldmangallery.com.
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