Same Same but Different

June 1 – July 1, 2012

Opening Reception: Friday, June 1st, 6 – 9pm

Press Pre-Opening Preview: Friday, June 1st, 5 – 6pm

Hours: Sat/Sun 1-6pm and by appointment

Location: 17-17 Troutman Street #220, Ridgewood, NY 11385 [map]

Direction: L Train to Jefferson St. / B57 (Flushing Ave) to Cypress Ave

Same Same but Different is an inaugural selection of works from artists Jay Gaskill, Fabian G. Tabibian, and Amanda Valdez who form the exhibition collective of the same name.  Taking their name from the descriptor employed by Southeast Asian street merchants to assert the qualitative parity of their wares, Same Same but Different, through namesake, acknowledges their formalistic affinities, purposeful colors, bold shapes and complex arrangements, as well as their idiomatic divarications.  Working within this shared language of formalism, each artist employs distinct materials and subject matter that highlights the points at which their works converge and diverge from one another.

                                          Jay Gaskill, "Monstrella", acrylic on shaped canvas, 28 x 49 in, 2010

Jay Gaskill brings a post-superflat, pop and graphic-design sensibility to his cool paintings of interwoven line, repeated pattern and colorful shape. With motifs suggestive of Buddhist mandalas, celtic knots and/or anime figures, Gaskill painstakingly creates hard-edged, iconic forms entirely by hand, traversing the spheres of mechanical reproduction and handicraft with uniqueness and aplomb.

                                                            Fabian G. Tabibian, "Yummy House", digital print, size variable, 2012

Sifting through the visual detritus of our online para-reality, Fabian G. Tabibian takes among his sources of inspiration, personal web-surfing patterns, sampled bits of electronic information, and website favicons. Through the manipulation of digital media and the incorporation of his own hand within this realm, Tabibian brings a consideration of color, line and form and a painter’s philosophical model of assimilation and production to the province of photoelectric media and print.

                                                             Amanda Valdez, "Piggy Back", Embroidery and Acrylic on Canvas, 12 x 12 inches, 2012

Elevating the material supports of painting to a level of consideration on par with the most vibrant of mediums, Amanda Valdez engineers her surfaces, interweaving paint, canvas, fabric and thread with concerns of color, shape and composition. Adeptly juxtaposing shimmering embroidery with metallic pigments and fabric sheen with canvas tooth, Valdez maintains a perfect equipoise between visual intrigue and overall order in her works.

Whatever their stylistic differentiations, these artists are engaging the endeavor of painting in ways familiar, if not quite the “same” as those who have gone before them, with results that are fabulously “different’ and decidedly their own.

Bushwick Basel

June 2 & June 3, 2012

Reception: Saturday, June 2nd, 7 – 9pm

Hours: Sat/Sun 12 - 7pm

Location: Starr Space, 108 Starr Street, Brooklyn, NY [map]

Direction: L Train to Jefferson St.

Participating galleries: Airplane, English Kills, Interstate, Momenta Art, Norte Maar, Nurture Art, Parallel Art Space, Regina Rex, Storefront Bushwick, Studio 10, Valentine.

For this event Parallel Art Space will present a solo presentation with:

New Works by Clinton King

17-17 Troutman Street - # 220 - Ridgewood NY 11385  • parallelartspace[at]gmail.com