Phantom Arch

PHANTOM ARCH, curated by Chris Perez/Ratio 3

Phantom Arch brings together works by five artists whose artwork subtly reflects on ideas of architecture, memory, and unseen forces.

Ben Peterson (San Francisco) creates detailed drawings that examine the permeability of structures and ghostly phenomena. His newest work directly refers to quickly built master-planned communities and the way they legislate how one can modify their home. The diagrammatical works illustrate house-like structures that are drawn in a state of flux, as if falling apart and coming together at the same time. These drawings consider the results of what happens to a space when it is abandoned as quickly as it is built. Working entirely from memory, Evrim Kavcar Temir (Istanbul) makes small clay sculptures of homes and their interiors that she has inhabited. She begins by digging into wet clay, creating shapes with just enough detail to mine the memories of these past places. Intentionally appearing unfinished, Kavcar Temir’s sculptures look as if they had just been excavated from both the ground and the artist’s cloudy recollection. Clay, like the mind, is very malleable, and the artist views these works as a way of digging into the ruins of her own memory. Elizabeth Saveri (Los Angeles) makes small yet richly detailed oil paintings on wood. When installed, the paintings create a sprawling constellation of empty rooms, roads, and still-lifes. They function as a record of the artist’s daily movements as she navigates through interiors and journeys by car to various destinations in Los Angeles. Incorporating the language of film and photography, Saveri’s installations construct a non-linear narrative sequence that is interspersed with close-ups, tilt-ups and pan-shots to suggest the artist’s movement through these spaces and also her mental wanderings. Mark Shetabi (Philadelphia) creates installations that investigate the boundary between public and private spaces. Shetabi’s constructed environments are located behind the walls of anonymous square rooms. In order to experience the work, the viewer must approach a door and look through a peephole. The Palace at 4 AM is a reconstruction of Shetabi’s childhood home in Teheran, Iran, built entirely from memory. By utilizing the peephole, Shetabi simultaneously creates a sense of intimacy and distance between the viewer and the artwork. Shetabi’s focus on the interaction between the viewer, architecture, and artwork taps into feelings of transience and dislocation. Conor McGrady’s (New York) work examines encounters with violence, ideological conflict, and low-intensity war, based on first-hand experiences and oral histories. Originally from Northern Ireland, McGrady explores the impact of the British Army’s control on domestic and public spaces in that region. His drawings depict empty buildings and housing schemes, which in most cases were designed and planned by military technicians to ensure containment of an insurgent population. Often subject to repeated invasions, search procedures and constant surveillance, a latent residue of fear and disquiet resides in these seemingly innocuous buildings and spaces.

About the curator: Chris Perez is the owner/director of Ratio 3, an access point for contemporary art based in San Francisco. His most recent actions include: Thee Magick Boxx (New York City) and Taqueria Cancun: The San Francisco Hook-up (Boston). Perez previously worked as the curatorial assistant for contemporary art at the Whitney Museum of American Art, helping organize Bitstreams and the 2002 Biennial Exhibition. Prior to that, he worked at the CCAC Wattis Institute in San Francisco.

This exhibition runs concurrently with White Room exhibitions by Douglas Melini and Steven Baines

Opening Reception: Friday June 27, 7 – 9 p.m.
Gallery Summer Hours: Wednesday – Saturday, 12 – 6 p.m.

For more information, please contact the gallery.