White Columns Online #21:
The Feeling of Things
curated by Colleen Grennan

August 12–October 15, 2022 Online
A painting of a figure reading a newspaper at a round table decorated with floral patterns. The newspaper, titled “Sometimes: In Crisis Comes Hope,” is illustrated with a masked person raising a fist in protest. To the front of the seated figure is an ashtray containing a lit cigarette surrounded by smoke.

Kyveli Zoi
The Sometimes Edition No1, 2020
Oil and metal leaf on linen
27.95 × 25.98 in.
Courtesy of the artist.

A painting of two figures seated around a pink table set with a kettle, mug and ashtray. The figure to the left is holding a lit cigarette.

Kyveli Zoi
Telling Mother the Future Will be Alright, 2018
Oil on canvas
9.37 × 39.37 in.
Courtesy of the Meletiou family.

An abstract painting focusing on three organically-shaped structures in hues of orange, green and red. Wave-like clouds of pinks, yellows and oranges amass a blue sky with a large orange sun surrounded in clouds to the upper left.

Karen Barbour
Belted Frivolity, 2021
Flashe and acrylic on paper
30 × 22 in.
Courtesy of the artist.

An abstract painting of seven organically shaped pillars in tones of blue, red and green. Patterns of flowers, circles and other naturally structured motifs can be seen on each shape as well as a wheel-like design adorning the tops of each one as a flock of pink birds fly by.

Karen Barbour
Spires with Moons and Waterfalls, 2021
Gouache, flashe and acrylic on paper
30 × 22 in.
Courtesy of the artist.

A collage of patterned textiles, paint and ephemera on a rectangular, landscape-oriented canvas bordered with sewn fabric. Imagery of flowers, plastered seashells and irregularly shaped found objects ornament the face of the canvas.

Liz Jones
Dead Horse, 2021
Canvas, acrylic, acrylic transfers, fabric, landfill debris, cyanotype emulsion, coffee, embroidery thread, twine and Poly-Fil
32 × 43 in.
Courtesy of the artist.

A textile-based collage covered with various sewn fabrics, drawn shapes and threaded lines on rectangular, portrait-oriented canvas. Imagery of flowers, snack foods and animals are patterned throughout the canvas’s face.

Liz Jones
Inheritance, 2021
Acrylic transfers, fabric, fabric markers and embroidery thread
35.5 × 23 in.
Courtesy of the artist.

A collage of threaded lines, fabric and rabbit-shaped patterns on rectangular, landscape-oriented textiles. Colorful stitches are spread throughout the face of the canvas.

Liz Jones
Scrap, 2021
Cyanotype emulsion, embroidery thread, green tea, avocado dye, fabric and Poly-Fil
9 × 11.5 in.
Courtesy of the artist.

An altered UNIQLO receipt that reads: (UNIQLO Logo) “WWW.UNIQLO.COM/UNIQLO MENLO PARK MALL/55 PARSONAGE RD/SPACE 1520A/EDISON, NJ 08837/TEL: 1-877-487-4756/I look out the window and see my mom. She stepped out to check the mail. She had been wearing it, all this time, every winter and fall I was away. She has jackets that look similar, that remain untouched. Although we hadn’t spoken, she was happy I had gotten it for her. It’s a little tight, but she always wears it unzipped./Date 12/22/2012 Time 14:20 Store 45/FRIENDS UNITED AROUND TRULY GREAT CLOTHES (QR Code to the left and logo to the right)/Scan this tag with your phone and send it to a friend. They can use it to receive a discount. If they use it, you’ll get a surprise in return”

Ting-Ting Meng
Uniqlo, 2022
Ink on paper
7.25 × 3 in.

An altered Gift Shop receipt that reads: “Gift Shop Ten/Narita Airport Terminal 1/0476-32-4617/E-Mail: npf - airport.jp/FLT. No/NAME/2003 12 26 16:23/DSCP8SJE3/What they once held have faded already./Under the light, the gifts resurface and I remember/dad and I waiting. I’m holding onto the blue CD player he bought for me. Its cord had broken off by the time we landed./Dad was finally home.”

Ting-Ting Meng
Gift Shop Narita Airport Terminal I, 2022
Ink on paper
4.75 × 2.25 in.

An altered receipt that reads: “LADUREE NEW YORK/864 MADISON AVENUE/New York, NY 10021/03.25.2012 4:00 PM/I met her brother when I broke down at her memorial. He picked me up and stood by me the entire time. As he held my shoulders, I remembered her smile and began to speak./He greeted me by my nickname just like his sister would do. The two have always been twins. That was the first time we’d spoken./He’s always thought of me as a sister. His friends had treated him to a burrito. It’s a moment he’s always treasured. He didn’t remember her as being loving growing up./She brought him up a lot. She talked about how smart he was, what he was up to and how proud of him she was.”

Ting-Ting Meng
Laduree New York, 2022
Ink on paper
7 × 3 in.
Courtesy of the artist.

An altered Barnes & Noble receipt that reads: “Barnes & Noble Booksellers #2946/1180 Raritan Road/Clark, NJ 07066/732-574-1818/Her room hadn’t changed. It was just as I remembered. Tucked within her box of treasures, I uncovered a bookmark in orange. It was engraved with “Friendship.” She kept it beside the watch she always wore. I never knew. I finally understood why she had thanked me for being her friend. Our friendship was always a gift to her. She had inspired me with dreams. They were together again, /Thanks for shopping at Barnes & Noble/03/26/2012 07:14PM/(Barcode)/CUSTOMER COPY”

Ting-Ting Meng
Barnes & Noble Booksellers, 2012, 2022
Ink on paper
5.38 × 3 in.
Courtesy of the artist.

A textured painting of an orange orb rising over a green, tree-lined landscape. The sky is various shades of blue and white.

Jane McKenzie
Moonrise, 2020
Oil on aluminum
5 × 7 in.
Courtesy of the artist.

A black and white painting of a landscape with different trees, shadows and two adjacent pathways.

Jane McKenzie
Untitled, 2021
Ink on paper
6 × 9 in.
Courtesy of the artist.

A painting of a roadside, sunset horizon displaying rolling, green, tree-lined land. A single car is driving into the sunset as the road and a mass of dark gray and blue clouds stretches across the top of the painting.

Jane McKenzie
Summer storm study, 2019
Oil on paper
9.5 × 14 in.
Courtesy of the artist.

Participating Artists

Karen Barbour
Liz Jones
Jane McKenzie
Ting-Ting Meng
Kyveli Zoi

Exhibition Description

The object feels.

My exhibition title is inspired by the late great Claes Oldenburg, an artist whom I think perfected the ability to conjoin human feeling and the physical properties of an object. The works selected elicit the personal, the anecdotal, the narrative; qualities that are often shunned in contemporary art making.

I’ve chosen examples from the White Columns Registry that immediately stood out to me as having feeling. I looked for sentimentality, vulnerability, submission, and honesty in each artist’s manipulation of material. In The Sometimes Edition No1 I loved the juxtaposition of the words “sometimes in crisis comes hope” with the glaring impermanence of the newspaper, the lit cigarette, and the vase full of blooming flowers. I selected Spires with Moon and Waterfall for the optimism in towers which reach up to the sky as they attempt to defy the pull of gravity back down to earth. I was brought to tears as I read the words from Barnes & Nobles Booksellers. The work is gentle, even when dealing with feelings of loss. I was struck by how a blob of orange paint could cause a stir of nostalgia the way it did in Moonrise. Finally, I was endeared by the tender care taken to create the textile work, Scrap, made from vegetable dyes and assumingly cast away discards of material. The work feels like it was crafted with honesty in its dedication to the handmade.

Why should I even want to create “art” – that’s the notion I’ve got to get rid of. Assuming that I wanted to create some things, what would that thing be? Just a thing, an object. Art would not enter it. I make a charged object (“living”). An “artistic” appearance or content is derived from the object’s reference, not from the object itself or me. – Claes Oldenburg

Colleen Grennan is a curator based in Los Angeles. She is a Senior Director at Pace Gallery Los Angeles. She is co-partner/curator of Cleopatra’s, an art space located in Greenpoint, Brooklyn that was active from 2008-2018. Cleopatra’s realized hundreds of projects with artist’s during its ten year span. She received her MFA in curatorial studies from Goldsmiths College in London.

This exhibition is the twenty-first in a series of online exhibitions curated exclusively from White Columns’ Curated Artist Registry.

A painting of a figure reading a newspaper at a round table decorated with floral patterns. The newspaper, titled “Sometimes: In Crisis Comes Hope,” is illustrated with a masked person raising a fist in protest. To the front of the seated figure is an ashtray containing a lit cigarette surrounded by smoke.
A painting of two figures seated around a pink table set with a kettle, mug and ashtray. The figure to the left is holding a lit cigarette.
An abstract painting focusing on three organically-shaped structures in hues of orange, green and red. Wave-like clouds of pinks, yellows and oranges amass a blue sky with a large orange sun surrounded in clouds to the upper left.
An abstract painting of seven organically shaped pillars in tones of blue, red and green. Patterns of flowers, circles and other naturally structured motifs can be seen on each shape as well as a wheel-like design adorning the tops of each one as a flock of pink birds fly by.
A collage of patterned textiles, paint and ephemera on a rectangular, landscape-oriented canvas bordered with sewn fabric. Imagery of flowers, plastered seashells and irregularly shaped found objects ornament the face of the canvas.
A textile-based collage covered with various sewn fabrics, drawn shapes and threaded lines on rectangular, portrait-oriented canvas. Imagery of flowers, snack foods and animals are patterned throughout the canvas’s face.
A collage of threaded lines, fabric and rabbit-shaped patterns on rectangular, landscape-oriented textiles. Colorful stitches are spread throughout the face of the canvas.
An altered UNIQLO receipt that reads: (UNIQLO Logo) “WWW.UNIQLO.COM/UNIQLO MENLO PARK MALL/55 PARSONAGE RD/SPACE 1520A/EDISON, NJ 08837/TEL: 1-877-487-4756/I look out the window and see my mom. She stepped out to check the mail. She had been wearing it, all this time, every winter and fall I was away. She has jackets that look similar, that remain untouched. Although we hadn’t spoken, she was happy I had gotten it for her. It’s a little tight, but she always wears it unzipped./Date 12/22/2012 Time 14:20 Store 45/FRIENDS UNITED AROUND TRULY GREAT CLOTHES (QR Code to the left and logo to the right)/Scan this tag with your phone and send it to a friend. They can use it to receive a discount. If they use it, you’ll get a surprise in return”
An altered Gift Shop receipt that reads: “Gift Shop Ten/Narita Airport Terminal 1/0476-32-4617/E-Mail: npf - airport.jp/FLT. No/NAME/2003 12 26 16:23/DSCP8SJE3/What they once held have faded already./Under the light, the gifts resurface and I remember/dad and I waiting. I’m holding onto the blue CD player he bought for me. Its cord had broken off by the time we landed./Dad was finally home.”
An altered receipt that reads: “LADUREE NEW YORK/864 MADISON AVENUE/New York, NY 10021/03.25.2012 4:00 PM/I met her brother when I broke down at her memorial. He picked me up and stood by me the entire time. As he held my shoulders, I remembered her smile and began to speak./He greeted me by my nickname just like his sister would do. The two have always been twins. That was the first time we’d spoken./He’s always thought of me as a sister. His friends had treated him to a burrito. It’s a moment he’s always treasured. He didn’t remember her as being loving growing up./She brought him up a lot. She talked about how smart he was, what he was up to and how proud of him she was.”
An altered Barnes & Noble receipt that reads: “Barnes & Noble Booksellers #2946/1180 Raritan Road/Clark, NJ 07066/732-574-1818/Her room hadn’t changed. It was just as I remembered. Tucked within her box of treasures, I uncovered a bookmark in orange. It was engraved with “Friendship.” She kept it beside the watch she always wore. I never knew. I finally understood why she had thanked me for being her friend. Our friendship was always a gift to her. She had inspired me with dreams. They were together again, /Thanks for shopping at Barnes & Noble/03/26/2012 07:14PM/(Barcode)/CUSTOMER COPY”
A textured painting of an orange orb rising over a green, tree-lined landscape. The sky is various shades of blue and white.
A black and white painting of a landscape with different trees, shadows and two adjacent pathways.
A painting of a roadside, sunset horizon displaying rolling, green, tree-lined land. A single car is driving into the sunset as the road and a mass of dark gray and blue clouds stretches across the top of the painting.

Kyveli Zoi, The Sometimes Edition No1, 2020, oil and metal leaf on linen, 27.95 × 25.98 in. Courtesy of the artist. (A painting of a figure reading a newspaper at a round table decorated with floral patterns. The newspaper, titled “Sometimes: In Crisis Comes Hope,” is illustrated with a masked person raising a fist in protest. To the front of the seated figure is an ashtray containing a lit cigarette surrounded by smoke.)

Kyveli Zoi, Telling Mother the Future Will be Alright, 2018, oil on canvas, 9.37 × 39.37 in. Courtesy of the Meletiou family. (A painting of two figures seated around a pink table set with a kettle, mug and ashtray. The figure to the left is holding a lit cigarette.)

Karen Barbour, Belted Frivolity, 2021, flashe and acrylic on paper, 30 × 22 in. Courtesy of the artist. (An abstract painting focusing on three organically-shaped structures in hues of orange, green and red. Wave-like clouds of pinks, yellows and oranges amass a blue sky with a large orange sun surrounded in clouds to the upper left.)

Karen Barbour, Spires with Moons and Waterfalls, 2021, gouache, flashe and acrylic on paper, 30 × 22 in. Courtesy of the artist. (An abstract painting of seven organically shaped pillars in tones of blue, red and green. Patterns of flowers, circles and other naturally structured motifs can be seen on each shape as well as a wheel-like design adorning the tops of each one as a flock of pink birds fly by.)

Liz Jones, Dead Horse, 2021, Canvas, acrylic, acrylic transfers, fabric, landfill debris, cyanotype emulsion, coffee, embroidery thread, twine and Poly-Fil, 32 × 43 in. Courtesy of the artist. (A collage of patterned textiles, paint and ephemera on a rectangular, landscape-oriented canvas bordered with sewn fabric. Imagery of flowers, plastered seashells and irregularly shaped found objects ornament the face of the canvas.)

Liz Jones, Inheritance, 2021, acrylic transfers, fabric, fabric markers and embroidery thread, 35.5 × 23 in. Courtesy of the artist. (A textile-based collage covered with various sewn fabrics, drawn shapes and threaded lines on rectangular, portrait-oriented canvas. Imagery of flowers, snack foods and animals are patterned throughout the canvas’s face.)

Liz Jones, Scrap, 2021, fabric, cyanotype emulsion, embroidery thread, green tea, avocado dye, and Poly-Fil, 9 × 11.5 in. Courtesy of the artist. (A collage of threaded lines, fabric and rabbit-shaped patterns on rectangular, landscape-oriented textiles. Colorful stitches are spread throughout the face of the canvas.) 

Ting-Ting Meng, Uniqlo, 2022, ink on paper, 7.25 × 3 in. (An altered UNIQLO receipt that reads: (UNIQLO Logo) “WWW.UNIQLO.COM/UNIQLO MENLO PARK MALL/55 PARSONAGE RD/SPACE 1520A/EDISON, NJ 08837/TEL: 1-877-487-4756/I look out the window and see my mom. She stepped out to check the mail. She had been wearing it, all this time, every winter and fall I was away. She has jackets that look similar, that remain untouched. Although we hadn’t spoken, she was happy I had gotten it for her. It’s a little tight, but she always wears it unzipped./Date 12/22/2012 Time 14:20 Store 45/FRIENDS UNITED AROUND TRULY GREAT CLOTHES (QR Code to the left and logo to the right)/Scan this tag with your phone and send it to a friend. They can use it to receive a discount. If they use it, you’ll get a surprise in return”)

Ting-Ting Meng, Gift Shop Narita Airport Terminal I, 2022, ink on paper, 4.75 × 2.25 in. (An altered Gift Shop receipt that reads: “Gift Shop Ten/Narita Airport Terminal 1/0476-32-4617/E-Mail: npf – airport.jp/FLT. No/NAME/2003 12 26 16:23/DSCP8SJE3/What they once held have faded already./Under the light, the gifts resurface and I remember/dad and I waiting. I’m holding onto the blue CD player he bought for me. Its cord had broken off by the time we landed./Dad was finally home.”)

Ting-Ting Meng, Laduree New York, 2022, ink on paper, 7 × 3 in. Courtesy of the artist. (An altered receipt that reads: “LADUREE NEW YORK/864 MADISON AVENUE/New York, NY 10021/03.25.2012 4:00 PM/I met her brother when I broke down at her memorial. He picked me up and stood by me the entire time. As he held my shoulders, I remembered her smile and began to speak./He greeted me by my nickname just like his sister would do. The two have always been twins. That was the first time we’d spoken./He’s always thought of me as a sister. His friends had treated him to a burrito. It’s a moment he’s always treasured. He didn’t remember her as being loving growing up./She brought him up a lot. She talked about how smart he was, what he was up to and how proud of him she was.”)

Ting-Ting Meng, Barnes & Noble Booksellers, 2012, 2022, ink on paper, 5.38 × 3 in. Courtesy of the artist. (An altered Barnes & Noble receipt that reads: “Barnes & Noble Booksellers #2946/1180 Raritan Road/Clark, NJ 07066/732-574-1818/Her room hadn’t changed. It was just as I remembered. Tucked within her box of treasures, I uncovered a bookmark in orange. It was engraved with “Friendship.” She kept it beside the watch she always wore. I never knew. I finally understood why she had thanked me for being her friend. Our friendship was always a gift to her. She had inspired me with dreams. They were together again, /Thanks for shopping at Barnes & Noble/03/26/2012 07:14PM/(Barcode)/CUSTOMER COPY”)

Jane McKenzie, Moonrise, 2020, oil on aluminum, 5 × 7 in. Courtesy of the artist. ( A textured painting of an orange orb rising over a green, tree-lined landscape. The sky is various shades of blue and white

Jane McKenzie, Untitled, 2021, ink on paper, 6 × 9 in. Courtesy of the artist. (A black and white painting of a landscape with different trees, shadows and two adjacent pathways.) 

Jane McKenzie, Summer storm study, 2019, oil on paper, 9.5 × 14 in. Courtesy of the artist. (A painting of a roadside, sunset horizon displaying rolling, green, tree-lined land. A single car is driving into the sunset as the road and a mass of dark gray and blue clouds stretches across the top of the painting.)