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941 Geary is pleased to present Home in the Weeds, a brand-new collection of installations and 2D work by Brooklyn-based artist Kevin Cyr. The show will be Kevin’s first solo project at 941 Geary, with an opening reception on Saturday, April 30, 2011 from 6-9 pm. The exhibition is free and open to the public for viewing through June 4. Home in the Weeds is a personal reaction to the fragility of our current society. After the worst economic downturn since the Depression, a feeling of imminent doom remains. With jobs scarce, and government safety nets shrinking, one misfortune — a layoff, an injury, or missed payment — can transform a person's life beyond recognition. Home in the Weeds examines the idea of shelter as a safe haven for a future worst-case scenario as well as more optimistic notions of home and self-preservation.
A series of large-scale installations explore the idea of shelters at different stages or circumstances. Each serves a different function and ideas of mobility, concealment and protectionism play a role in their designs. A small, tag-along camper towed by an old Raleigh 3-speed bike is the most romantic of the installations. It expresses nostalgia for innocence and exploration and is stocked with items reminiscent of my childhood camping trips. A vintage tent is a transportable, but immobile shelter. Its canvas exterior disguises a built-out room with wood flooring, wainscoting walls and a wood burning stove. A third structure is a stationary shelter constructed from discarded materials. Old plywood, rusty sheet metal and various objects scattered around the piece allow it to be completely concealed if necessary. Protectionism plays the largest role in this urban fort. It’s equipped with a CB radio for communication with allies, peep holes for scanning the surroundings and weapons for a last resort. A site-specific installation — built into an oil pit used by the former smog shop occupant — resembles a bomb shelter. Stocked with the barest of survival necessities, this installation recalls the worse of doomsday prophecies. Themes of the exhibition are also explored through drawings, paintings, photographs, and silkscreen editions. Portrait paintings identify characters that inhabit the tag-along camper and the tent house; still life paintings celebrate specific objects included in the shelters; and diagrammatical drawings emphasize the design of each piece.
Kevin Cyr was born in Edmundston, NB, Canada, in 1976 and grew up in the paper mill town of Madawaska, Maine. Cyr received his BFA from Massachusetts College of Art in Boston and now lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and has been published widely. He has always been interested in the industrial landscape and vehicles that have defined America. For the past couple of years, Cyr’s work has been focused on vehicles he has encountered on the streets of his neighborhood, as well as places he has traveled within the US and abroad. While the car remains an iconic status symbol in contemporary culture, Cyr finds beauty in derelict and unkempt vehicles, in particular, those often associated with working-class society.
If you haven't seen our March shows, click the links for the full online exhibition catalogs
for New Works by ROA at White Walls and Paul Chatem's Island of the Colorblind at Shooting Gallery. We look forward to seeing you
at the galleries!
Cheers,White Walls, Shooting Gallery and 941Geary
for New Works by ROA at White Walls and Paul Chatem's Island of the Colorblind at Shooting Gallery. We look forward to seeing you
at the galleries!
Cheers,White Walls, Shooting Gallery and 941Geary
941GEARY
941 GEARY STREET
SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109
415.931.1500
OPEN DAILY
TUESDAY - SATURDAY, 12 - 5 PM
WWW.941GEARY.COM
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