testsite 14.1

Homestretchbody

Justin Cooper and Rachel Adams

February 16th - March 30th, 2014

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Justin Cooper, Thread (installation view at Gallery 400, Chicago, IL, 2008) ½ mile of garden hose, overall dimensions variable.

Project Details

testsite is pleased to present the first solo exhibition in Texas of Brooklyn-based artist Justin Cooper, curated by Rachel Adams. Cooper is known for transforming mundane, everyday objects into art installations, utilizing PVC piping, wheelbarrows, plastic hula leis, and the ever-present, green garden hose in his artistic practice. At testsite, Cooper will install an immersive sculpture made from garden hoses that will snake through the domestic setting of the ground floor. The hoses, articulating the formal lines of a drawing in space as much as a three-dimensional sculpture, will create a multitude of niches and smaller locales within the gallery. Cooper explains, “There is a wobbling between the objects being what they are—hoses, in this case—and simply a means to create lines in space as opposed to referencing something else.” Accompanying this work will be a selection of Cooper's colorful and humorous drawings. In conjunction with the installation at testsite, the artist will present a stand-up comedy performance at Co-Lab Projects on Saturday, February 15th at 8pm.

Curator Rachel Adams and artist Justin Cooper are collaborating on a catalogue that will accompany the exhibition at testsite. The catalogue is underwritten by JoAnn Hickey.

Special thanks to Callahan's General Store, Austin, for material support of the exhibition.

Justin Cooper is a New York based artist who uses elements of comedy to create large-scale installations, sculptures and performances. By twisting the ‘everyday’ into darker and more ambiguous shapes, Cooper attempts to root out deeper psychological truths and provide deadpan commentary on our contemporary world. Cooper's work is constantly folding back onto itself, and seeks to playfully disrupt the viewer's experience through the unexpected, shifting without warning from highly formal to hilariously unhinged. He received his MFA in sculpture from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2005 and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2007. He has exhibited and performed extensively in national and international venues in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Hong Kong, Sweden, Mexico, and Berlin.

Rachel Adams is an independent curator and writer living in Austin, Texas. Adams joined Arthouse at the Jones Center in June 2010 as the Curator of Public Programs. She developed the ongoing, successful Rooftop Architecture Film Series, among other programs. Since 2011, Adams curated 13 exhibitions and several video projects by international contemporary artists at AMOA-Arthouse, including assisting on Texas Prize in 2012. In May 2013, she curated a two-person exhibition at Greene Exhibitions in Los Angeles. She graduated with an MA in Exhibition and Museum Studies from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2010 and a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2006. Previously, she curated exhibitions at David Cunningham Projects and Queens Nails Projects in San Francisco. From 2006-2008, she was the director of Lloyd Dobler Gallery in Chicago, which she co-founded with Patricia Courson. She is a graduate of the 2012 NAMAC Leadership Institute, and on the curatorial advisory board for the 2014 deCordova Biennial. Upcoming projects include commissions of outdoor works by John Grade and Richard T. Walker at The Contemporary Austin and a group exhibition titled Interstice in New York. She is a contributing writer for Arts + Culture Texas and Texas Architect.

testsite 14.1

Homestretchbody

Justin Cooper and Rachel Adams

Project Details

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