Rachel Garrard: Borderline
23 February – 15 April, 2017
KHORASHEH + GRUNERT, New York
KHORASHEH + GRUNERT is pleased to announce Borderline, the artist's third solo exhibition curated by Mitra Khorasheh, the first two of which were presented at Tanja Grunert Gallery; and the third presented on the new Khorasheh + Gurnert platform. Borderline will be on view from February 23rd through April 15th at 524 West 19th Street, New York. An opening reception will be held on Thursday, February 23rd from 6-8 p.m.
For her third solo exhibition, rachel garrard has created a new series of paintings made during a recent residency in the Yucatán in Mexico. Exploring organic materials and colors of the surrounding nature, Garrard created her own selection of natural dyes from a variety of plants such as berries, herbs, spices, vegetables and algae. Garrard experiments with the material properties of her earthly pigments through an alchemical and process-oriented approach, infusing her paintings with transformative as well as performative qualities. Using a silk weave cotton fabric, she applies the plant dyes in rectangular layers, creating abstract compositions as the pigments seep into the fabric, staining and bleeding out into soft and slightly blurred forms. The plant-based dyes gently fade after their first application, leaving a subtle, subdued palette of organic hues: camomile yellows, hibiscus pinks, algae greens, purple cabbage blues, and raspberry reds. The paintings are the remnants of an orchestrated process that is both precise and unpredictable—a process of transformation.
With this new series of paintings, Garrard’s engagement with natural materials is informed by an inner journey and process: the paintings transport the viewer to the borderline where materiality gives way to the inner qualities of nature. Substance is reduced to frequency and vibration. Each composition becomes a tunnel or doorway into a different tonal frequency, which is reflected in the work’s title. The series thus evokes a sensory exploration that seeks to capture the essence of nature by blurring the distinction between materiality and immateriality.
rachel garrard was born in 1984 in Devon, England, and currently lives and works in New York. While completing her graduate studies at Central Saint Martins in 2009, she gained recognition for performance-based refracted-video works such as Circuition (2009), and Seven Transmutations (2010). Garrard was awarded artist residencies at the Atacama Telescope Farm in Chile (2011) and the Center for the Holographic Arts at Ohio State University (2012). Her recent work, which has grown to encompass video, performance, drawing, sculpture, painting and printmaking, has been exhibited nationally in curated group exhibitions at venues such as Participant Inc., New York, Eyebeam Art and Technology Center, New York, Jack Hanley Gallery, New York, Shoshona Wayne Gallery, Los Angeles, The National Academy Museum, New York and Tanja Grunert Gallery, New York. Garrard’s work has also been exhibited internationally at the Lille Métropole Musée d’Art Moderne, France, Museo Universitario del Chopo, Mexico City, Yota Space Digital Arts Festival, St Petersburg, Ambika P3, London, Shizaru Gallery, London and Apartment Gallery, Berlin. She has been the subject of solo exhibitions in both New York and Miami.
KHORASHEH + GRUNERT is a curatorial platform by curator Mitra Khorasheh within Tanja Grunert Gallery. The project space will be programmed by Khorasheh, whose curatorial work focuses on site-specific and performative practices, with an emphasis on the body in performance, painting and other time-based media.
