Press

SHIFT - Review of Exhibit at Able Baker Contemporary

RM-AB-STORY.gif

I was recently included in an ambitious exhibition entitled, SHIFT. The exhibition, curated by Tracy McKenna was at Able Baker Contemporary, Portland, Maine. The review appeared on Nov.21, 2019 and was written by Julien Langevin for ART SPIEL.

[READ REVIEW HERE]

Plastic Expressions in Particularity: Nature Moves in Tracy McKenna’s Shift at Able Baker Contemporary (Excerpt)

There’s a level of darkness to Shift. This collection of work speaks to identity, politics and natural environment in a way that begs the viewer to insert their own perception, their own reality into the mix. Rose Marasco’s photograph Projection No. 5 (2007) literally layers conflicting perceptions on top of one another. A feminine face is projected over the view of an interior, lips coated in a deeply colored lipstick stretch to the left of a Cindy Sherman poster hanging on the wall. A warm fire exists in a fireplace while the room is unoccupied except for the large face obscuring the wall. The scene is inviting yet exclusionary. The viewer could be standing alone in the room, yet not totally alone, as a single blown-up eye meets their gaze. The piece questions identity and existence, perception and occupation. Are we ever really alone if we are looking upon something that gazes back at us?