David Castillo Gallery is proud to present Illusions Lounge with works by Jose Alvarez, Fernando + Humberto Campana, Nicole Cherubini, Andy Coolquitt, and Keltie Ferris.  The works by each of these artists express a willingness to mutate yet stay in character as art.  Each work in the exhibition is the accumulation of small, illusory decisions that combine to create a show in part about the pleasure of aesthetics.  But each of the artists’ works are also about the misjudgment of a real environment– a real chair made out of special rope (Campana); a box made of terracotta and glaze (Cherubini); a lamp made out of found metal (Coolquitt); an abstract painting titled after a transsexual (Ferris); and collage, deceptively flat-looking, made from among other things, feather and beads (Alvarez).

In Keltie Ferris’ paintings, there is a sense of psychological circumstances.  Working with spatial illusions and color relationships and innovatively spraying translucent oil paint, Ferris develops almost labyrinthine works.  There are areas of dense activity which open up to more free flow, cloud-like areas.  Her work’s depth perception does not end with these physical qualities or the use of materials but extends even to the title “Candy Darling.” The disruption of our existing sensibilities carries throughout Ferris’ work- physically and conceptually.

Nicole Cherubini’s sculptures are themselves gorgeous profusions, which take a functional and symbolic form (a common box) and render a new reading of the crushed cardboard box.  These are sad and delicate (yet saturated in color) and not unlike a cardboard box that is crushed in the rain.  They retain the original sense of cardboard’s ultimate demise by the use of fragile media- earthenware and glaze and terracotta and glaze.  Andy Coolquitt includes three new sculptures for Illusions Lounge, which are exemplary of illusory depth as well as subtleties of color, shadow, and light. His works are functional lamp sculptures drawn from low-end found materials on the street.

Jose Alvarez’s works provide an abstract simplicity yet distort or deceive by their complex materials.  His collage and video works are hallucinations of sorts, incorporating shamanistic elements such as feathers, beads, and porcupine quills onto more traditional paper works such as gouache and ink.  While hallucinogenic or psychedelic are apt descriptions so is the magical and shamanistic particularly in works such as “The Arrival.”  Working together since 1983, Fernando + Humberto Campana are the Brazilian brothers design team.  Their furniture references everyday materials and industrial goods which are seemingly imperfect in order to debunk assumptions about these media.  In turn, their works reveal perfect stitching, assembly and superior craftsmanship.  Together, these six artists transform the gallery into an invented space, the illusion of a lounge.

Jose Alvarez, based in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, studied at the School of Visual Arts, NY and has exhibited widely, including the 2002 Whitney Biennial.  His work is represented by Gavlak in West Palm Beach, FL.  Fernando + Humberto Campana are world famous designers, whose iconic furniture pieces are in major collections such as MoMA, NY; “Rope Chair (Red),” is exhibited Courtesy Craig Robins Collection, Miami.  Nicole Cherubini holds an MFA from Visual Arts, New York University and has exhibited nationally and internationally including ICA Philadelphia and the List Visual Arts Center, MIT, among many others.  Her work is represented by Samson Projects, Boston and D’Amelio Terras, New York.  Andy Coolquitt lives and works between New York City and Austin, Texas. Upcoming exhibitions include a solo exhibition at the Blaffer Gallery at the University of Houston in 2011. He is represented by Lisa Cooley, New York.  Brooklyn-based Ferris has an MFA from Yale School of Art and among her numerous shows are the Kemper Museum in Kansas City, MO.  Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Artforum, Modern Painters, among numerous others.  She is represented by Horton Gallery, New York.

Jose Alvarez
Fernando + Humberto Campana
Nicole Cherubini
Andy Coolquitt
Keltie Ferris