Shadowlands & Underparty

HAIR + NAILS is pleased to announce AMTK — Shadowlands & RACHEL YOUN — Underparty, concurrent art exhibitions of new paintings and kinetic sculpture at HAIR+NAILS opening November 13, 2021. The exhibit marks a homecoming for AMTK (the collaboration of Andrew Mazorol and Tynan Kerr) who have jointly painted canvases for over a decade. With Mazorol now based in Brooklyn, Kerr in Los Angeles, this is the first large body of work created in over 5 years. St. Louis - based Rachel Youn’s installation of fake-plant-and-decommissioned-massager kinetic sculptures were a hit at the Great Rivers Biennial last year. A new iteration — Underparty — will be created site-specifically in the HAIR+NAILS basement with a commissioned sound score by local luminary booboo. 

AMTK has previously exhibited with HAIR+NAILS in the group shows “COLLECTING ART” (2017), the NADA Chicago Invitational (2019), and “The Human Scale” at Rochester Art Center (2021). And, individually: Andrew Mazorol: “Boogie Woogie” (2016), “The Reality of Repeatability” (2018) and Tynan Kerr: “Numbers Pushers” (2018) and “FUTURE FUTURE” (2020). Rachel Youn previously exhibited with HAIR+NAILS in the group show “Right Now” (2020-1).

ABOUT THE EXHIBITIONS
About AMTK’s Shadowlands:

“As two artists working together, our paintings arrive through accidental intersections of our efforts. Negotiation, cooperation, and sabotage lead to paintings which are nudged in certain directions but ultimately take a form of their own. Similar to our working process, the worlds of our paintings are filled with figures gathered waiting or engaged in activities which aim to extract meaning and information from an ambiguous energetic force." — Andrew Mazorol + Tynan Kerr 

Reuniting for an intensive painting residency in NYC, the pair reflects on the relinquishing of control in their painting process, seeking “moments of release in a heavy and heartbreaking world”, and “tuning in and enjoying what unfolds of its own accord.” AMTK fans will recognize the language of their 13-year collaboration, a sort of associative dream logic populated by various figures, tricksters, demigods, angels, and demons who find themselves frozen in the middle of some transitional situation or task whose purpose and trajectory are somewhat unknown. The show title “Shadowlands” references the “back of the brain” creative space that is sparked in the rare times they can cross the country to paint together as well as a literal play with light in a new suite of cyanotypes, with crisp graphics imprinted by the sun contrasting with the swirling neo-surrealism of the paintings.

About Rachel Youn’s Underparty:
I source materials with a history of aspiration and failure through shopping on Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist. Venturing into the suburbs, I rescue electric massagers from suburban limbo. The discarded massagers at one time comforted and soothed bodies with healing motions. In the studio, I fasten artificial plants to the machines to create kinetic pieces that are clumsy, erotic, and absurd.

Underparty is an installation of kinetic sculptures that gyrate to a dance track composed by Minneapolis-based musician booboo. After the closure and restriction of spaces where people were once able to gather and liberate their bodies in movement together, the sculptures celebrate a more hopeful future. — Rachel Youn

GALLERY HOURS:
Saturdays/Sundays, 1:00-5:00 and by appointment November 14 – December 26, 2021. Email hairandnailsart@gmail.com to make an appointment.

Image Credit:
(left) AMTK, Ark, acrylic on canvas, 53”x 41”, 2021
(left) Rachel Youn, install view of Underparty, 2021