“Made in New York,” an exhibition focusing on trends in contemporary sculpture by a group of “under 40” artists, who live and work in New York, will launch Blueshift Project in Miami, Florida. Curated by Robert Dimin, “Made in New York” will include work by Genesis Belanger, David Brooks, Jen Catron and Paul Outlaw, Caitlin Cherry, Nick Doyle, Irini Miga, and Dana Sherwood. Complementing the sculpture, abstract paintings by Justine Hill will be on view in the gallery’s project space. There will be an opening reception on Thursday, February 12 from 5-9 pm and then a closing reception on Thursday, March 26 from 6-9 pm. Blueshift Project is located in the Wynwood Art District at 175 NW 25th Street.   

“‘Made in New York’ showcases subtle yet consequential explorations in content and media that are worth a closer look,” says curator Robert Dimin. “The goal of this exhibition is to contribute to the diverse conversation taking place today regarding the significance of sculpture as the dominant medium for art making.”  

The high quality of construction, building, and making that is evident in all the sculptures is one of the undercurrents of the show. Irini Miga and Genesis Belanger, both possessing a strong understanding of materials, explore ideas of how integrally relevant the selection of materials is to the final output. Work by the critically acclaimed duo Jen Catron and Paul Outlaw is transformative and abject in the exploration of childlike predispositions. In the installation piece Goya Attempts to Teach the Masses Using Goats as Visual Aids, the artists replace the fantastical fiberglass horses on the children’s merry-go-round with taxidermied goats bringing confrontation to the social environment. Caitlin Cherry’s Mute City Big Blue Port Town is a whimsically constructed swimming pool with a submerged painted canvas incased by plexiglass at the bottom of the pool, a perfect example of the multidisciplinary nature of contemporary art. Cherry had a solo exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum in 2013, as part of the Raw/Cooked series and was recently profiled in Interview magazine’s Artist Addition by Kara Walker. Similar to Catron, Outlaw and Cherry, Nick Doyle uses an unnerving kind of humor throughout his work with a constructed narrative of his alter ego, Steve.  

Justine Hill’s paintings in the gallery’s project space are a gentle but bold exploration of contemporary abstraction at the same intellectual and technical mastery as the sculptures exhibited in the main gallery. 
 

Several artists in “Made In New York” have a South Florida connection. David Brooks, who has exhibited at MoMA PS1, The Sculpture Center, and Storm King, often works in the Everglades and was recently a de la Cruz Collection artist-in-resident. Dana Sherwood’s piece Banquets in the Dark Wildness was first shown in New York’s Museum of Biblical Art’s exhibition Back to Eden. The videos included were filmed in Loxahatchee, a town north of Miami. Addressing the dysfunctional relationship between humans and animals, the work is a complicated assemblage of cooking tools, fake food and small monitors showing nocturnal surveillance videos of raccoons exploring formal dinner arrangements that Ms. Sherwood sets up for them,” (Ken Johnson, The New York Times). Nick Doyle’s solo exhibition “Steven” at Invisible Exports was on New York Magazine’s “To Do” list for November 2014. Doyle first exhibited in South Florida in December 2014, during NADA Miami Beach.  

In conjunction with the exhibition, there will be an artist talk at the gallery with Dana Sherwood on February 26 from 7-9 pm. In addition, there will be talks with David Brooks, Jen Catron and Paul Outlaw during the run of the exhibition. Check the gallery website for more information. 

ABOUT BLUESHIFT PROJECT              

Blueshift Project is a Miami-based contemporary art gallery and exhibition space founded to represent and promote work by a diverse group of critically acclaimed local and international artists. Housed in a 6,000 square-foot-space in Wynwood, Blueshift Project is envisioned as a hub for artistic growth and development and is committed to providing the community with a vibrant gathering place where diverse art forms, fresh ideas, artists and audiences can come together.   Blueshift Project was founded in 2015 by Mexican entrepreneur Eduardo Burillo, whose interest in the ways contemporary art practices shape our environment and change a city is central to the gallery’s vision and approach. Through multi-faceted exhibitions, programs, and collaborations, Blueshift Project aims to support artists’ production, foster public engagement, and bring significant national and international art to Miami audiences.  www.blueshiftproject.com

ABOUT EXHIBITION CURATOR ROBERT DIMIN

Robert Dimin is an artist/curator and associate director of the Judith Charles Gallery in New York. Dimin has a BS from the New School University focusing on art history, fine art, and creative writing and an MFA from the University of Pennsylvania in combined media. His first solo exhibition as an artist was in 2002 in New York at Gallery Stendhal. This exhibition was followed by several exhibitions at CVZ Contemporary in New York. Dimin has participated in two international biennales with the first being in Vienna, Austria in 2008 and the second taking place in Port-Au-Prince Haiti in 2013.  

Dimin's career as a curator began in 2010 during graduate school when he opened Project Space 240 Church. After graduate school Dimin worked for Creative Time a leading public art non-profit in New York helping to launch the Global Initiatives Division.  Dimin continued to work freelance for several galleries including The Hole and Alexander Grey Associates in New York and as a researcher for Galerie Gmurzynska in Switzerland.  His first breakthrough exhibition as a curator was "No More Rock Stars" at Galerie Protégé in New York. Dimin then became the director of Protégé and held the position from March 2013 to October 2014. He then became the associate director at Judith Charles.