Judith Braun: Crazy Bitch
March 11 - April 24, 2016
99 Norman Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11222
Simuvac Projects is proud to announce the gallery’s inaugural exhibition with new work by New York artist, Judith Braun. The show is part of an ambitious double-venue presentation, with "Crazy Bitch", at Simuvac Projects, and "Homeostasis", at McKenzie Fine Art, NY. Simuvac Projects opens March 11, and McKenzie Fine Art on March 20; both will run through April 24, 2016.
Together these shows represent the ongoing potential of the "Symmetrical Procedure" drawings that Braun first exhibited in 2008, at Fruit and Flower Deli, one of the more idiosyncratic galleries on the burgeoning Lower East Side, and then more recently in her solo show at Joe Sheftel Gallery, in 2013, also on the Lower East Side. "Symmetrical Procedures" are defined by Braun’s chosen parameters of symmetry and abstraction, which, according to the artist, promote an “emergent self-organizing system.” By applying simple rules to innumerable possibilities, the artist is mining a realm of quantum physics in her studio with her chosen mediums of charcoal and graphite.
“The abstraction is my freedom, and the symmetry, my discipline, both of which I want and need in equal measure.” The two shows further reflect the artist’s intention towards balance, with "Crazy Bitch"inviting and embracing everything from aggression to humor, while "Homeostasis" speaks directly to the tendency toward equanimity.
The" Crazy Bitch" drawings are all presented, bleeding to the edges within wide, matte black frames, giving them a plaque-like presence. Text is legible to varying degrees, serving as language, symbol or simply shapes. All are quite carefully constructed, and integrate boldness with sensuality. The viewer may find that the visual experience conflicts with his or her initial response to the words, and may seek resolution, consciously or not. Braun has noted that she cannot explain them, beyond that she made them. “Each one forced me to examine my medium, my will, and my imagination, within my parameters, and see what happens.” But one can also trace her impetus to use, and own, gendered terminology, to her early work, with show titles like "Read My Pussy", 1990, and "The Sacred Order of the Burning Bush", 1993.
Braun lives and works on the Lower East Side, and has had a long winding art career, beginning as a realistic figure painter and professor in Albany, NY. Her first show in New York City, in 1988 during the East Village heyday, was called "White Girl Paintings", followed by Group Material’s "Democracy" show, at Dia Art Foundation and the "Bad Girls" show at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, curated by the late Marcia Tucker, in 1994. During that period she went by the name Weinperson, a feminist twist on her then married surname, Weinman. Since 2009, her large charcoal fingerprint wall drawings, a tangent of "Symmetrical Procedures", have been exhibited widely in the US and internationally, most recently at Indianapolis Museum of Art and Grand Rapids Art Museum. In 2013 Braun was recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant.
We invite you to also visit "Homeostasis", at McKenzie Fine Art, 55 Orchard Street, to view a full range of Judith Braun’s current practice.
For more information, please contact Joseph A. Gross at joseph@simuvacprojects.com
Press: Brooklyn Rail; Hyperallergic; Gallery Travels; Art Critical Review Panel
