Jade Townsend at Volta New York
March 7 - 10
Gallery Poulsen will be a part of this year’s edition of Volta New York March 7-10th, 2013, where we present Jade Townsend (US) Solo.
VOLTA NY is an invitational show of emerging solo artists’ projects and the American incarnation of the successful young fair founded in Basel in 2005. VOLTA NY was created in 2008 by Artistic Director Amanda Coulson as a tightly-focused, boutique event that is a place for discovery, a showcase for relevant art contemporary positions regardless of the artist's or gallery’s age.
With Jade Townsend’s artwork, one is captivated by his universe and his cross-aesthetic practice, ranging from beautiful detail-oriented drawings to large theatrical installations. His installations engage the viewer to become part of what he builds in various exhibition spaces with a fascinating result. With the drawings, entire worlds and universes are constructed and presented to us. Jade Townsend's artworks have a universal nerve to them that transcend cultures, as he applies a universal visual language known from our earliest memories in literature and history. There is a use of materials and historical imagery that animates his artworks, with a handcrafted expression that cause us to be captivated by them. His works are loaded with timber, ships, kings, hobos, death, tarot cards and mysticism and they are keen to illuminate our existing systems and question their limitations and their flaws.
The element of flaws of the system was also addressed in the collaborative drawing Hooverville done by Jade Townsend and William Powhida in 2010. The artists caused quite a stir with their joint artwork when they, in great detail, ingenuity and knowledge interpreted the Art Basel Miami Beach fair humorously and critically, as they portrayed the gallery owners, curators and artists participating in this annual event as a shanty town. In 2012 the artists made a new collaborative drawing Bellum Omnium contra Omnes (translated from Latin, "a war of all against all") a gigantic drawing, months underway that depicts a battleground, as it would look if the postmodern art world was ever a such.
With Jade Townsend the ship is loaded with drawings and a sculptural installation, where we are presented with a historical theme in a contemporary and hand-build setting from an artist we believe deserves full attention and recognition.
