Selected Works

CMay Gallery is pleased to announce Post-Capitalist Tristesse, a group exhibition featuring works that speak to a sadness experienced in the wake of capitalism.

Two sculptures depict contemporary young men exhibiting signs of world-weariness: Gwon Osang’s On the Languishment of 340 Pieces and Yi Hwan Kwon’s South Korean (Jobseeker). Gwon’s piece is comprised of photographs of the subject sculpted into the shape of a man reposed, face down and eyes open in a blank stare. South Korean (Jobseeker) is a hyper-realistic distortion of a man holding a Starbucks cup. The right side of his body is compressed and the left is distended. The physicality of the distortion encumbers the jobseeker’s step. His gaze is lowered.

Frank J. Stockton’s two Weeping Men are painted in an abstract expressionist style, foregrounded with a sketch of a Rodin sculpture. The repetition of the image of the weeping man contradicts the expressive application, an intimacy of gesture that chafes against the formulaic.

In Connie Samaras’ Untitled (Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica) from vast active living intelligence system, a Weddell seal is shown taking breaths through a hole in the Antarctic ice. The breath is a mundane function, but the intimacy of framing and audio intensifies the moment, making the scene feel precarious and the action of breathing more deliberate.