Oh, What a World
Jamiu Agboke, Andrew Cannon, Daniel Gibson, Haley Josephs, Rasmus Myrup, Nikholis Planck, Anjuli Rathod & Kelsey Shwetz
January 13 - February 25, 2023
Jack Barrett Gallery is pleased to present Oh, What a World a multidisciplinary group exhibition featuring a selection of works by Jamiu Agboke, Andrew Cannon, Daniel Gibson, Haley Josephs, Rasmus Myrup, Nikholis Planck, Anjuli Rathod, and Kelsey Shwetz, on view from January 13 to February 25.
Nature and the elemental has increasingly been taken to task in various fields of discourse and practice in the past two decades, with growing concerns over the environment and how humans avoid violence when cohabiting with the non-human. That violence can be active but also passive, particularly in the latter when we are divorced from environments outside of the urban. In the past three years, isolation and state-sanctioned containment have compelled many to not only appreciate but to need “nature,” particularly for its aesthetic, spiritual, and corporeal benefits.
The artists in Oh, What a World have attended to the spatial complexities of nature and the elemental, making use of diverse epistemologies and methodologies in their works. In Daniel Gibson’s work, vibrant, painterly flowers embody how the artist contends with the complexities of migration, each flower representing a migrant who travels northbound from south of the California border. “Flowers for AG” (2022), a dedication painting for Gibson’s late grandmother, contains symbolism that offers clues to a deeper, sociopolitical meaning. In the center of the foreground, water drops from a blue, azure flower, signifying the importance–and scarcity–of water for the migrants who make this dangerous passage north.
Anjuli Rathod also grapples with diasporic concerns, mobilizing her painting practice to represent what happens when language fails to stage the diverse psychical planes of existence. Her work can also be read in tandem with Haley Josephs, whose paintings address the stages of human life and the psychological transformations that arise therein. Existential rituals are a throughline in their work, with solitude represented as a practice that can unearth truths related to mourning and grief, whether that loss is embodied in a human or a temporal form.
Oh, What a World also features works that endeavor to fill crucial gaps of recorded knowledge. In recent years there has been a discursive, cultural, and scientific emphasis on fungi and its crucial ecological impacts. Once a neglected feature of ecological discourse, more scholarly and recreational interest has materialized. Andrew Cannon’s practice involves extending the discourse through artistic processes, with his sculptural landscape paintings, or reliefs, that attend to mycology, the scientific study of fungi.
With a geographical and historical focus on Norse mythology, Rasmus Myrup seeks gendered, sensual, and sexual interventions with his sculptures and installations, re-directing our gaze to counter-narratives and revisionist histories that remain obscured amid the contours of heteronormativity. “Völva [Vølven]” (2020) introduces the spectator to a Völva, a Norse witch and seeress, once a venerable figure who was also feared for her prophetic power.
Historiographical correctives are also a concern for Kelsey Shwetz. Her works suggest the residue of human trace and yet places flora, fauna and natural forms as central narrators. From this vantage point, the scenery is almost ominously unperturbed, the compositions vibrating between traditional landscape and surrealism. Shwetz lithely mines the margin between identification and estrangement with these hyper-real landscapes, presenting work that reminds us of the parts of our world we stand to lose by ecological indifference.
The works in Oh, What a World do not constitute a monolith, but the artists here share a commitment to nature and its relationship to human consciousness in their representations or mediums. One of the artists, Nikholis Planck, whose work spans painting, drawing and performance, is notable here for his drawings that materialized through his visits to the Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. Equally atmospheric and abstract are the paintings of the emerging artist Jamiu Agboke, whose two paintings in the exhibition, “Swimmer” (2022) and “Float” (2022), evoke the dynamism of water, the non-human natural entity that, like all processes of the natural world, can maim but also cure.
– Kristen Cochrane
Daniel Gibson Flowers for AG, 2022 Oil on canvas 36 x 47 inches
Andrew Cannon Mountain Laurel Platter, 2022 Polymer gypsum resin, wood, epoxy putty, acrylic paint, watercolor 50 x 36 x 6 inches
Anjuli Rathod Transfer of Energy, 2022 Acrylic, watercolor and flashe on canvas 24 x 20 inches
Kelsey Shwetz Pluck, 2022 Oil on canvas 32 x 28 inches
Haley Josephs Dream Spiral Kitten, 2022 Oil on canvas 74 x 96 inches
![Rasmus Myrup,
Völva [Vølven], 2022,
Rowan wood, honeysuckle, repurposed fur, fleece jacket, cashmere, wound wool, wooden structure, heels, jewelry, hardware,
Dimensions variable](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62b359f433ad9c4758ab36ae/3a25f404-6741-4236-94ed-6db59009539a/Myrup%2C+Volva-1.jpg)
Rasmus Myrup, Völva [Vølven], 2022, Rowan wood, honeysuckle, repurposed fur, fleece jacket, cashmere, wound wool, wooden structure, heels, jewelry, hardware, Dimensions variable
Andrew Cannon Wisconsin Flag, 2022 Polymer gypsum resin, wood, epoxy putty, plaster, acrylic paint, watercolor 19.5 x 19.5 x 2 inches
Jamiu Agboke Float, 2022 Oil on canvas 18 x 16 inches
Kelsey Shwetz Ruin (Lantern), 2022 Oil on canvas 54 x 50 inches
Nikholis Planck Groundskeeper/Gate House, 2022 Water soluble oil on conjoined wax paper 25.5 x 28 x 1.5 inches, framed
Nikholis Planck Rock Wall, 2022 Water soluble oil on conjoined wax paper 18 x 20.5 x 1.5 inches
Nikholis Planck Sea Wall, 2022 Water soluble oil on conjoined wax paper 23 x 28.25 x 1.5 inches, framed
Jamiu Agboke Swimmer, 2022 Oil on canvas 16 x 20 inches
![Rasmus Myrup,
Raven of the Slain [Valravn], 2021,
Model Concorde, foraged feathers,
Dimensions variable](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62b359f433ad9c4758ab36ae/b1b6cf44-3839-4cb2-9865-b2e349751f3a/WEB+Sk%C3%A6rmbillede+2022-12-08+kl.+19.59.jpg)
Rasmus Myrup, Raven of the Slain [Valravn], 2021, Model Concorde, foraged feathers, Dimensions variable
Andrew Cannon Oak Flag, 2022 Wood, polymer gypsum resin, pigment, watercolor 20 x 17 x 2.5 inches
Jamiu Agboke is a Nigerian painter based in London. He completed an MA at the Royal Drawing School in London in 2022, and will have his first solo exhibition at Vin Vin Gallery in Naples in 2023. Agboke has further been showcased at Harlesden High Street, London (2022), Soho Revue, London (2022) and The Split Gallery, London (2022). Recently, his work was included in the publication ‘Bitter Sweet Review’ at the ICA, London.
Andrew Cannon (b. 1988, Redlands, CA) lives and works in New York. He received an MFA from Columbia University in 2017, and a BA from UCLA in 2010. His work was the subject of a solo exhibition at the Santa Monica Museum of Art in 2014, and has been included in numerous group exhibitions in California and New York, including at the Sculpture Center, and White Columns.
Daniel Gibson (b. 1977, Yuma, AZ) grew up in El Centro, CA, and other surrounding towns that border Mexicali, Baja California. Both of Gibson's parents immigrated from Mexico, settling in the American southwest and leading to Gibson's early inspiration from his exposure to the desert and communities, raised at a sheetrock factory in Plaster City, CA, where his father worked. Gibson’s output is bred by his indispensable draw towards creation, an expressive therapeutic flow of visions and beliefs, real life situations and dreams, comprising a combination of elements incomparably extricated and productively gifted. He currently lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. Recent solo exhibitions include Ocotillo Song at Almine Rech, New York (2021) and Earthlings at Ochi Projects, Los Angeles (2022).
Haley Josephs (b. 1987) lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She received her MFA in Painting & Printmaking from Yale University in 2014 and a BFA in Painting & Drawing from Tyler School of Art at Temple University in 2011. Recent solo shows include Every Part of the Dream at Almine Rech, London (2022), Passages at Jack Barrett (2022), and PSYCHOPOMP at Almine Rech, Brussels (2021). Recent group exhibitions include Almine Rech, London; Unclebrother & Gavin Brown Enterprise, Hancock, NY; Capsule, Shanghai, China. Josephs' paintings have been exhibited internationally, including at the Cleveland Institute of Art.
Rasmus Myrup (b. 1991, Frederiksberg, Denmark) lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark. Myrup’s work is at once a synthesis of big and small narratives – he investigates the big concepts of humanity’s existence, such as evolution and history, through the smaller lens of personal emotions and experiences. Through his sculptures, installations and drawings, Myrup seeks to understand species and worlds since past. He uses vast subject matter, from Neanderthals, to trees, and folklore in order to provide new perspectives on our understanding of death, sex and power. Recent solo exhibitions Slut [The End] at Jack Barrett; Folx at Nicolai Wallner (DK); Homo Homo at Tranen Contemporary Art Center (DK); and Loving those we lost but never knew at Galerie Balice Hertling (Paris, France).
Nikholis Planck (b. 1987, Virginia) is based in New York. He has participated in solo and group exhibitions at commercial and non-commercial spaces including Make Room, Los Angeles; Apalazzo Gallery, Brescia; Bridget Donahue, New York City; Magenta Plains, New York City; 14a, Hamburg; Green Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn; Signal Gallery, Brooklyn; Neo Chrome, Torino; Kerry Schuss Gallery, New York City; Evening Hours, New York City; and Insect, Los Angeles.
Anjuli Rathod lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She received her BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 2009, and has participated in residencies at The Millay Colony of the Arts, the Studios at MASS MoCA, and Shandaken Projects. Her work has been the subject of solo and two-person exhibitions with Harkawik, Los Angeles; Y2K Group, New York; Interstate Projects, Brooklyn; Projet Pangeé, QC; and Safe Gallery, New York. Recent group exhibitions include Jeffrey Deitch, New York and Los Angeles; Deli Gallery, New York; Selenas Mountain, Queens; Harkawik, New York; Twelve Gates Arts, Philadelphia; Thierry Goldberg Gallery, New York; Kristen Lorello Gallery, New York; Rubber Factory, New York; Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Brooklyn, and Knockdown Center, Queens.
Kelsey Shwetz is a Canadian-born painter living and working in Brooklyn, New York. She received her MFA in Visual Art from Columbia University in 2022. Shwetz has most recently exhibited at Wetterling Gallery, Stockholm (2022), Half Gallery, New York (2022), Office Baroque, Antwerp (2022) and Dinner Gallery, New York (2022). She has received numerous awards and fellowships, including the Choy Family Fellowship (2021), Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant (2020, 2021), Edward Mazzella Scholarship (2021) and the Ellen Gelman Fellowship (2021).