Andrew Kreps

Peter Coffin

22 Mar - 26 Apr 2008

PETER COFFIN
"You Are Me"

March 22 - April 26, 2008

Artist Robert Irwin has said of art: "What we are really dealing with is our state of consciousness and the shape of our perception." Andrew Kreps Gallery is pleased to present Peter Coffin's third solo exhibition with the gallery. Coffin's practice playfully suggests that our inability to explain phenomena is perhaps more liberating than restrictive. The show includes a kinetic sculpture/installation, a video wall, sound works, and a suite of prints on display in the gallery's front office.
At the center of the exhibition is a large, industrial conveyor that carries a cluster of balloons through the gallery space. At the end of each day the balloons will be carried to the street at the entrance of the gallery and released. (Visitors are invited to participate in this activity and may inquire with the gallery to do so.)
In the back room of the gallery is a video wall of 30 monitors each displaying separate video montages of animals at play. The footage, collected primarily from animal behavior researchers, show animals acting on their curiosity, engaging in play and aesthetic activity.
The gallery staff generates Incidental Music as they type. Each key-stroke produces a musical note in real time that can be heard just outside the gallery.
On view in the office space of the gallery is a suite of prints, Untitled (Designs for Colby Poster Co.). These original works invoke iconic advertisements called "show prints" which traditionally incorporate letterpress text atop a tri-colored gradient of fantastic colors, a ubiquitous medium for promoting rock concerts, touring carnivals, school board candidates, boxing events, rodeos, union strikes, revivals, picnics, and dances. The artist chooses not to embellish the prints with letterpress text, instead highlighting the 80 designs he has created with his own palette for Colby Poster Co. Los Angeles.
Peter Coffin has exhibited internationally including most recently a solo show with Michael Benevento Gallery, Los Angeles; two solo shows with Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin; an exhibition at Le Confort Modern in Poitiers, France; solo projects at Palais de Tokyo, Paris; and a solo exhibition at Herald Street in London. He has recently been included in exhibitions at Museo de Arte Contemporanea in Vigo, Spain; the Tate Modern in London; and B.P.S. 22 in Belgium.
You Are Me will be on view from March 22 - April 26, 2008. A reception will be held for the artist in the gallery on March 22, 6-8 pm at 525 West 22nd Street, New York City. For information call Christine Hou at 212-741-8849, or Christine@andrewkreps.com.
The gallery and Peter Coffin would like to thank Randy and Cliff Griffiths / Rancon Systems Ltd., Markham, Ontario, Canada for their support.
 

Tags: Peter Coffin, IRWIN, Robert Irwin