I AM COME UNTO YOU IN MINE OWN PERSON
January 13th - February 19th
Witt Fetter • David Mramor • Nyla Isaac • John Sandroni • Paul Kopkau
“I am come unto you in mine own person,” English queen Mary Tudor announces upon entering a guild hall in 1554. She makes herself seen. She is presenting her own body, no doubt adorned to the hilt, to garner support to quell a rebellion. Her own person is a contested symbol of political power, ownership status unknown. In 2022 actress Romola Garai embodies this queen for a television show, another in an endless line of historical impersonations. She excels in the role. The first season ends on the eve of the queen’s ascent to power. The show is canceled after one season. Her impersonation finished, she reinhabits her own body, perhaps diminished and with potential earnings lost. Does the ghost of the long dead queen linger around the actress’s body; does the ghost taunt the living woman for not being allowed to finish the historical narrative, one that might have garnered her own body acclaim ? The five artists in the exhibition I am come unto you in mine own person, Witt Fetter, Nyla Paula Isaac, Paul Kopkau, David Mramor, and John Sandroni, depict materially the human body, their own and those of others, in reiterative and complicated ways.
Witt Fetter’s monumental self-portrait Diana depicts the artist sitting on the end of a diving board in the open sea wearing only a bikini bottom and pensive expression, self-consciously echoing an iconic paparazzi photograph of another embattled English would-be queen. Questions of self-exposure and masking swirl around the figure. Whose own person is this exactly ? Fetter’s slippery superimposition reveals her body, in this case a young, transgender woman’s body, as a site of contested ownership.
Nyla Paula Isaac creates paintings depicting herself, her identical twin, political and cultural figures, and people both real and imagined in the service of communicating her complicated inner world. Isaac is a self-taught artist with a studio at The Living Museum, a therapeutic arts community housed at Creedmoor Psychiatric Center, whose intuitive approach to figuration reflects a restless mind seeking material form.
Paul Kopkau, the only sculptor in the group, presents the body abstracted from corporal form. The sculptures on view are titled Proxy as they can be seen as having a metaphorical relationship to a contemporary body. The series began with thoughts of post-labor society as a way to deal with growing up next to shuttered car factories, and other industrial facilities in Ohio and Michigan.
David Mramor works with deconstructing images, simplifying surfaces into colour and form. He works with basic ideas, photographs or memories such as flowers from his mother’s garden or retro American pop stars. These images are digitally manipulated and become the surfaces for his paintings. The only evidence of the original image is in the title of the works. He places gestures, collages materials, draws and tapes on top of the photographic images; the original images thus become open to interpretation, non-objectivity and abstraction. John Sandroni works primarily as a painter employing expressionistic, formal, and illustrative techniques to construct images that encompass a wide range, but are often autobiographical. John’s work has surrealistic tendencies, humorous undertones, and practical applications much like the city he uses as inspiration. The broad combination allows his work to be taken in differently upon each viewing.
The show was organized by FIERMAN Gallery director Tony Jackson.
February 2nd 6-8PM at FIERMAN (19 Pike Street)
Three Brides is the latest performance featuring Enid Ellen, artist David Mramor’s ongoing persona and musical project.
For Three Brides, Mramor steps into Enid, performing covers and spoken word that evoke different time periods and people within queer history. Specifically collaging together images of brides from cinema, fashion, and theater, with nostalgic nods to Mramor’s personal history and the history of drag.
Collaborating with Greg Potter on keyboards, Mramor writes original songs under the Enid Ellen guise—a post-gender feminist singer-songwriter. With a background in theater, the artist’s performances include singing, movement, improvisation, and elements of Kundalini yoga.
I met Richard Simmons in 2014, the same year he disappeared from the public eye. I went to Slimmons Fitness and luckily he was teaching. Often he had people sub in for him when he was out of town or busy. He walked into the class in his short shorts bedazzled in gold sequins. On top he wore a black tank top with a glittery gold treble clef embroidered across the chest. His hair was thinning but still styled in his iconic afro. He knew many of the class participants and I assumed they were regulars. The studio was in Beverly Hills but the decor felt like Florida. Lots of pail shades of pink and aqua. Yellowy wood accents and everywhere you looked were mirrors, it was hard to escape your own reflection. During the class I felt transported back to my childhood, doing the Sweat into the Oldies tape with my sister. Richard was pure love, acceptance and fun! In person he put on a show, putting his entire fist in his mouth, drool stringing onto the floor. He made all of the men take off their shirts, luckily he could see my anxiety and let me be. After class you could line up and get a picture with Richard. I waited in line and when it was my turn he asked me what I did. I told him that I am a painter. He told me he also painted. He asked me if I knew who Gustav Klimt was. He told me he was currently working on a painting of three brides in the style of Gustav Klimt.
RYAN FOERSTER
Homeward Bound and the Triumphant Return of ZZZ… Stardust 93-39
February 2nd - March 5th
PRESENTED BY FIERMAN
