3/8 – 4/26/25: “Phantom Energy” at Putty’s Coronation, Brooklyn, NY

Presents:

Phantom Energy
carrie R and Nick Schleicher
March 8th thru April 26th, 2025.
Opening Reception: March 8th, 5–9pm.

PUTTY’S CORONATION is pleased to announce the opening of Phantom Energy, a two-person exhibition featuring the work of carrie R and Nick Schleicher at Putty’s Coronation, 483 17th St, 4B, Brooklyn, NY 11215, from March 8th, 2025 to April 26th, 2025. The opening reception will be held on Saturday, March 8th, 2025 from 5 PM to 9 PM.

Putty’s Coronation presents Phantom Energy, a two person show with work by carrie R and Nick Schleicher that threatens to open devastating rents in the fabric of space-time. In the end-of-the-universe scenario known as the Big Rip, phantom energy is a uniquely destructive type of dark matter. According to Wikipedia “If the dark energy in the universe increases without limit, it could overcome all forces that hold the universe together.” That seems like a good metaphor for our present epoch, as well as the plot of every Marvel movie. Working in apocalyptic times with art that risks ripping a tear in the soft-tissue of the universe, or at least in our medi-saturated mindscape, carrie’s and Nick’s work speaks to the angst of our moment, both existential and palpably material.

Using abstraction as a tool to explore human emotion, Nick Schleicher pulls layers of paint over shaped canvases which loosely recall tombstones, ghosts, and windows. His process suspends each work in a perpetual state of movement, allowing the wobbly, color-filled forms to assume a bodily presence. Something close to human.

For Schleicher, many works serve as personal markers, created during periods of profound loss or significant transition. The imperfections – congealing paint on the edges, canvases slightly askew, the improvisation of the mark-making process – imbue the works with a sense of empathy and are essential components of his practice. It’s through these inconsistencies and nuances that the paintings acknowledge discomfort, but those moments are transformed into something new, more beautiful, and endlessly playful.

carrie’s recent work includes free-standing and wall-based sculptures made in aqua-resin with embedded, blended pigments and rough applications of oil color. carrie’s work references heightened emotional reactions, freak accidents, and solitary moments—all which occupy a psychological space that is a little undefinable. Often pointy, curvy, and biomorphic, these forms combine fear, curiosity, and exaggeration while expressing a sensitive relationship to gravity.

carrie R (b. 1990, New Jersey) is a Philadelphia-based artist working in the mediums of sculpture and drawing. carrie received her BFA from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University where she received a James O. Dumont Travel Grant Award. She has exhibited recently with Good Mother Gallery (Los Angeles), Cherry Street Pier at Delaware River Waterfront (Philadelphia), The Clay Studio (Phil.), 5-50 Gallery (NYC), Field of Play (NYC), Commonweal (Phil.), and Blah Blah Gallery (Phil.), as well as Below Grand (NYC) and Paradice Palase. She participated in the 2023 SPRING/BREAK Art Fair with 5-50 Gallery, and her work has been featured in Two Coats of Paint, Mister Magazine, Suboart Magazine, Munchies Art Club Magazine, and O FLUXO.

Nick Schleicher (b. 1988) received his BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2011 where he focused on painting and sculpture. Recent solo exhibitions include Gallery JJ, Seoul, Korea; Monaco, St. Louis, MO; Grease 3, St. Louis, MO; and PLAQUE at Granite City Art & Design District, Granite City, IL. Selected group exhibitions at Julius Caesar, Chicago, IL; The Latent Space, Chicago, IL; The Luminary, St. Louis, MO; Aupuni Space, Honolulu, HI; and Gallery JJ, Seoul, Korea. Schleicher’s work has been featured in New American Paintings (No. 143 & 167), Soft Quarterly (Spring 2021), The Pinch (Fall 2020), and Under the Bridge (Concentric Series: Issue 2) among others.