BEAM ME UP
Curated by Lauren Hirshfield
Jack Arthur Wood, Alessandro Keegan, carrie R & Charles Sommer
On view: August 10 – September 10
Reception: August 20, 4–7pm

5-50 Gallery is pleased to present BEAM ME UP, a group show of new and recent work by Jack Arthur Wood, Alessandro Keegan, carrie R, and Charles Sommer, curated by Lauren Hirshfield. Incorporating oil painting, mixed media, colored pencil drawing, graphite drawing, and sculpture this curation offers a glimpse at a place just beyond our tangible grasp. Inspired by the fantastical and alien, divination, emotional histories, and escapist desires Hirshfield offers her selections for consideration as a playful utopic future.

Often in the sci-fi genre, we are tasked with considering our existence beyond what is known to be fact – it embraces myth, it feeds our human tendency toward inquiry and expands our curiosity for things beyond concrete understanding. We crave to make sense of the infinite particles in the universe that coexist among us (and in us!) every moment of our lives. BEAM ME UP is, in some ways, a call to action to embrace this craving as a means of processing and reformatting the [very real and present] American socio-political landscape. Keegan’s All Possible Worlds and Wood’s Smell of Spring take leaps of faith onto this intangible quest, guiding the viewer alongside. The petit works from Keegan showcase a visual lexicon often channeled through meditation. The glistening teardrops shimmer like gemstones and colorful orbs like a misty view of faraway planets connected by an imagined network of celestial entities. Wood’s cut paper paintings imbue an immaterial feeling through the undulating layers and compositions that pull the viewer through his vortex. We are spliced between two moments in thought – equally mesmerizing and arresting. Blue Angel of Red Tides (Corpus Christi) beckons us like a signal thrown up to the moon and woos us further into the daydream.

Mirroring the pointed arches of Wood’s small work is carrie R’s Blue Tongs, holding weight as a tangible counterpart in the show’s esoteric tale. R uses hydrostone to sculpt her forms, which lends its materiality for a rough exterior. At first glance these objects – crawling across the wall and creeping across the floor – seem sinister with their hard shells and moody palette, but paired with works like Sommer’s Gateway no.6 (it was nice being away so long) Hirshfield shows us a whimsical and dreamy side to these characters. The atmospheric graphite grounds Sommer lays in his drawings are equally abstract and representational. His rigid rules for production drive his compositions to toggle between real and imagined, micro and macro. The viewer in turn gets to exist in the in-between. In short, this summer exhibition tickles the imagination and reminds us to take a pause and exist in the moment!

BEAM ME UP is on view August 10th – September 10th, 2022. Gallery hours are Wednesday – Sunday 11:30am – 3:30pm and by appointment. The exhibition reception is Saturday August 20th from 4-7pm.