Dana Piazza
Tamara Zahaykevich
Care
October 7–October 29, 2023
Opening reception Saturday, October 7, 3–5 PM
Artist discussion Saturday, October 21, 3 PM
To care is to pay serious attention. To consider, or do something in the hopes of offering health, welfare, maintenance, and protection to someone or something. You are invited to engage with the work of Dana Piazza and Tamara Zahaykevich in their exhibition Care, to experience the extreme care they both utilize in the creation of their work. There is an intensity to both artists’ approach to making where the end results seem effortless but the process is anything but. This exhibition delves into the multifaceted nature of care, showcasing a diverse collection of works that challenge conventional perceptions and interpretations of this fundamental human experience. Through their distinctive artistic styles and mediums, Piazza and Zahaykevich invite viewers to engage with the emotional depth and complexity of work that is fostered, considered, and accomplished.
Dana Piazza’s evocative line work and use of color create immersive, emotionally charged paintings that provoke introspection and contemplation. Tamara Zahaykevich’s sculptures and installations combine found objects and re-purposed materials to craft narratives that address care from a tactile, sensory perspective. These artists both truly care about what they are doing. You will too.
Dana Piazza, Lines 145, 2023, pigmented ink on 300 lb hot press watercolor paper, 41 x 29.5 inches
Dana Piazza
Care is the thing I most want to give to my work. For this show, I created new Lines drawings on paper and new Squares paintings on linen. In both bodies of work, the previous marks contain instructions for the next mark. Each previous mark casts a vote on where the next mark should be. Each Lines drawing starts with a gestural line spanning across the page. The next line traces the previous line, creating a narrow dark overlapping seam. Each Squares painting starts with a small grid of squares connected at the corners. The next squares circle the previous squares, creating a spiral structure. Each process is repeated, again and again, warping the next mark more and more each time. The marks gradually accumulate into a complex volumetric form, similar to the way nature counts time in layers. The drawings and paintings are abstractions, but because they are iterative, they seem like images of other things that gain their qualities through iteration—plants, woven cloth, rock formations, snow drifts, beach sand ripples.
Dana Piazza, Lines 144, 2023, pigmented ink on 300 lb hot press watercolor paper, 41 x 29.5 inches
Dana Piazza (b. 1987) lives and works in Lenox, MA. His work is on view in Care, a two-person exhibition with Tamara Zahaykevich at Turley Gallery in Hudson, NY, October 7–October 29, 2023. Upcoming shows include a solo booth at SCOPE Art Show (Miami, FL), presented by Soapbox Arts in 2023, and a solo exhibition with Room 68 (Provincetown, MA) in 2024. He has exhibited in solo exhibitions at Art Austerlitz (Austerlitz, NY); Thompson Giroux Gallery (Chatham, NY); Room 68 (Provincetown, MA); Soapbox Arts (Burlington, VT); and Jennifer Terzian Gallery (Litchfield, CT). His numerous group exhibitions include Flat Files at OyG at Ortega y Gasset Project (Brooklyn, NY); Concentrated at Galerie Manqué (Brooklyn, NY); Art on Paper with Muriel Guépin Gallery (New York, NY); and Guilty Pleasures at Geoffrey Young Gallery (Great Barrington, MA). Dana Piazza received a BFA magna cum laude from the School of Art+Design at Purchase College in 2010.
Tamara Zahaykevich, holding on kelter, 2023, foam board, plaster, wood, paper, paint, metal, clay, and casters, 63.5 x 24 x 21.5 inches
Tamara Zahaykevich
The works in Care were developed utilizing a combination of materials, including handmade and manufactured paper, paint, clay, plaster, and wood along with materials such as blue insulation foam, a round metal base, and a short plinth which had been given to me by artist peers, as I am known to work with discards. I’ve created a group of totems and pedestal pieces by grafting and casting, gluing, and sanding to excavate forms. Much of my practice consists of revisiting stored abandoned projects to see what sparks interest, what feels relevant in the development of my language. Pieces which contain parts of old, failed sculptures, bear the marks and scars of my hand. New materials and processes make their debut in this body of work. I am building with wood and clay, working outdoors with electric saws to create larger pieces. As I work at this scale, I am aware of feeling my body, through the demands of physicality. I am aware of my relationship to these standing sculptural bodies.
Tamara Zahaykevich in Conversation with Meg Lipke and Anne Schaefer ↗︎
Tamara Zahaykevich, psyche I can halves, 2023, wood, styrofoam, plaster, paper, clay, paint, foam board, and polymer mediums, 54.5 x 16.5 x 11 inches
Tamara Zahaykevich (b. 1971) is a Ukrainian American artist, living and working in East Chatham, NY. Her work has been featured in solo exhibits at Jeff Bailey Gallery (Hudson, NY); Kansas (New York, NY); and Bellwether (Brooklyn, NY). Group exhibitions include ICA Boston (Boston, MA); Tibor de Nagy (New York, NY); The New Britain Museum of Art (New Britain, CT); The American Academy of Arts and Letters (New York, NY), and Feature, Inc (New York, NY). Zahaykevich is the recipient of two Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grants and has been in residency at Dieu Donné Workspace Program, The Marie Walsh Sharpe Studio Program, MacDowell, and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Zahaykevich’s work has been featured in BOMB, Hyperallergic, and The Brooklyn Rail, among others.
Installation photography by Spencer House Studio