THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS – Nature, landscapes, and human belongings

Dan Gratz, Domingo Milella, Elisabeth Smolarz, Xinran Yuan

May 8 – August 1, 2017

SARAHCROWN is pleased to present The Signature of All Things – Nature, landscapes, and human belongings: an exhibition of painting, drawing, and photography that revolves around the idea of how both nature and man-made objects reveal crucial aspects of our very personal backgrounds and identities.

The title plays with the different meanings assigned to the term signature. The word is commonly referred to as an identifier, mostly through symbolic representation, or as a lasting impression that uniquely distinguishes an artist throughout the entire production of human artifacts. If you look at the artistry in a particular time period or consider the objects of a certain nation, community or person, you can decipher a lot about that specific group of people. Thus, what shapes an artist can be perceived through their product and vice-versa; every artist reveals or leaves behind some sort of signature regardless of purposeful intent.

The exhibition features works by the following artists: Dan Gratz (USA), Domingo Milella (IT), Elisabeth Smolarz (PL/USA), and Xinran Yuan (CN). It will be featured in the recently newly opened The Yard in Columbus Circle.

The artworks offer a peek into far away worlds that are well-known to us yet revealed under a different light, expanding our understanding of who we are and where we come from. Based on photographic studies of natural and artificial cloud formations, Dan Gratz’s paintings illuminate the space between the abstract and the concrete-, the absurd and the transcendent, and the past and the future. They bring an elaboration of natural light into a sublime state of color fields and shades-. Contrasted to these abstract representations of landscapes are Domingo Milella’s realistic photographs that show postcard landscapes of semi-legendary and alienating places, in favour of the simultaneous permeation of a deconsecrated mythology before it manifests itself. Elisabeth Smolarz collaborated with individuals in their home environments where each participant selected personal objects that became precious portals to the memory of the participants. They were then arranged for the camera in a temporary installation, embodying their sense of self and identity, bringing back to focus the idea of signatures within an each individual. The works on paper by Xinran Yuan are inspired by her experience of spending two consecutive winters in Iceland, where she became an avid recorder of daylight. The works are created by soaking cotton paper in liquid chlorophyll bath over extended periods of time, as indicated by the artwork titles. During this process, air bubbles and chlorophyll concentration left mysterious marks – or signatures – on the paper, evoking the process of photosynthesis. 

On view: May 8 – August 1, 2017

Public hours: Mon-Fri, 9:30 am – 5:30 pm

The Yard  33 West 60th Street, NYC (2nd, 11th and 12th floor)