Lily Ludlow, Bill Saylor and Anke Weyer, Aaron Brewer

February 20, 2008 – March 21, 2008 545 West 23rd Street
Drawings in gallery
Paintings in gallery

Press Release

Leo Koenig Inc.  is pleased to announce a group show curated by Aidas Bareikis.

Bareikis has assembled these works by artists that he has admired and has had a dialogue with for several years.  In these artists’ disparate works, Bareikis detects a language that is instinctual and exhibiting what he calls a “Subjective DNA,” while  possessing an abiding intellectual rigor.   The codex that links these works are not reliant upon appropriation or quotational strategies.  Instead,  Bareikis sees  these works linked more so by a trust in process, and demonstrating a courageousness in personal gesture.

Aaron Brewer assemblages of often unidentifiable objects, paint, spray foam and other materials. Appearing as chaotic and unintentional gatherings of items and materials, Brewer plays with the notion of the complexity and incomprehensibility of daily existence.  His sculptural examinations provide a plethora of physical and emotional relations ranging from uncomfortable to the humorous and absurd.

Aaron Brewer is an artist, theorist, and curator, who has exhibited widely throughout the United States and Canada. He has contributed essays to numerous exhibition catalogs and is a regular contributor to C Magazine based in Toronto. He is one of the original founders of CANADA, the New York based gallery. Brewer attended Tyler School of Art and Hampshire College, and lives and works in Los Angeles.

Lily Ludlow contributes a painting in a muted palette.   The painting shows two nude figures amidst a flurry of patterns,  evoking both a tentative sensuality and a humorous aside  on  the male gaze.

Lily Ludlow is best known as a designer for Imitation of Christ and one of the founders of Somnus, a collective that encompasses fashion, film and art and is represented by Canada Gallery

Bill Saylor navigates freely between gestural brushwork, alternatingly rough and detailed drawing, street tag-like text, and collage. While initially chaos seems to rule, a second look reveals an intrinsic balance.  Through this process, Saylor has found a territory where abstract expressionism, the rawness of punk rock, and pop art iconic imagery can coexist in one composition.

Bill Saylor has exhibited extensively both nationally and internationally.  He has had solo exhibitions at Leo Koenig Inc., New York, Hiromi Yoshi Gallery, Tokyo, and Galleri Loyal in Stockholm Sweden.  He lives and works in New York City.

Anke Weyer’s paintings are dark, gestural, compositions of surprising complexity. While her paintings have a spiritual link to German expressionist painters such as Dix, Grosz and Kirchner, she retains a singular voice provocative voice.  Weyer’s brooding abstract works are an invitation to reflect and also be consumed by beauty.

Anke Weyer is a graduate of the Hochschule fur Bildende Kunste, Staedelschule, Frankfurt Germany where she studied under Per Kirkeby and has had a solo exhibition with Canada Gallery, NY.  She lives and works in NYC.