Two Artists at Halsey McKay Gallery

Halsey McKay Gallery in East Hampton presents “White Snake,” Matthew Kirk’s second solo exhibition, which opened January 14 and will remain on view through March 20. Also on view at Halsey McKay through March 20 is “Curtain” by Corinne Chase.

Known for his inventive use of commercial building materials, Kirk’s latest work is a series of large sculptural paintings inspired by the physical components of his studio. Kirk has consistently selected construction goods for his practice, as in his drywall paintings and tar paper weavings. In making “White Snake,” sheets of plywood were pulled from the floor, walls and drawing tables of his workspace and repurposed as surfaces for his objects. The immersive installation calls to mind the massive “Floor” works by Dieter Roth and Björn Roth.

But where Roth’s “Floors” emphasized the index of accumulation, for Kirk it serves as a launching pad. Looking to expand beyond the standard rectilinear shape of painting, Kirk found suggestions in the residual marks on his home-made drawing tables, and notes on the walls. He began cutting them up with saws and putting things back together again as he made sense of how the marks fit into each other as new shapes. These intuitively cobbled forms began to suggest objects and characters from the natural world like animal hides, birds and human figures. While not specifically representational, they are suggestive of personalities and the room feels filled by a sprightly cast. These wooden surfaces are covered with Kirk’s signature mark-making and glyphic imagery reflecting his relationship to his own Navajo heritage and identity. His work often explores the space between hegemonic American visual image of the Native and his lived experience, exploiting the hackneyed to both embrace and question imposed cultural tropes.

Matthew Kirk lives and works in New York. He is a 2019 recipient of the Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship. His work is in the collections of the Everson Museum, Syracuse, New York; the Eiteljorg Museum, Indianapolis, Indiana; the Forge Collection, Taghkanic, New York, among others.

In “Curtain,” Corinne Chase’s first solo show with the gallery, the artist engages with movement as a counterpart to form; capturing performative gestures between artist and material. Although her work is primarily ceramic, she also embeds layers of fabric, photography, plaster and other media, deepening each object’s history. Gestures are drawn from body memory and details from her personal surroundings such as a peach pit, the view from her studio window, or a stage curtain. Some materials surface in final stages of her work, while many function as moments of support leaving traces throughout the process.

Corinne Chase was born in western Massachusetts and currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She received her BFA in ceramics with a minor in dance from Alfred University New York State College of Ceramics. For four years she has been an educator teaching ceramic courses, a technician, and production assistant at BKLYN Clay. Her work has been shown in several galleries.

Halsey McKay Gallery is at 79 Newtown Lane in East Hampton. For more information, visit halseymckay.com.