PROJECTS
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In It For The Long Haul was a curatorial retrospective of Robert Curcio's over 30-year career as an arts professional at Lichtundfire from October 5 - November 4, 2023. With Curcio's relationship with each of the 57 international artists and their work lingering exquisitely in the background, Curcio reflects on the depth of a life in art.
The catalog is 10 x 8 in with a soft matte cover and 76 pages in full color each artist having their own page, an article on the meetings between artists and the curator, photos from the exhibit's reception and events, installation photos, and more. Catalogs can be purchased for $40 at the reception or by emailing curcioprojects@gmail.com with your mailing address.
In It For The Long Haul artists - O'Delle Abney, Claudine Anrather, Chakaia Booker, Paul Brainard, William Carroll, Christopher H Chambers, Bill Claps, Gregory de la Haba, Zavier Ellis, Lin Evola, Jonathan Feldschuh, Karen Fitzgerald, Danielle Frankenthal, Chambliss Giobbi, Edward M. Giordano Jr, Augustus Goertz, William Graef, John Grande, Amy Hill, Mary Hrbacek, Sam Jackson, Neil Jenney, Simen Johan, KAORUKO, Bodo Korsig, Pamela Lawton, D. Dominick Lombardi, Karen Marston, Claire McConaughy, John Mendelsohn, Frodo Mikkelsen, Mike Miller, Bobbie Moline-Kramer, Loren Munk, James Austin Murray, Julie Oakes, Leah Oates, Caya Plate, Leemour Pelli, Sebastian Piras, Joyce Pommer, Richard Purdy, Walter Robinson, Steve Rockwell, Terry Rodgers, Lenora Rosenfield, Pierre St. Jacques, Gae Savannah, Gerald Slota, The Sonder Institute, Andre Stitt, Hideki Takahashi, TODT, Sandy Van Iderstine, Martin Weinstein, LeRone B. Wilson, Ben Woolfitt.
In It For The Long Haul
Catalog Launch at Lichtundfire
December 19, 2024
Magnetic
Victor Liu & Laura Smith
PS122 Gallery | NYC
November 25, 2024 - January 5, 2025
PR|Media by Robert Curcio
REVIEWS: TUSSLE and Whitehot Magazine
MEDIA COVERAGE: ArtDaily, ART WEEK, Plugged In
PS122 Gallery is excited to present Magnetic featuring the works of Victor Liu, sculpture, and Laura Smith, drawings. Invisible energy is alluring and active, full of doubts and anxieties, as it directs not only interactions in the world but also personal and artistic worlds. Magnetic explores these mysterious influences of attraction and unease as dynamism in Liu’s and Smith’s respective art processes. The artists’ works, minimal nuances with a neutral palette, are neither rational nor predictable, however, they exist in a primal state. That state arises in fluid vividness channeled throughout the gallery space holding the viewer in a magnetic gaze.
Combining traditional casting methods with newer technologies, Victor Liu’s elusive figures intertwine latent myths, anime, and historical influences with today’s headlines. The hybrid works mix-and-match the pose of an Egyptian god with multiple arms to a soldier with prosthetic legs and machine gun crutches while an improbable regal-looking black swan holding forth a divining branch and a talisman. Liu harnesses his apprehension into elegant metaphorical forms that are toy-like in size, displayed with an elevated status on their custom pedestals, to induce the viewer into conversations of entanglements pushed and pulled one way or another.
Soft and dense, Laura Smith’s Illuminated Black series of graphite drawings on sleek Dura-Lar, transpires through a unique, multi-stage process manifesting as lines of force. Smith begins by assembling collages made from the negative space of her older sculpture and using the outer edges and any interior negative spaces to define a positive form. She compares her intuitive process to the musicians’ understanding that music is not in the notes but in the silence between them; the dark horse at a racetrack is expected to come in last but wins the race to everyone’s surprise. Smith’s mesmerizing objects are records of the results by following the system she discovered to create her work and by the graphite’s reflective qualities.
Artist’s Bios
Victor Liu is a Taiwanese-born American artist who lives and works in NYC. Thomas Vandyke Gallery, Brooklyn, will showcase his sculptures and other works in 2025. Liu has participated in exhibitions throughout the US, Europe, and Asia, including at the Museum of the Moving Image, Queens, NY, and is a recipient of an NYFA fellowship with commissions from the Whitney Museum’s Artport and Turbulence.org. He has an MFA from the School of Visual Arts, NYC, an MA from Yale University, and a BA from the University of California at Berkeley.
Laura Smith was born in Kansas and currently divides her time between Arizona and NYC. She will have a solo exhibition in 2025, Black Illuminated, at Everybody, Arizona. Smith was included in numerous group exhibitions and benefits at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, Fashion Moda, MAX FISH, Robert Miller Gallery, and Smack Melon all in NYC, and the Rijks Akademie/Fodor Museum, Amsterdam. Smith graduated from the New School for Social Research, New York, NY with a BA at Eugene Lang in Liberal Studies, with Honors, and at Parsons School of Design, with a BFA in Painting, with honors, and a Prix de Rome semi-finalist for the Netherlands.
About PS122 GALLERY
PS122 Gallery is a dynamic, collaborative not-for-profit space in the East Village for 45 years providing opportunities and support services for emerging and under-recognized artists. The gallery reopened in January 2019 after a six-year renovation process which brought the building up to code, doubled the gallery in size, and allowed the expansion of programming capacity of the arts and community organizations housed in the historic NYC-owned building.
Viewing Hours: Friday – Sunday, 1- 6 pm and by appointment
Location: PS122 Gallery, 150 1st Ave New York, NY 10009; ps122gallery.org
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