Monya Rowe Gallery is pleased to announce a group exhibition of painting, sculpture and photography titled Our Beginnings Never Know Our Ends featuring work by Larissa Bates, Joe Pflieger, Paco Pomet, Mark Schubert and Frances Trombly.

“In the play that became The Homecoming I saw a man enter a stark room and ask his question of a younger man sitting on an ugly sofa reading a racing paper. I somehow suspected that A was a father and that B was his son, but I had no proof. This was however confirmed a short time later when B (later to become Lenny) says to A (later to become Max), 'Dad, do you mind if I change the subject? I want to ask you something. The dinner we had before, what was the name of it? What do you call it? Why don't you buy a dog? You're a dog cook. Honest. You think you're cooking for a lot of dogs.' So since B calls A 'Dad' it seemed to me reasonable to assume that they were father and son. A was also clearly the cook and his cooking did not seem to be held in high regard. Did this mean that there was no mother? I didn't know. But, as I told myself at the time, our beginnings never know our ends."

 - Excerpt from Harold Pinter's 2005 Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech

Larissa Bates continues her investigation with gender identity and social politics by using the iconic image of a young wrestler to represent both the masculine and feminine characteristics of a male; in Bates’ world – purposely deprived of women - they represent the maternal male figure. Decidedly allegorical, each painting is set against detailed pastoral landscapes that depict wrestlers performing daily activities and rituals, such as; giving birth, sleeping or wrestling. Bates combines the classical sensibility of 16th century – 18th century landscape painting and the vivid palette and scale of Persian Miniatures with a contemporary twist. Bates received a BA from Hampshire College, Massachusetts. She recently exhibited a solo exhibition at The NADA Art fair, Miami with Monya Rowe Gallery. She lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

The subject matter of Joe Pflieger’s photography is rooted within a sense of history, privilege and landscape. Some images are of “historically accurate” reconstructions of interior spaces exhibited in museums.  These ideas of nature and history are confronted by an image making process that introduces the issues of the digital edit and the contemporary photographic document into play. Relying on the lateral quality of the compositions, open-ended progressions and seemingly mirrored multiples, the images begin to visually extend beyond the physical frame of each specific photograph. These compositional devices, the suspect tendencies of contemporary digital photography and final saturated printed image challenge the inherent linear progression of the historical subject matter and attempt to deny the broader documentarian tendencies of photography as a medium. Ultimately the final printed images require a continuous cycle of engagement that reveals new visual information in the active tense. 

Demonstrating a propensity for surrealism, Paco Pomet’s oil paintings converge fiction with reality. In some cases there the border is subtle between the horrible and the sublime, while in others it is more apparent. Pomet’s interests lie in exploring the gray area between commonplace and the absurd. Each painting subverts the beginning and the end. Pomet holds a Fine Arts Degree from Universidad de Granada, Spain; he has also undergone studies at The School of Visual Arts, New York and Loughborough College of Art & Design, Leicestershire, United Kingdom. He has recently exhibited a solo exhibition at Galería My Name's Lolita Art, Madrid, Spain. This is his first gallery exhibition in the US. Paco lives and works in Granada, Spain.

Mark Schubert’s abstract sculptures are formal arrangements of twisted metal and paint awkwardly possessing an anthropomorphic quality. Bursting with movement, each sculpture exudes a destructive component that is part of a bigger picture; each facet of the work – the physicality and the psychology – is broken down, reexamined and retold. Familiar objects  - here a distorted 55-gallon drum – often associated with ones’ environment (usually the home) subversively explore repression, anxiety and Americana. Schubert received a BFA from University of Wisconsin, Madison and completed graduate coursework in Painting at University of Iowa, Iowa City. In May 2010, Schubert will exhibit a site- specific installation at Monya Rowe Gallery. He lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

Frances Trombly uses trompe-l’oeil effects in her work to recreate mundane objects, making labor-intensive works through weaving, embroidery, cross stitch, and crochet. For this exhibition, the artist recreated blank lined notebook paper made from hand woven fabric; each piece of “paper” is crushed in to a ball, as if they have been deemed useless and tossed aside, where they are assembled in a group on the gallery floor. The precious reinvention of a mass-produced banal object raises questions about value, class, labor and the American way of life. Trombly received a BFA from the Maryland Institute of Art. She lives and works in Miami, Florida.


Opening reception sponsored by 

Upcoming: Josephine Halvorson, New Paintings, November 5 - January 9, 2010  

Gallery hours: Tuesday – Saturday 11 - 6 PM

Image on website home page:
Frances Trombly
Nine Notebook Papers, 2009
Hand woven cotton, Dimensions variable
Nine pieces: each piece 8.5 by 11 inches