Pressrelease
Erica Mahinay ‘Sunbathing in the Shadow of the Volcano’
October 3 2014 – January 30 2015 T293 Naples
T293 is pleased to present Sunbathing in the Shadow of the Volcano, the first solo show in Italy of Los Angeles-based artist Erica Mahinay. Sunbathing in the Shadow of the Volcano extracts from traditional and familiar tropes of the nude, the still life, and the landscape in order to play with the complexities and absurdity of a contemporary human condition in which the options for reinventing the self are countless and accessible. Coming as a result of Erica Mahinay’s one-month residency at the gallery, the project explores what it is to be and to become, taking on longstanding questions about the meaning of life by scratching the surfaces that limit and shape our experience.
Blurring the boundaries between gesture and action, as well as between presence and absence, Mahinay sets an existential landscape within the gallery walls. In the series Thin Skins, she both questions and celebrates the possibility of contemporary painting practice. Translucent surfaces expose the structure of the stretcher bars, highlighting the thinness of surface and the tenuousness of illusion. Surface seduces and acts as a penetrable boundary. Painting becomes a visual notation on the cusp of articulation—just at the tip of the tongue.
Not only surface, but also the weight of work is at play. In the series Sand Slumps, Erica Mahinay sidesteps the monumentality that usually informs our idea of sculpture, and employs gravity to dictate the object’s impermanent position. Placing cast resin fruits and silicon molds atop sand-filled forms, she updates the traditional vanitas arrangement and presents a morphed version of idealized, perfectly molded beauty.
Affected by the energy of the Neapoletanian environment, Erica Mahinay deploys volcanic sand as a means to recall a both disruptive and regenerating source. Used in both its absence and presence, the volcanic earth becomes either the mold used to cast the plaster form or the filling and body for Sand Slumps. In her plaster works, such as Golden Springs and Fountain of Youth, gold-leafed circular forms posit the possibility for a cyclical and mystically renewable resource, conveniently poured from a tap.
Pairing narcissism and hubris with vulnerability and desire, Sunbathing in the Shadow of the Volcano aims to manifest the paradoxical, natural tension that occurs in defining and redefining our selves. Enlisting constant reinvention, the failure and deflation of these efforts become exposed, and the project embodies the condition of the now in order to question the possibility for composing the future self.
Erica Mahinay, Sunbathing in the Shadow of the Volcano, Installation at T293 Napoli, 4 October 2014 – 30 January 2015, Foto: Maurizio Esposito
Erica Mahinay, Sunbathing in the Shadow of the Volcano, Installation at T293 Napoli, 4 October 2014 – 30 January 2015, Foto: Maurizio Esposito
Erica Mahinay, Sunbathing in the Shadow of the Volcano, Installation at T293 Napoli, 4 October 2014 – 30 January 2015, Foto: Maurizio Esposito
Erica Mahinay, Sunbathing in the Shadow of the Volcano, Installation at T293 Napoli, 4 October 2014 – 30 January 2015, Foto: Maurizio Esposito
Erica Mahinay, Sunbathing in the Shadow of the Volcano, Installation at T293 Napoli, 4 October 2014 – 30 January 2015, Foto: Maurizio Esposito
Erica Mahinay, Thin Skin #36: Reflection Pool (Soft Vitrine), 2014, oil on canvas, treated fabric, plastic, gold leaf / olio su tela, tessuto trattato, plastica, foglia d’oro, 70 x 94 inches (177.80 x 238.76 cm), Unique, Foto: Maurizio Esposito
Erica Mahinay, Thin Skin #35: Second Nature (Bleached), 2014, oil on canvas, bleached and treated fabric / olio su tela, tessuto candeggiato e trattato, 84 x 66 inches (213.36 x 167.64 cm), Unique, Foto: Maurizio Esposito
Erica Mahinay, Thin Skin #48: Blank Place, 2014, oil on canvas, treated fabric / olio su tela, tessuto trattato, 84 x 66 inches (213.36 x 167.64 cm), Unique, Foto: Maurizio Esposito
Erica Mahinay, Thin Skin #44: Thermal Source/Plastic Space, 2014, oil on canvas, treated fabric, plastic / olio su tela, tessuto trattato, plastica, 94 x 70 inches (238.76 x 177.80 cm), Unique, Foto: Maurizio Esposito
Erica Mahinay, Thin Skin #34: Tip of the Tongue (Bleached), 2014, oil on canvas, bleached and treated fabric / olio su tela, tessuto candeggiato e trattato, 84 x 66 inches (213.36 x 167.64 cm), Unique, Foto: Maurizio Esposito
Erica Mahinay, Thin Skin #41: Flora, 2014, oil on linen and treated fabric, plastic, glitter / olio su lino e tessuto trattato, plastica, brillantini, 32 x 24 inches (81.28 x 60.96 cm), Unique | Photo by Maurizio Esposito
Erica Mahinay, Sand Slump #1: Sprayed with Clones, 2014, canvas, spray paint, volcanic sand, silicon, resin / tela, vernice spray, sabbia vulcanica, silicone, resina, 30 x 23 x 19 cm (11 ¾” x 9″ x 7 ½”), Unique, Foto: Maurizio Esposito
Erica Mahinay, Sunbathing in the Shadow of the Volcano, Installation at T293 Napoli, 4 October 2014 – 30 January 2015, Foto: Maurizio Esposito
Erica Mahinay, Sunbathing in the Shadow of the Volcano, Installation at T293 Napoli, 4 October 2014 – 30 January 2015, Foto: Maurizio Esposito
Erica Mahinay, Thin Skin #42: Power of Invisibility (Night Vision), 2014, oil on treated fabric / olio su tessuto trattato 52 x 36 inches (132.08 x 91.44 cm), Unique, Foto: Maurizio Esposito
Erica Mahinay, Sunbathing in the Shadow of the Volcano, Installation at T293 Napoli, 4 October 2014 – 30 January 2015, Foto: Maurizio Esposito
Erica Mahinay, Golden Spring #4, 2014, plaster, gold leaf, brass tap / gesso, foglia d’oro, rubinetto in ottone, 9 x 8 x 9 inches (22.86 x 20.32 x 22.86 cm), Unique, Foto: Maurizio Esposito
Erica Mahinay, Golden Spring #2, 2014, plaster, gold leaf, brass tap / gesso, foglia d’oro, rubinetto in ottone, 23 x 17 x 9 inches (58.42 x 43.18 x 22.86 cm), Unique, Foto: Maurizio Esposito