CHRIS CURRERI: THICK SKULL, THIN SKIN 

Esker Foundation, ongoing* – June 26
Hours: see eskerfoundation.art

Chris Curreri’s works complicate and dissolve seemingly dichotomous states of tenderness and violence; abjection and beauty; seduction and revulsion; self and other. They suggest an unravelling of the hermetic borders that have been constructed between us, others, and things in the world. 

This exhibition brings together sculptural and photographic bodies of work that form and frame a sense of porousness and consider the tension between moments where things become fixed and the possibility of continuous, nearly imperceptible shifts—the suggestion that bodies and matter can and do exist within a continuum of potentialities. 

Clay, photographs, human bodies, glass, concrete, and the earth have all undergone a transformation, shaped and moulded by force —by forces that are tender, by those that are unrelenting, or those that are elemental—to arrive in a moment of ambiguous suspension. Forms rhyme and resonate as vessels, portals, orifices, or thresholds and enigmatically offer the potential of inside and/or outside, exposure and/or concealment, pleasure, and/or potentially, pain. These works revel in productive confusion and address us as proxies of the vulnerable, powerful body. 

BIOGRAPHY
Chris Curreri is a Canadian artist who works with film, photography, and sculpture. His work is premised on the idea that things in the world are not defined by essential properties, but rather by the actual relationships that we establish with them. Recent exhibitions include: The Way We Are 1.0, Weserburg museum für moderne Kunst, Bremen (2019); Sleeping with a Vengeance, Dreaming of a Life, Litost, Prague (2018); Canadian Biennial, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (2017); Unruly Matter, Daniel Faria Gallery, Berlin/Toronto (2017); Compassionate Protocols, Callicoon Fine Arts, New York (2017); Central China International Ceramics Biennale, Henan Museum, Zhengzhou (2016); La Biennale de Montréal, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (2016); and So Be It, Gardiner Museum, Toronto (2015). He holds an MFA from the Milton Avery Graduate School for the Arts at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson.
chriscurreri.com

*Esker Foundation is currently temporarily closed in accordance with Provincial Emergency Public Health Orders. The gallery looks forward to being able to welcome visitors back to view the Chris Curreri exhibitions when it is safe to do so. Updates on the opening dates will be announced on eskerfoundation.art and on @Esker Foundation when known.

EXHIBITION RELATED EVENT: ARTIST TALK BY CHRIS CURRERI

Access: Location is wheelchair accessible

Esker Foundation 4th floor, 1011 9th Ave SE Calgary T2G 0H7