"NIGHT CAGE"

May 16 - June 19, 2015

Brian Kokoska

Chloe Seibert

Johannes Vogt Gallery is pleased to announce Night Cage, a two-person exhibition by Brian Kokoska and Chloe Seibert. For this installation, Kokoska has altered the gallery space entirely in baby pink whereby subtle variations in wall and carpet shades set a disruptive and soothing environment for both his and Seibert's individual works.

Brian Kokoska's paintings explore sensibilities of a post-human "face" in which each composition is built from a series of gestures and recognizable iconography and symbols. The works are intended to both blend into the pink environment yet also maintain a hypnotic presence that interacts with the sculptural elements in the room.

His new monochromatic sculptures are built up from various acquired objects including snakes, Droopy the dog (an anthropomorphic cartoon dog introduced in 1943), rare collectible teddy bears, blankets, caskets and furniture. Each sculpture is intentionally altered and rearranged to induce a sort of hyper sentimentality or overwhelming sadness. Additionally, Kokoska is exhibiting a new work that is a selection from his collection of acquired prison drawings. Their intimate scale, cute subject matter and loving text is both personal to the artists childhood and to his current practice.

Chloe Seibert uses scale and expression to evoke psychological and physical responses. In this selection of her work, gestural and aggressive mark making creates vague facial representations out of pedestrian materials and a bland palette. The works are decisively haphazard and familiarly disgruntled. She will be presenting two wall sculptures and a large head statue.

BRIAN KOKOSKA (b. 1988) is an artist working in New York. Recent solo and group exhibitions include American Medium (Brooklyn), Preteen Gallery (Mexico City), Adams and Ollman (Portland), The Still House Group (Brooklyn), East Hampton Shed (East Hampton) and Nicelle Beauchene (New York). Forthcoming solo exhibitions include Valentin (Paris) and Smart Objects (Los Angeles).

CHLOE SEIBERT (b. 1989) is an artist working in Chicago. Recent exhibitions include Interstate Projects (Brooklyn), Punk Cafe (Melbourne), Courtney Blades (Chicago), and Queer Thoughts.