A Group Project Curated by Tchera Niyego
Sketch for sculpture by Robert Le Biez
Like the moth unceasingly propelled towards the light, oblivious to its death…
Like the burning spark, longing to be reunited with water…
Sweet Comic Valentine
You Make Me Smile With My Heart
You’re Looks Are Laughable,
Un-photographable
Yet You’re My Favorite Work Of Art
Is Your Figure-Less Than Greek
Is Your Mouth A Little Weak
When You Open It To Speak
Are You Smart
Don’t Change A Hair For Me
Not If You Care For Me
Stay Little Valentine Stay
Each Day Is Valentine’s Day
— My Funny Valentine, Chet Baker
Tchera Niyego brings together Ayşe Küçük, Ilsabé von Dallwitz, Carl Andre, Jennifer Contini Enderby, Michelle Sakhai, Robert LeBiez and Rudi Keimel in this very special show which explores the alternately political, passionate, melancoly, and spiritual means by which life is experienced and observed. The exhibition employs each artist’s own idiosyncratic fluency in multifarious forms of discourse from painting, and sculpture, to digital work, collage and impressionism. Through each of the poetic works, My Funny Valentine consciously conceals the borders between art and life, fiction and reality, and private and public.
Featuring legendary American Minimalist Carl Andre, My Funny Valentine utilizes the notoriety of Andres personal relationships (including that of his wife, artist Ana Mendieta) to form a layered conceptual show. From love gained, desired, to lost, Tchera Niygeo forms a dialogue that speaks to every viewer.
Captivated and inspired by Chet Baker’s tale of love and passion, Tchera Niyego is most agile at recreating the beauty of Baker’s blues in this powerful show. From the soft and gentle curves of Ilsabé von Dallwitz, to Rudi Keimel’s imagery of the horizon and landscape rendered in muted orange, yellow ochre, deep purple, My Funny Valentine brings to mind the sun burning the last bit of its energy before disappearing into the nightfall. A dexterous sculpture and colorist, Robert LeBiez invites viewers to rejoice with him in his contemplative and poignant rendition of the human body in its bare state.
A new breed of collage, painting and sculpture Jennifer Contini Enderby’s work invites viewers to a world full of vibrant colors and mysterious visages. Enderby gracefully incorporates picturesque elements into the collages she creates—works that stand for a reality observed through her own eyes, imagination and wedding dress. The result is a representation that is dreamy, capricious, and out of this world. Ayşe Küçük’s atmospheric palette captures the mood perfectly. Her art teaches the viewer that pure art springs from a meditative state of mind. Expressive and fantastical, the innovative imagery of this multifaceted artist reveals the hidden side of her subjects’ personalities.
Many of the works in My Funny Valentine have a delirious, hallucinatory air, as if the artists are attempting to transcend both the clinical environment of the gallery space, and the usual expectations of the art world.
hello, is this exhibition still running? if so for how long?