Underdonk

Left Off brings together three artists whose methodologies involve phases of stopping and starting again.  They return to places, moments, and things, to pick up, make use of, and refresh.  These days our upended lives depend on our ability to multitask, and switch gears.  Without this flexibility we would be forever stuck, unable to imagine different points of view and unable to cope with change.  Now going into over half a year since the current pandemic arrived, normal ways of planning and getting from point A to point B are being impacted in every possible way.  The artists in Left Off employ a similar flexibility in their work through their embrace of modifications, imperfections, and chance.

Included in Left Off is a zine made by Lizzie Wright that takes the form of a photo album.  Current iPhone pics are blended with images of the artist as a teenager and infant- it is a glimpse into another person’s world, both remembered and forgotten.  In her sculpture, Wright often repurposes synthetic and natural materials, and borrows parts from previous works to make new ones.  Objects and patterns that cross her path can have multiple lives, multiple uses.  These recycled elements retain scuffs and markings that are offset by the spell-binding glow of light.  Matt Wycoff’s work reveals a diverse collection of objects, both represented and integrated into his two-dimensional realm.  Rendered in graphite and colored pencil, Wycoff’s subjects repeat and sometimes spin-off from themselves.  Forms of figures on a Greek vase in one drawing appear in others as people walking in the dark.  Also included in the exhibition is a work from a series of paintings made on pages torn from finished issues of The New Yorker.  Mónica Palma’s materials and tools are an essential part of her making.  Her paper wall works are cut with saws and appear to be pushed in places to their structural limit, and yet they prevail.  Palma paints the front and back of her works using her hands or a sponge, and then applies pressure to bring them into shape.  She uses her own body to create folds and indentations, or she takes the work outside the studio on her commute, squeezing it in subway gates or other discovered places.

Lizzie Wright was born in Lafayette, Louisiana, in 1979 and lives and works in New York City and the Catskills.  She received an MFA in Sculpture from Yale University.  She has exhibited at a variety of spaces including Good Children Gallery, New Orleans; Rawson Projects, NY; Essex Flowers, NY; Nicelle Beauchene Gallery, NY; Camayuhs, Atlanta; Artist Curated Projects, Los Angeles; and Adds Donna, Chicago.  Her work has been reviewed by various publications including the New Yorker and New Art City.

Matt Wycoff is an artist, writer, woodworker, and independent curator.  He was born in Anderson, South Carolina in 1980, and holds a degree in sculpture from the Kansas City Art Institute.  Matt Wycoff is a MacDowell fellow, and has been the recipient of studio fellowships at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts (Omaha, Nebraska), and The Urban Culture Project (Kansas City, Missouri).  Recent exhibitions of his work include Derek Eller Gallery (New York), Vanity Projects (New York and Miami), Joan (Los Angeles), and Kijidome (Boston).  His short fiction has been published in Washington Square Review.  Matt Wycoff is currently co-curator of the traveling exhibition “Young, Gifted, and Black: The Lumpkin-Boccuzzi Family Collection of Contemporary Art,” now on view at Lehman College in Bronx, New York.  Matt Wycoff lives and works in Brooklyn and Stephentown, New York.

Mónica Palma was born and raised in Mexico City, she studied visual art at the Universidad Veracruzana in Xalapa, Veracruz.  In 2008 she received her MFA in Painting and Printmaking at Virginia Commonwealth University.  She has been living and working in Brooklyn since 2008.  Her work has been shown at TSA (NYC), 245 Varet Street (NYC), Ortega y Gasset Projects (NYC), the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City), Soloway Gallery (NYC), Underdonk Gallery (NYC), and Essex Flowers (NYC).

*Please note that Underdonk will adhere to the Covid-19 guidelines by limiting the number of visitors at a time, and requiring visitors to wear masks and observe social distancing of six feet while in the gallery.

1329 Willoughby Ave #211

Brooklyn, NY 11237

L train to Jefferson St

www.underdonk.com