Reservoir
press release
Reservoir
Opening Wednesday, September 8th, 5-8pm
Ever Baldwin, Chris Bertholf, Deirdre Swords, and Karen Tepaz
September 8th-October 16th, 2021
Organized by Elisa Soliven
Underdonk is pleased to present Reservoir, a four person exhibition with Ever Baldwin, Chris Bertholf, Deirdre Swords, and Karen Tepaz. Please join us for an opening reception on Wednesday, September 8th from 5-8pm. The works in this exhibition are united by a shared desire to create both physical and pictorial environments that envision the human form, through the subjective vantage points of their makers. Each of these artists synthesizes their distinct style into a personal unified vision.
Both Swords and Tepaz work in clay but have unique approaches. Swords, working with her hands and a deep knowledge of the human figure, pulls her gestures out of the clay. Her glazes build on the expressions of her hands and fingers. Moving around a totemic structure the work manifests both continuity and newness in the trials of the human spirit. Tepaz explores the infinite combinations of form and color with her sculptures. From each perspective, the work shifts and transforms space. Curves and loops become energy flowing. Baldwin hand carves and charres the frames for his landscape paintings that reference drag makeup and wigs, and Art Deco architecture. Bertholf constructs dream spaces with ghostly figures. As a scenic painter for the opera, his sculptures become deconstructed sets that one can see from various angles. His paintings bring together disparate images to form a fragmented whole.
All the works in Reservoir evoke the human form and bodily environments with an emphasis on synthesizing symbols and metaphors.
Ever Baldwin is a painter in Catskill NY. His work has been included in solo and group exhibitions in New York, Chicago, Boston, Toronto, and Berlin, most recently with JAG Projects at Hudson House (solo presentation forthcoming), on view as part of The Forge Collection in Taghkanic, NY, Opalka Gallery in Albany NY, and Left Field Gallery in Los Osos, CA. He is a 2021 recipient of the NYFA/NYSCA Fellowship in Painting. Ever has attended residency programs at The Ragdale Foundation, ACRE, The Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild, and The Atlantic Center for the Arts. Ever has worked with children, teens, and adults as a teaching artist for over fifteen years. He holds a BFA in painting from The Maryland Institute College of Art and an MFA from The School of The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
Chris Bertholf is a painter and sculptor living between Rhinebeck, NY and Brooklyn, NY. His work has been exhibited at John Davis Gallery, Transmitter Gallery, TV Projects, Janet Kurnatowski Gallery, Feature Inc., the Brucennial, and Underdonk Gallery. Chris has had a residency at the Gamli Skolí in Hrísey, Iceland, has a BFA in painting from Wichita State University and attended the International School of Art in Montecastello di Vibio in 1998 and 2000. He is also an alumnus of the New York Studio School and continues to take classes there. A founding member of Underdonk Gallery, Chris is currently a scenic artist and sculptor at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.
Karen Tepaz (b.1984) is a visual artist born in Los Angeles, CA. Tepaz’s sculptures, drawings and installations have been exhibited nationally and in New York City at venues including, Sardine Gallery, Thomas Hunter Projects, Cactus Gallery, Tiger Strikes Asteroid Los Angeles, Copyright Berlin, Fordham University, The Shirley Fiterman Art Center, BMCC, 12.26 Gallery, and Underdonk, among others. She has participated in residencies at Yaddo in Saratoga Springs and Art Farm Nebraska. In 2018 Tepaz co-curated “Flat Touch” and “In Between the Lines” in the Steuben Gallery at Pratt Institute. Tepaz holds a BFA in Ceramics from California State University, Long Beach (2010) and an MFA in Sculpture from Yale University School of Art (2013) Tepaz lives and works in Brooklyn, NY
Deirdre Swords began her professional artistic journey in the Williamsburg, New York art scene in the late 90s. Since then she has participated in a number of group exhibits in New York City and surrounding areas and had two one-person shows at the John Davis Gallery in Hudson, New York. She works in sculpture (primarily ceramics) and painting. Her passion for creating visual art is complemented by her commitment to art activism. She is currently living and working in Harlem, New York City.
Gallery Hours: Saturday and Sunday 1-6pm
1329 Willoughby Ave.
Second Floor
Brooklyn, NY 11237
347-251-5556
