Form, Content, Place

N. Dash / B. Wurtz / Virginia Overton

B. Wurtz, N. Dash, Virginia Overton: Form, Content, Place is the first one of a series of exhibitions held in Maisterravalbuena Lisbon gallery, aimed to present the work of one of its artists together with others who show their work for the first time in the gallery and in the city. Accordingly, they are not collective exhibitions, since the works shown do not deal with a specific topic trying to bring answers to a previous particular question. The goal of this exhibition is enhancing connections that do not have any link but just the choice of the artists and the display of the works in the exhibition space. In order to boost those links, the title of these exhibitions shall be the name of the artists with a subtitle mentioning the aspects that define their practice most.

N. Dash

This first exhibition gathers together the work of B. Wurtz, artist of the gallery, with the work of Virginia Overton and N. Dash. The three artists live in New York, they belong to different generations and it is the first time they are exhibiting their work together. The subtitle of the exhibition, form, content, place refers to the nature of a found object, its historical or social meaning and its connection with our habits.

The three artists share a phenomenological approach to the materials and the objects in inextricable connection with their own experiences, making it open to a symbolic transformation without altering or hiding its shape.

Virginia Overton

B. Wurtz’s and Virginia Overton’s sculptural practice is characterized by collecting everyday objects- most of them connected to consumption habits-, assembling them and grouping them together, resulting in sculptural pieces that, instead of ennobling these common-use objects or changing their meaning, they highlight both their formal quality and their function.

Wurtz has created a large-format sculpture for the exhibition in the shape of a cube presented as a container and, at the same time, as a stage for small objects grouped together and forming a narrative through materials of common use, such as plastic bags, wire, buttons, socks or laces. Overton presents three sculptures made of salvaged materials that the artist picked up from different places. As well as in Wurtz’s work, hers is the result of gathering together these objects with a minimal gesture that enlightens the inner poetic qualities of those materials.

B. Wurtz

N. Dash shows two wall pieces made specifically for this exhibition. Her paintings are the result of assembling and overlapping the different elements that make up the entire piece, in a way that the three-dimensional and sculptural qualities of the material are highlighted. She includes elements of terrestrial and symbolic nature, such as adobe or jute. The artist treats the surfaces in a way that emphasizes the memories and the passing of time implicit in these materials that are linked to the way of understanding a certain place.

B. Wurtz, N. Dash, Virginia Overton: Form, Content, Place
October 21 – November 16, 2017 / Maisterravalbuena, Lisbon
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