Deborah Schamoni

The exhibition will bring together a series of new larger scale paintings by Paul Gondry with sculptures by KAYA, made from modified Lamps and Catacomb Mirror works, that were developed in collaboration with Berlin based sound artist Nicolas An Xedro.

MX is an exhibition and performance space based in New York City’s Chinatown. Offering a historical and anthropological lens to contemporary practices, MX presents its young and emerging artists alongside works from established artists and historical, cultural artifacts. MX also strives to expand the traditional role of the art gallery as exhibition space by fostering the spontaneity and breadth of experiences that come with open dialog, performance, events, residencies, and especially by focusing on the inclusion of marginalized voices.

The work of Paul Gondry is set in a fictional dark age brought upon by a dying civilization stricken by gluttony and indulgence. His narratives borrow from European myths and fables as they have been passed down from illuminated manuscripts, Dutch etchings, and RPG video games. Borrowing from those visual languages, his paintings and video work describe the inner worlds of characters who know little more than petulance and decay, save for the meager offering of escapism in magic. They ask if the impulse towards escapism is the symptom or the contagion; the cure or the anesthetic.

KAYA is Kerstin Brätsch and Debo Eilers. Both artists consider their own practices – painting and sculpture – the subject matter and base material of a conceptual and multidisciplinary
work. KAYA is interested in continual processes of displacement, variation and reproduction through appropriations of digital imaging. In collaboration with their muse Kaya, they elaborate on the possible creation of a third body and thereby with the potential extension of their sculptural and painterly investigations. Beyond being triggered by an interest in youth culture by involving another person and their own personal histories, KAYA is an approach that explores unknown territories, embraces the unpredictable, and diffuses classifications while challenging notions of authorship, originality, and exchange value.