NADA Miami
Petra Cortright
Boris Camaca
Tenant of Culture
05.12.19 - 08.12.19For its first participation in NADA, Miami, NICOLETTI contemporary, London, presents works by three artists part of its core programme of exhibition: Petra Cortright (b. 1986, Santa Barbara, CA), Boris Camaca (1987, FR) and Tenant of Culture (1990, NL).
Created in Photoshop with images sourced from the internet, the digital paintings of Petra Cortright revisit art historical archetypes such as still life and landscape paintings. Here, however, the abstract landscapes in both 17 marzo 1998” 63 sentenza corte costituzionale_authentic navajo rugs, 2019 and TBI (filename – TURNERCROPZA8__36h x 46.5w__linen), 2019, take the form of ‘fictions of nature’, of which the motifs are exclusively stemming from the infinite flow of virtual images. Whereas the complex titling of Cortright’s works evokes the algorithmic condition of online perception and communication, it also adds interpretative layers, as in “peanut missy” +sarah+ma- donna Sarasota Florida, 2018, suggesting that the primary materials used to create the vibrantly red, blue and black roses may have been obtained from typing a series of keywords in a search engine.
Cortright’s paintings are displayed alongside photographs by French artist Boris Camaca, who stages minute visual scenarios that investigate processes of identity formation via reflections on self-representation, gender fluidity and the economy of images. The confluence of saturated colours, enigmatic characters and improbable settings generates eerie, uncanny scenes, of which the unapologetically pulp aesthetics is used by Camaca to ironically, yet incisively, comment on the social and political questions of our time.
Finally, London-based artist Tenant of Culture (the alias for Hendrickje Schimmel’s artistic practice) presents new works part of her ongoing series Sample Sale (2018–), in which she deconstructs pairs of shoes that are then reconfigured into sculptural assemblages. Realised specifically for NADA 2019, the Sample Sale (Miami Beach) series, 2019, comprises a group of three high heels sculptures, made of recycled shoes combined with cement, plaster, scrap leather and epoxy clay. Characteristic of Tenant of Culture’s practice, which analyses the ethics and politics inscribed in garments and fashion styles, the Sample Sale (Miami Beach) series examines the socio-historical meaning and value of high heel shoes as the epitome of female glamour, sexiness and desirability.