FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

MICHAEL COOPER: collages + paintings

NICK HOLLIDAY: collages

January 6 – February 5, 2005

PAVEL ZOUBOK GALLERY is pleased to announce the opening of two solo exhibitions by MICHAEL COOPER and NICK HOLLIDAY. Please join us for the opening reception on Thursday, January 6, from 6-8pm, or during the run of the exhibition, which continues through February 5. The gallery is located at: 533 West 23rd Street (between 10th & 11th Avenues) Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 10am-6pm.

The expressive power of the grid is a subject that artists throughout history have explored in numerous ways, from the perspectival studies of the Old Masters to the colorful abstractions of Mondrian, and the Minimalist constructions of Sol Lewitt and Carl Andre. An invaluable tool for painters and sculptors alike, the grid represents the very foundation of compositional structure. For both MICHAEL COOPER and NICK HOLLIDAY it informs both the sense and form of their mixed-media collages, which combine elements of abstraction with the language of mass culture. While the materials they employ speak of a world with endless associative possibilities, it is the structural and metaphorical regularity of the grid that gives coherence to their vision.

In the collages and paintings of MICHAEL COOPER, color lies at the heart of an obsessive process of collecting that has stretched over some thirty years. Working in a medium commonly associated with layering and a certain material density, Cooper engages a decidedly minimal vocabulary of form and color. His monochromes of found images and objects (movie tickets, product labels, stamps, buttons, etc.) are at once rich in visual and cultural reference and coolly minimalist in the simplicity of their arrangement. His collages find their painterly counterpoint in a series of works on canvas that continue the artist's exploration of color. Michael Cooper has exhibited at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery ( Buffalo, NY ), the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts ( Richmond, VA ) and O.K. Harris Gallery ( New York ). This is his first solo exhibition at Pavel Zoubok Gallery.

NICK HOLLIDAY creates meticulous geometric compositions that combine knowing reference to the history of art with a keen understanding of popular culture. Drawing from a wide range of sources (anatomical illustrations, fine art reproductions, fragments from vintage magazines, etc.), the artist creates rhythmic visual arrangements that have an almost topographical sense of space. Many of his collages contain enigmatic figural references that convey a sense of physical and psychological dislocation. In other works he moves closer to pure abstraction, with images concealed under translucent veils of pure color. This is Nick Holliday's first solo exhibition in New York.

For additional information and images please contact Julie Brunner Cross at (212) 675 7490 or [email protected]