Deborah Barrett: Bestiary
Adam Baumgold Gallery, New York
April 19 — May 25, 2001
Adam Baumgold Gallery presents an exhibition by Deborah Barrett, "Bestiary," of constructions and works on paper.
The constructions range from toy trophy plaques, to plaster and wood sculptures of animal heads, to animals standing upright in the manner of humans. Using wood, fabric and animal hides, the work is a fusion of toy, totem and reliquary, as when a two-legged horsehair rabbit stands atop a concrete base like a beguiling monument in a strange, haunting park.
Also included in the exhibition is graphite and mixed media works on paper, photogravures and Iris prints of animals in their various guises and transformations.
In all these works, there is a sampling of the uneasy and contradictory relationship of man to animal. A clue to Deborah Barrett's mixed intentions can be found in Charles Baudelaire when he wrote that the toy is a child's first art object and invariably that toy is an animal hibernating at the root of our complex, conflicting nostalgia.
This is Deborah Barrett's second solo exhibition at Adam Baumgold Gallery. Her work is included in private collections throughout Europe and the US and has been in the New York Times, The New Yorker and Rolling Stone. She currently lives and works in California.
ADAM BAUMGOLD GALLERY
74 East 79th Street, New York, NY 10021
www.adambaumgoldgallery.com
