A Counterfactual Narrative
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
"Remainder Remains"
Tatiana Flis & Elizabeth Alexander
August 28–September 29, 2019
Reception: Friday, September 6, 2019 | 5:00–8:00 PM
Tea and Talk: Saturday, September 7, 2019 | 3:00–4:00 PM
"zero divergence" by Tatiana Flis
"Courtyard" by Elizabeth Alexander
BOSTON, MA––Beginning August 28th Fountain Street opens an exhibition by Tatiana Flis and Elizabeth Alexander. “Remainder Remains” offers a rich combination of abstract and concrete imagery where the illusion of balance and solidity shift and disorient space. In highlighting that which has been left behind, the exhibit evokes the memory of what has been taken, forgotten, lost, or stolen. An initial impression reveals other potential realities, as in a counterfactual narrative, and gradually discloses their layers of meaning.
Through the use of found imagery and collage, common threads emerge between the two artists. They each unearth elements of human behavior and emotion that we culturally tend to ignore. In addition, “Remainder Remains” features drawing and sculpture, and includes a sound and image series referencing the Gardner art heist. Throughout the gallery, the artists’ shared themes of disappearance and desire take hold. The result is an exhibition of generational loss and the marks of what remains.
Tatiana Flis’ large, monochromatic, abstract drawings evoke living forms such as plants and the human body. These biomorphic forms create an illusion of space pushing in all directions. Flis’ intricate and complex shaded masses are joined by architectural and constructed forms that meld the abstract with the concrete. These components intermingle, through loose mark-making and meticulous graphic renderings, creating remnants of lost energy that are pulsating at the edge of the subconscious.
Image: Untitled, charcoal on paper
Elizabeth Alexander upends antiquated ideals and promises through a labor-intensive process of deconstruction and reconstruction. Appropriating once coveted domestic symbols of beautification and success such as wallpaper, upholstered furniture, and porcelain ware, Alexander’s collages and décollages survey the cost and absurdity of social climbing through material veils. Alexander’s works are anchored by a series she began in 2015 as a visiting artist at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. “Rearranging the Gardner” is a love letter to an institution that shaped Alexander’s aesthetic fascinations, including its public display of loss.
Image: Heirloom: Holly II, hand cut found porcelain
For press-ready images contact Marie Craig at 774.286.1800 director@fsfaboston.com