fragments for studying what's leftover

Team Gallery will present an exhibition of two new sculptures by Ross Knight. Entitled fragments for studying what’s leftover, the exhibition will run from the 8th of November through the 17th of December 2005. The gallery is located at 527 West 26th Street, between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues, on the ground floor. Ross Knight’s contradictory sculptures seem to have been frozen at precisely the moment when their component parts first came together or, conversely, in the instant before they completely fall apart. They hold together just barely, but in a form that also appears to be inevitable. Not only are Knight’s materials always in tenuous balance, but their meaning is composed of diametrically opposed impulses and values that court destabilization — they are both epic and diminutive; sprawling and weightless; elegant and sloppy; poetic and insulting; brilliant and idiotic; considered and thrown away. Akin to three-dimensional drawings in space, Knight’s sculptures wrestle with notions of authenticity, ephemerality and severity. Without taking themselves too seriously, Knight’s rigorous and carefully cobbled together constructions reference a battery of practices. How do three-dimensional objects always invoke the functional and in what way does Knight parody these implications? What exactly is a primary structure; what is secondary? Like minimalist masterworks turned over to the likes of Jacques Tati or Buster Keaton, Knight creates ludicrous balancing acts of sensual, yet debased, materials which are both machined and quirked-out. Among the sculptors whose works immediately come to mind are Robert Grosvenor, David Smith, Alexander Calder and Panamarenko, although Knight’s pieces also appear artless, absent of such dignified references. These are pratfall sculptures, but like the work of slapstick’s most accomplished practitioners, such as Chaplin, they hide an exacting intelligence and a tremendous skill. This is Knight’s fourth one-person show at Team. He has exhibited his work widely in group exhibitions throughout Europe and the US. Knight’s work will be included in the forthcoming Wanas Foundation exhibition in Sweden. For further information and/or photographs please call the gallery at 212.279.9219. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10am to 6pm.