TURNS OF DUTY CLICKTY CLACK

A selection of work by PROTO Gallery roster artists, presented as an Artsy online exclusive exhibition during the 2020 isolation and quarantine period, due to the closures of our physical gallery spaces at PROTO Gallery and PROTO GOMEZ. The exhibition is a brief survey of current work by PROTO Gallery’s represented artists as well as several contextual works which have not yet been exhibited.

The word roster has its roots in early 18th century English and Dutch, arising from various forms of words related to roasting meat on a gridiron. The grill became the visual referent for the grid of lines on paper where an organization’s turns of duty and leave were itemized, now replaced by a spreadsheet. The second half of the exhibition’s title is a bit of slang onomatopoeia describing the sound of a computer keyboard, which is the basic reality for the PROTO Gallery roster in Spring of 2020 as we communicate and collaborate in social isolation.

Jen Hitchings investigates the significance of communication, camaraderie, perception, and memory in contemporary American culture, using painted images of places and events where people gather and interact. In 2017, her work appeared at PROTO Gallery in the WE LOST OUR TAILS group exhibition (curated by MEN Gallery, LES NYC) as well as in group exhibitions at The Wassaic Project, Geoffrey Young, Pierogi, and 86 Orchard Street, and several of her paintings were recently installed at Newark Liberty Airport. She also presented a large outdoor mural on the facade of Ideal Glass in New York City in summer 2017. She has had two recent solo exhibitions, CRY ME A RIVER at MEN Gallery and FORK IN THE ROAD in 2018 as well as a solo feature at The One River School in 2019. She was a partner at Transmitter in Brooklyn and is now an independent curator and advisor via her consulting firm, Studio Associate.

Thomas Lendvai creates large-scale sculptural installations that occupy, react, and influence the spaces which surround and contain them. Lendvai received his MFA from the School of Visual Arts in 2002. He has had solo exhibitions at Garis & Hahn and Odetta Gallery, and has participated in group exhibitions at several spaces including PROTO Gallery and the Hungarian Cultural Center in NYC. His largest solo exhibition, LANDSCAPE, opened in September of 2018 at PROTO Gallery in Hoboken. He is currently completing a large public commission for the The New York State Thruway Authority, Arts Westchester and the Arts Council of Rockland, to be located at the Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge Path, constructed from salvaged steel from the demolished Tappan Zee Bridge.

Jackie Mock creates humorous sculptural narratives, simultaneously sincere and contrived, that elaborate on the small thoughts and gestures of everyday life. They are personal curios of her own making, which highlight the artist’s travels and social interactions, solidified as skillfully-crafted chests, boxes, and framed collages, often labelled and cataloged with a 19th-century quirky absurdity. Jackie Mock holds a BFA from Parsons The New School for Design and has exhibited her work recently at Partner and Son, Denny Gallery, Matteawan Gallery, PROTO GOMEZ, as well as the Portal and SPRING/BREAK art fairs. Her largest solo exhibition to date, MAGIC SHOW, opened in the fall of 2019 at PROTO Gallery.

Denise Treizman is an artist born and raised in Chile, now based in New York with a studio at Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts Studio Program in Manhattan. She holds a MFA in Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts, and has been invited to numerous residencies including, Ox-Bow, MASS MoCA Assets for Artists, and Vermont Studio Center. Her work repurposes and collages ready-made found objects, often combining them with brightly-glazed ceramics to create a unique composition.Treizman created an interactive public artwork for FLOW.16 at Randall’s Island Park and has been included in several recent group exhibitions at PROTO Gallery, Wave Hill, Ortega y Gasset Projects, and Alfa Gallery. In 2017 she has already had solo exhibitions at Soho20 Gallery, +/- Project Space, and at MEN Gallery, and she was the ArtSlant Round 5 Juried Winner for Installation Art. THE MARSHMALLOW METHOD opened in May of 2018 at PROTO Gallery, which was her largest solo exhibition to date.

Rob Ventura investigates the fields of phytomorphology, the study of the physical and external form of plants, and phytotomy, the study of the interior structure of plants at the cellular level. This interplay between exterior and interior forms metaphorically reflects the psychoanalytic relation of the conscious to the unconscious. Rob was the curator of TWILIGHT OF THE IDOLS and CALLING ALL at PROTO Gallery and recently presented a solo exhibition of paintings and ceramics, FALSE INDIGO, at PROTO Gallery in 2017. He has recently participated in group exhibitions at SLA307, Signal Gallery, Freight + Volume, and Marquee Projects. His first solo exhibition in Manhattan, BLACK HENBANE, opened at MEN Gallery in the fall of 2018 He holds a MFA in Painting and Drawing from Boston University.

Ian White Williams not only produces simple and elegant paintings and drawings, but sculpture and performance as well. He has exhibited extensively in Philadelphia as well as around the United States, including a recent group show at Edward Thorp Gallery in New York. An accomplished teacher and curator, he has recently assembled group exhibitions for the Bushwick Open Studios, PROTO Gallery, and alternative spaces in Philadelphia, and has been included in several group exhibitions at PROTO Gallery including WE LOST OUR TAILS and MEGALODON as well as a duo-ehibition with Ellen Siebers in 2016. He recently co-curated AMALAMALAMOO, a Pop up exhibition of 5 Philadelphia painters, and has participated in group shows at Boecker Contemporary, Black Box and JB Kline Gallery. He has had recent solo exhibitions at PROTO Gallery in Hoboken and PROTO GOMEZ in New York City.

• Images from this exhibition are coming soon.