ALEX PAIK Paper Constructs

May 3, 2014 through June 21, 2014

In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. The word consonant comes from Latin oblique stem cōnsonant-, from cōnsonāns (littera) ”sounding-together (letter)”, a calque of Greek σύμφωνονsýmphōnon (plural sýmphōna). In Paik’s work, the relationship between the cerebral and personal are junctures of such harmonious construct; it’s between these ambiguous states – the sculpted and the painted, the physical and metaphysical – that language is formed. The works are derived from a sense of composition between the ambient characteristic that colour has on space and the physicality of form.

“These paper constructions mimic the way that the voices of a fugue are continuously repeated, transposed, inverted, and folded into themselves. Each piece focuses on one unit as its subject which is then repeated in different configurations as the piece grows.  I use repetition not so much as a compositional device, but more as a way to explore and maximize the possibilities of the unit.” Alex Paik

Alex Paik was born in 1981 in Oxnard California and currently lives and works in Brooklyn.  His work has been exhibited recently at Millsaps College, Space 4 Art: San Diego, Nancy Margolis Gallery, and Parallel Art Space. Recent solo shows include Recapitulation Bop at Gallery Joe, Start to Move at Tiger Strikes Asteroid Philadelphia, and Polyphonic Improvisation at U Turn Art Space.  Paik’s work has been in several art fairs, including Drawing Now: Paris, Pulse:New York and Miami, artMRKT San Francisco, and Texas Contemporary. He is currently represented by Gallery Joe in Philadelphia and is the director of Tiger Strikes Asteroid New York, an artist-run exhibition space in Bushwick.