Opening reception: Saturday, March 2, 2019 from 3-5 p.m.
Nicholas Crombach : The End of the Chase
Nicholas Crombach produces sculptural work that engages with subjects derived from styles and motifs attributed to the fine and decorative arts from past eras. He creates contemporary confrontations by disrupting these histories through the addition of playful and unexpected materials, details and gestures.
In his work, Fetch, Crombach creates a hybrid between imagery that references historical paintings of hounds hunting stags with flashy colours and synthetic materials associated with modern-day dog toys. Fetch is displayed alongside Chew Toys, in which Crombach provides a display of objects that act as an index for the interpretation of this body of work. Chew Toys includes a variety of altered found porcelain pieces and found dog toys, some transformed into porcelain marked with the aristocratic hunting motifs and gold luster found on antique English pottery.
Employing the historically rich visual culture of the hunt, Crombach explores the longstanding traditions of both adversarial and collaborative relationships between humans and animals while provoking a discussion that targets the complex issues surrounding domestication and domination, and hunting as an activity of play vs necessity in the 21st century.
