"Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!" - Hunter S. Thompson
Opening March 4, 2017 at 7:00 PM, PRIMARY is pleased to present
Kelly Breez - "Fuck It Will Set You Free". This occasion marks the artist's first solo exhibition with Primary and will feature selections from her latest body of work 2016 - 2017.
"Fuck It Will Set You Free" began as a mantra, adopted by a core group of friends who collectively relocated to San Francisco, California. In early 2008, the group acquired a new (old) van and began the journey to the west coast. Over time, the mantra stuck, it became the motto for Breez's California years, in turn, becoming her way of life.
Through a collection of resin covered illustrations on wood, with a visual aesthetic loosely compared to the likes of Raymond Pettibon or Margaret Kilgallen, Breez combines a California state of mind with her South Florida tropical upbringing. Breez explains, "Fuck It Will Set You Free is a collection of works that represent my belief in artistic / personal liberation in the face of convention. The future is unknown, which leaves room for adventure and mystery. Calculated moves shut out possibilities, Fuck It is about affirming your power to do stuff people might not understand. It's playful, it's stubborn."
Her devotion to hefty materials like wood & epoxy is in part influenced by her participation in the restoration of her father's sailboat as well as "a nod to all the previously lived, long Florida nights. A celebration of the hazy memories found in the pennies, shells, and beer caps preserved inside the resin of the many bar-tops you discover throughout the tropics."
Included in the exhibit, Breez develops an ongoing painting series of "How-to" books. Titles such as
"How to Spot a Cop Car from Two Miles Away Even in the Dark" & "How to Vandalize that Booty" give a glimpse into the calculated wit that is Kelly Breez. She describes her approach to these works as "highlighting informalities" and "about the inner voice that everyone has, but more often than not, won't talk about openly in public." By depicting these thoughts on something formal like a book cover and rendering the type in a loose, cartoon-like aesthetic, Breez seizes the opportunity to present her unique inner voice to the viewer on a personal & informal level.
Kelly Breez - "Fuck It Will Set You Free" will remain on view at Primary in the Miami Design District through April 8, 2017.
About Kelly Breez
Kelly Breez (b. 1985, Lake Worth, FL) Graduate with a BFA from the New World School of the Arts. Working mostly monochromatically, she weaves a sharp eye for subtle humor into her work, acting like a mirror to the absurdities of life. With an uncanny attention to detail and the likeness of a sponge, Breez naturally absorbs the nuances of the unpredictable tropical wasteland she calls home.
Commissions include public works by American luxury brand Shinola, Detroit as well as a series of illustrations for OBEY Clothing (founded by Shepard Fairey) launching summer of 2017. Breez is also the recipient of the ProMax BDA Gold Medal for Outstanding Creative Direction and Design: SundanceTV.
Primary. (Founded in 2007, Miami, FL - Cristina Gonzalez, Books Bischof, & Typoe Gran) is a multifaceted organization that explores and promotes various forms of aesthetic expression from both established and emerging contemporary artists, within the gallery context and beyond. PRIMARY works to continually expand the expectations of the contemporary art world, and to foster new, unexpected conversations between artists and the public.
Primary is pleased to announce that Magnus Sodamin will begin his month long residency this March / 2017 at AIRIE (Artists in Residence in Everglades, Inc.)
South Florida is home to the only subtropical wilderness area in the country, and AIRIE is the only program bringing artists to the Everglades. AIRIE's purpose is to inform, connect, and support artists, writers and musicians who wish to be ambassadors for the Everglades by providing month-long residencies in the Park.
AIRIE was born in 2001 when the $8 billion Everglades restoration bill had been passed by the U. S. Congress. Painter and former arts administrator Donna Marxer thought it would be a good idea for artists and writers to become a part of this new interest in one of the most compelling and environmentally endangered parts of our nation.
With the full cooperation of Everglades National Park, she started a program by which qualified professionals in arts and letters could reside in the Park for a month and create unimpeded in the wilderness setting.
Magnus Sodamin (b. 1987, Manhattan) uses an expanded painting practice that is at once hallucinatory and precise, employing a variety of techniques to blur the frontier between abstraction and landscape painting. His singular installations often begin with painting the walls and floors of an exhibition space with vibrant splashes of color, and then installing the space with similarly emotive, yet complementary canvas or panel compositions. The result is entirely immersive. Sodamin attended the New World School of the Arts (BFA, 2012) as well as the Nansen Academy in Lillehammer, Norway. He has exhibited in Norway and the United States, showing work at the 2012 BFA Exhibition held at the Cisneros-Fontanals art foundation (CIFO), the 2010 Lotus House Women's Shelter Fundraiser at the Margulies Collection, a two consecutive solo exhibits at PRIMARY in 2014 / 2015. He has been in residence at the Deering Estate (2014), the Museums Quartier Residency, Vienna (2015), and Summit AIR, Eden, UTAH . Sodamin lives and works in Miami, where he is represented by PRIMARY..
