EXHIBITION IMAGES | PRESS RELEASE | ARTIST PAGE: BIRD | GLAVIN
May 8 – August 1, 2021 | Governors Island, NY
For NADA HOUSE 2021 Halsey McKay Gallery is presenting new sculptures by Colby Bird and paintings by Henry Glavin. The contrast of colonial style architecture and grooves of hardwood trees so close to the looming towers of wall street makes for a unique setting to display paintings and sculptures by two artists who are interested in rural artifacts of a former time.
Since relocating to upstate New York, Colby Bird has worked in a third floor attic, an abandoned firehouse, a storage warehouse for the Twelve Tribes Community, and currently, in a recently-shuttered diner. Each location has provided inspiration; thematically via its history as well as physically through the raw materials left behind by previous owners and operations. The blue collar and commercial nature of each location further informs Bird’s art making that already skews toward valuing labor and material history. Death, as well as other unavoidable and often ineffable forces such as age, gravity, entropy, and beauty are at the forefront of Bird’s mind and art. He reshapes these weighty themes into sculptures that exude joy and curiosity.
Henry Glavin’s paintings depict similar environments to the row houses on Governors Island. Knotty wooden floors, old brick fireplaces, crown molding and antique doors are all elements that build the exteriors and interiors that he paints. Glavin is interested in the physiological content of spaces and how they are connected to the landscape around them. Inspired by aging spaces he utilizes ink transfers, sanding, and acrylic washes on panel to create an organic surface much like the patina of the aging buildings on Governors Island. The ephemeral quality of the paintings subject matter and surface is enhanced by the history embedded walls and structures around them.
Colby Bird (born 1978; Austin, Texas) received his MFA from Rhode Island School of Design in 2004. He has had recent solo exhibitions at Halsey McKay Gallery, New York and East Hampton, NY; Grice Bench, Los Angeles, CA; Fitzroy, New York, NY; Lora Reynolds Gallery, Austin, TX; University Galleries at Texas State University, San Marcos,TX and has been included in exhibitions at Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, CO; Arthouse, Austin, TX and Hagedorn Foundation, Atlanta, GA. His work is held in prominent private and public collections including the Whitney Museum of American Art. Bird currently lives and works in Coxsackie, New York.
Henry Glavin was born in New York, NY in 1991. He earned his BFA in Painting and Ceramics from Alfred University where he was granted the Outstanding BFA Thesis Award, The Daniel Joseph Murphy II Memorial Award, and the Fred H. Wertz Award for writin. Glavin was awarded a St. Botolph Club Foundation Emerging Artist Award and Vermont Studio Center residency. He was included in the exhibition In My Room: Artists Paint the Interior 1950-Now at The Fralin Museum of Art, UVA, Charlottesville, VA. He lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Never Paint A Ladder marks Glavin’s second solo show with Halsey McKay Gallery.