#BED by Leah Poller at Yellow Peril Gallery
#BED titillates new understandings of our relationship with the bed via small scale mixed media sculptures and site-specific interactive installations by New York sculptor Leah Poller; opening Thursday, September 19, 2013 at Yellow Peril Gallery during Gallery Night Providence.
Providence, RI, August 05, 2013 --(PR.com)-- Yellow Peril Gallery is pleased to present #BED, a solo exhibition which titillates new understandings of our relationship with the bed via small scale mixed media sculptures and site-specific interactive installations by New York sculptor Leah Poller, opening Thursday, September 19, 2013, during Gallery Night Providence.
Bedridden from an accident caused while moving a large sculpture in her Soho studio, Leah Poller spent many hours pondering the nature of the bed, in life, in language and in art. Her “101 Bed Collection” became a detailed examination of the history, meaning and symbolic nature of that unique place where one-third of life is lived, and where the most significant of life’s activities are enacted.
“The bed is the most intimate stage on which our true selves appear – in birth, death, sex, loving and dreaming,” Poller shares. “Our language is rich in words that contain ‘bed’, which inspired me to transform these common words into visual images.”
Using found objects and visual metaphors, Poller has taken one of life’s most significant icons – The Bed – and converted it into a three-dimensional, visual language of love, pathos, humor, society, aesthetics and culture, conjugated in several languages and crossing mental and emotional borders.
“The iconography of the bed is part of a shared consciousness, an intrinsic experience that is simultaneously universal and secretive, personal and for many, unmentionable,” notes Curator Robert P. Stack, who selected over a dozen small scale sculptures for #BED at Yellow Peril Gallery. “Poller focuses on the object or place, masterfully executed in a playful array of rich materials, textures and colors. But what brings them alive is what’s absent but implied: people, actions, feelings, sickness, lust, rest, intimacy – all the human forces of emotion that fuel meaning in life.”
In 2010, convinced that the importance of our beds had gone unexplored, Poller began “The Unmade Bed Project,” inviting people from around the world to post an image of their unmade bed on a dedicated site (http://www.unmadebedproject.com). At Yellow Peril, visitors will have an opportunity to participate in “The Unmade Bed Project” using #BED to share their photos and experiences in real-time via social networks.
As a prequel to an upcoming Athenaeum Salon Series on the history of salon culture, and in homage to the original salonnières of 17th century France, whose practice of cultivating conversation among their invited guests from the intimacy of their beds created an atmosphere where ideas of public and private came to define one another in a new way, the Providence Athenaeum will host a unique Salon discussion with Poller from a bed installed at Yellow Peril about the concept behind #BED and where the project has taken flight since its launch in 2012.
The opening reception for #BED is Thursday, September 19, from 5PM – 9PM during Gallery Night Providence. The exhibition will be on display until Sunday, October 13, 2013. Poller’s work has been exhibited in galleries, museums and institutions in Mexico City, Paris, New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago, and, most recently, Hong Kong and Shanghai. This is her first solo exhibition in Providence at Yellow Peril Gallery.
About Leah Poller
Leah Poller was born in Pennsylvania. She received classical training in sculpture at the prestigious École Nationale Superieure de Beaux Arts, in Paris, France. Partaking of a rich, multi-cultural environment, Poller interacted with foremost members of the international arts communities of France, Spain, Italy and Latin America. Returning to the United States in 1992, she established her studio in Soho and began the series of “101 Beds” which has been exhibited in galleries and institutions in Europe, Mexico, and throughout the United States. In 2009 Poller moved to Sugar Hill, Harlem. She has recently concluded a 12-year project - The 101 Bed Collection and is working on several portrait commissions. She has been featured on CNN, Fox Television and in numerous art publications. She has lectured extensively and held workshops on creativity. She was named Director of “Intercambios de Arte y Cultural Internacionale,” a not-for profit furthering cultural exchanges between the Americas and spearheading the restoration of a major twentieth century mural, recently discovered to be the work of Philip Guston. For more info about Leah Poller, visit www.leahpoller.com.
Bedridden from an accident caused while moving a large sculpture in her Soho studio, Leah Poller spent many hours pondering the nature of the bed, in life, in language and in art. Her “101 Bed Collection” became a detailed examination of the history, meaning and symbolic nature of that unique place where one-third of life is lived, and where the most significant of life’s activities are enacted.
“The bed is the most intimate stage on which our true selves appear – in birth, death, sex, loving and dreaming,” Poller shares. “Our language is rich in words that contain ‘bed’, which inspired me to transform these common words into visual images.”
Using found objects and visual metaphors, Poller has taken one of life’s most significant icons – The Bed – and converted it into a three-dimensional, visual language of love, pathos, humor, society, aesthetics and culture, conjugated in several languages and crossing mental and emotional borders.
“The iconography of the bed is part of a shared consciousness, an intrinsic experience that is simultaneously universal and secretive, personal and for many, unmentionable,” notes Curator Robert P. Stack, who selected over a dozen small scale sculptures for #BED at Yellow Peril Gallery. “Poller focuses on the object or place, masterfully executed in a playful array of rich materials, textures and colors. But what brings them alive is what’s absent but implied: people, actions, feelings, sickness, lust, rest, intimacy – all the human forces of emotion that fuel meaning in life.”
In 2010, convinced that the importance of our beds had gone unexplored, Poller began “The Unmade Bed Project,” inviting people from around the world to post an image of their unmade bed on a dedicated site (http://www.unmadebedproject.com). At Yellow Peril, visitors will have an opportunity to participate in “The Unmade Bed Project” using #BED to share their photos and experiences in real-time via social networks.
As a prequel to an upcoming Athenaeum Salon Series on the history of salon culture, and in homage to the original salonnières of 17th century France, whose practice of cultivating conversation among their invited guests from the intimacy of their beds created an atmosphere where ideas of public and private came to define one another in a new way, the Providence Athenaeum will host a unique Salon discussion with Poller from a bed installed at Yellow Peril about the concept behind #BED and where the project has taken flight since its launch in 2012.
The opening reception for #BED is Thursday, September 19, from 5PM – 9PM during Gallery Night Providence. The exhibition will be on display until Sunday, October 13, 2013. Poller’s work has been exhibited in galleries, museums and institutions in Mexico City, Paris, New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago, and, most recently, Hong Kong and Shanghai. This is her first solo exhibition in Providence at Yellow Peril Gallery.
About Leah Poller
Leah Poller was born in Pennsylvania. She received classical training in sculpture at the prestigious École Nationale Superieure de Beaux Arts, in Paris, France. Partaking of a rich, multi-cultural environment, Poller interacted with foremost members of the international arts communities of France, Spain, Italy and Latin America. Returning to the United States in 1992, she established her studio in Soho and began the series of “101 Beds” which has been exhibited in galleries and institutions in Europe, Mexico, and throughout the United States. In 2009 Poller moved to Sugar Hill, Harlem. She has recently concluded a 12-year project - The 101 Bed Collection and is working on several portrait commissions. She has been featured on CNN, Fox Television and in numerous art publications. She has lectured extensively and held workshops on creativity. She was named Director of “Intercambios de Arte y Cultural Internacionale,” a not-for profit furthering cultural exchanges between the Americas and spearheading the restoration of a major twentieth century mural, recently discovered to be the work of Philip Guston. For more info about Leah Poller, visit www.leahpoller.com.
Contact
Yellow Peril Gallery
Vanphouthon Souvannasane
401-861-1535
www.yellowperilgallery.com
van@yellowperilgallery.com
Vanphouthon Souvannasane
401-861-1535
www.yellowperilgallery.com
van@yellowperilgallery.com
Contact
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