Tryst at Urn Stye, Works by Marianne Vitale June 12, 2008

The exhibition will feature a collection of Vitale's works comprised of several elements. Installation-as-theatre frozen in time, the narrative is elusive, a poetic insight and legitimacy towards Vitale's practice - forever reaching towards an absurdist (yet humanistic) spirituality. The centerpiece of the show is two sculpted copper figures of “Sentries”, as if caught in dialogue, set by an urn and organic mass. The statue’s surreal form and stance somehow mirror the intricacy and power of collaged panels and illustrations on the walls. The exhibition's invitation, a blow-up from Vitale's unedited scrawling in notebooks, reads: ..."and so the Sentries perfectly still demonstrate unfruitfulness - yet to no end supply pipe. Stockade, the carpus! Keep away from the fire! Bleed freely to remove poison." The artist's self-portrait overlooks the entire landscape from afar, a photo underneath a charcoaled text, almost questioning, with a gaze, the endless solutions of poetic space, intuition and emotion – of perhaps, her own “tryst”.

Also on view is a 2007 video entitled That Brute Beasts Make Use of Reason, a six-minute rant delivered by Vitale, filmed hand-held, along the FDR Drive of Manhattan. The video's premier at White Columns (NYC), reviewed in Frieze Magazine, stated: "...obsession fuelled... Plutarch-inspired patter full of ridiculous affirmations and keys to success... edited with élan and wit, the video worked because of Vitale's go-for-broke delivery, done straight, giddily risking the excesses of true madness". The artist "tapped into complex and compelling forms of man-less power: the authority of nuance, the dangerous bravura of ambiguity."

Marianne Vitale (1973) is a NYC artist, filmmaker, and poet. Vitale was debuted in Texas at Deborah Colton Gallery's Chemical City exhibition last September. Upcoming projects include exhibitions with James Fuentes LLC (NYC) and IBID Projects (London). With CHOP SHOP collaborator Agathe Snow, Vitale is currently editing their road-movie odyssey "Chinatown", to be screened in LA (2008). Prior to this, the installation and performance OK KO, Broodies in the Nesting was held at White Columns/Performa, 2007. Vitale's films, including "(Title Bound in Customs)", co-directed with M. Portnoy, were featured at Miami Beach Cinematheque (during Art Basel, '07). The Missing Book of Spurs, a solo show of drawings, architecture, video and literature, was held at Tensta Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden, 2007 (catalogue available). Vitale's artwork is included in The Rubell Family Collection, among others.

Official Website: http://www.deborahcoltongallery.com/exhibitions/