TILLOU FINE ART will present Clay Orchestra, a comprehensive solo exhibition of paintings by artist Nick Farhi. The exhibition will feature a series of new paintings that were made while the artist was living in Mexico City, exploring where nostalgia and subliminally nostalgic propaganda live and thrive through objects across cultures. Clay Orchestra will run from October 19th through December 14th, 2019, with an opening reception on Saturday, October 19th, from 4 - 7 pm. This will be Farhi's first solo show with TILLOU FINE ART.
In Clay Orchestra, historically mass-produced ceramic objects are honored through expressive portraits. Sensuous oil paintings on aluminum panels float through the exhibition, grouped by type: harlequins, jars, honey bear containers and ambiguous figures. The juxtaposition of these works also forms a still-life of sorts -- the individual paintings, in aggregate, form an archetype of yard sales, fireplace mantles, and manufactured nostalgia on display in homes around the world. This grouping unearths a commonality between different countries despite political histories and cultural differences, revealing a deep truth: tiny idols always seem to make their way into other homes and either clutter spaces or fade into obscurity.
Farhi celebrates each piece individually in this collection, playfully fostering the sentiment and delightful universality inherent in the accumulation of the otherwise unimportant objects that accent households, garages, basements, and attics of people all over the world. Ranging in origins from South America, China and Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and North America, he brings an eclectic family of characters softly into concert together for the first time.
Nick Farhi was born in 1987 in New York, NY, and studied painting at Hunter College, The Cooper Union, and the State University of New York. He has had solo exhibitions at Bill Brady Gallery (Miami), Neochrome Gallery (Turin, Italy), Golsa (Oslo, Norway), United Artists Ltd. (Marfa, Texas) and group shows at Brand New Gallery (Milan, Italy), Karma International (Los Angeles, CA), Steve Turner (Los Angeles, CA), Leila Heller Gallery (New York, NY), Ethan Cohen Fine Arts (New York, NY), A Gathering Of The Tribes (Lower East Side, NY) and Jonathan Viner Gallery (London, UK). His work has been sold in support of institutions such as the Detroit MOCA, Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Watermill Center, and more. His paintings have been included in numerous prominent collections such as the Collection Ringier (Switzerland), Beth Rudin De Woody Collection, Kenny Schaecter Collection, Ganeck Collection, Collection of Brooke Shields, and others. In 2020, there are upcoming projects and solo exhibitions planned in Belgium, Switzerland and Norway, as well as painting residencies in both Italy and Maine.