Harbor is pleased to announce Residual Volume, a two-person exhibition featuring JJ Miyaoka-Pakola and Cassie Raihl. Works will be on view February 23rd through April 7th, 2013 with an opening reception Saturday, February 23rd, from 6 – 9 pm. Additionally, Harbor will be participating in Bushwick Gallery Late Night during the Armory Show. There will be extended hours for the exhibition on Saturday, March 9th, from 1 - 10 pm.
Residual Volume couples two artists who focus on the presence or absence of objects in dichotomous ways. Their vocabularies of common objects are redefined by perpetual transformation, creating spatial tension between the negative/positive volumes of form and material.
JJ Miyaoka-Pakola creates his own visual language through the manipulation of a single image, in a process of removal and re-arrangement of several motifs. Using an array of painting techniques and a color palette that incorporates hues borrowed from diverse sources including Islamic art, he reconfigures the original object into something transient that retains the residue of its former self. The resultant diptychs are meditative visions of memories. Employing pattern, optical illusions, and expert use of color, the altered planes of vision in Miyaoka-Pakola’s work engage the viewer with a metaphysical understanding of space.
In her recent work, Cassie Raihl engages with quotidian objects used for sports and exercise to comment on the body through it’s absence. Her recontextualized subjects are transformed sometimes beyond recognition: barbells, soiled gym towels, donuts, and dog bowls, meticulously arranged to form fragile and balanced compositions. Materials such as latex, wax, and foam often hint at notions of fetish culture, sexuality, and body issues. They ask the viewer to consider the object’s relationships to each other and themselves.
The works in Residual Volume point to the space that was once filled. Miyaoka-Pakola and Raihl share a poetic and formal approach that leave ambiguity while also suggesting elements from the tangible realm.
JJ Miyaoka-Pakola (b. 1976) received his M.F.A. from the San Francisco Art Institute, CA and his B.F.A. from Tyler School of Art, PA. His work has been exhibited at Roger Brown Study Collection, Chicago, IL; Side Car Gallery, Hammond, IN; Jay Jay Gallery, Sacramento, CA; the de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA. Miyaoka-Pakola was a Fellow Artist in Residence at the Montana Artist Refuge in 2011. Miyaoka-Pakola lives and works in New York City.
Cassie Raihl (b. 1983) in New York, NY. Raihl received her BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, MA in 2005. She received her MFA from Bard College, NY in 2010. She has exhibited at Thomas Erben Gallery, New York, NY; Sculpture Center, Long Island City, NY; Mika Rollins Fine Art, New York, NY; Deitch Gallery, Long Island City, NY; 119 Gallery, Lowell, MA. Raihl participated in the 2012 Brucennial. She lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.