Stillness is the Move

The Skirt Ortega y Gasset Projects is pleased to present Stillness is the Move, an exhibition of recent work by North Carolina-based artists Annie Blazejack and Geddes Levenson in the The Skirt. Stillness is the Move is curated by OyG Co-Director Clare Britt. Long time collaborators Annie Blazejack and Geddes Levenson paint fantastical ecofeminist narratives in Stillness is the Move. Their paintings conjure precarious choreographies between women and wilderness, perilous partnerships that only exist because they are frozen on the surface of the canvas. A spooky humor surprises viewers into playful reimaginings of human-nature relationships. Are the subjects in these paintings friend or foe? In harmony or conflict? The raw materials of these stories (a spider, a web, a rock, a snail, a woman, the moon...) combine and recombine. The paintings resist a singular interpretation of what happens next, encouraging spectators to remain open to multiple conflicting narratives. Fluorescent colors and crisp lines contrast with mushy grays and muted hues, highlighting the artificial stillness of the scenes. A stone skipper stands frozen mid-throw for so long that a spider builds its web in the crook of her arm. These paintings delight in their own immobility, poking fun at their ʻtimelessʼ medium, while also contemplating the relative longevity of a skipped stone, a spiderʼs web, a sunrise, a lifetime, and a rockʼs lifetime. Geddes Levenson and Annie Blazejack both grew up in Miami, FL. Their collaborative art practice grew organically from their childhood friendship. In 2013, while attending separate graduate schools, they formalized this collaboration and have been creating and showing work exclusively as a duo ever since. In their paintings and installations, they explore the relationship between humans and ecosystems as climate change becomes increasingly inevitable. Blazejack received her MFA from The School of the Museum of Fine arts, Boston/ Tus University in 2013, and Levenson received her MFA from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY in 2014. Notably, Blazejack and Levenson have installed solo shows at Lump Projects, Raleigh NC; Anchorlight, Raleigh, NC; The Carrack, Durham, NC; The Art and Culture Center, Hollywood, FL; Placeholder Gallery, Miami, FL; and The White Page Gallery, Minneapolis, MN. They have also shown at The National Liberty Museum, Philadelphia, PA; The Contemporary Art Museum, Raleigh, NC; Locust Projects, Miami, FL; and Norte Maar Art Space, Brooklyn, NY. Clare Britt (She/her) joined OyG Projects in 2013 as a founding co-director. She lives and works in Chicago as a freelance photographer creating portraits and working with cultural institutions. She curated the first solo exhibition of photographic work with Chicago artist Kelly Kaczynski Yes; Or As If. She co curated the group exhibition Code Switch with co-director Lauren Whearty, curated the group show Shadow of the Gradient, and curated the exhibition entitled Apparitions with artist Alicia Smith. Clare has been instrumental in creating virtual content for the gallery including starting the YouTube Channel and creating content for the virtual space. She spearheaded Rendezvous, an interactive virtual experience that serves as a platform for creative exchange between artists.