Hell'S Kitchen, New York
Chino Amobi, Aaron Curry, Martha Graham Dance Company
Chino Amobi, Aaron Curry, Martha Graham Dance Company
Meredith RosenOn the occasion and in celebration of the Martha Graham Dance Company centennial, Meredith Rosen is pleased to present an exhibition of new paintings by Chino Amobi and Aaron Curry in dialogue with Graham dancers who will be workshopping foundational technique exercises within the gallery space, alongside the release of Amobi’s latest album, K- Pop Airport Music for Black Folk. Centered on Graham’s principle of contraction and release, the exhibition considers how this structural vocabulary translates into abstraction: compression generating form, expansion producing rhythm, and the body’s weight registering as intensity. These dynamics resonate across Amobi’s sonic compositions and Curry’s painting language, moving from figure to score and back again. Archival video material of Graham’s technique situates the live activation within the lineage of her method through Graham’s voice and the cadence of her instruction. The interdisciplinary presentation brings the viewer into the artist’s process, questioning the boundary between the studio and the stage. Through a focus on improvisation and embodied mark-making, the exhibition traces a shared language of tension and expansive release across dance, music, and painting. Chino Amobi (b. 1984, Tuscaloosa, Alabama) lives and works in Houston, Texas. Amobi earned a BFA in Painting and Printmaking and an MFA in Graphic Design from Virginia Commonwealth University. Amobi has exhibited internationally, including solo presentations at Lafayette Anticipations, Paris (2024); von ammon co, Washington, D.C. (2024); Art Basel Miami Beach Positions (2023); Meredith Rosen Gallery, New York (2022) and Fitzpatrick Gallery, Paris (2022). Group presentations include Gladstone, New York (2024); Nahmad Contemporary, New York (2024); Tonus, Paris (2022). He has performed and exhibited institutionally at MoMA, New York; New Museum, New York; ICA, London; Louvre, Paris; Wesleyan University, Connecticut; the Museum of Contemporary Art of the African Diaspora, New York; ICA, Virginia Commonwealth, amongst others. His work is in the permanent collection of the Rubell Museum, Miami, FL. Aaron Curry (b. 1972, San Antonio, Texas) lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. Curry has exhibited internationally, including solo exhibitions at Michael Werner; David Kodansky; McNay Art Museum, San Antonio; The Bass Museum, Miami; STPI Gallery, Singapore; deCordova Sculpture Park, Lincoln; Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah; CAPC Contemporary Art Museum, Bordeaux; Lincoln Center, New York; High Museum, Atlanta; Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin; Kestner Gesellschaft, Hanover; Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Bergamo; Ballroom Marfa, Marfa; The Ranch, Montauk; and Gamma Galeria, Guadalajara. Collections include the Rubell Museum, Miami; The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; LACMA, Los Angeles among others. Founded in 1926, Martha Graham Dance Company has featured many of the leading choreographers and dancers of the 20th and 21st centuries, including Merce Cunningham, Anna Sokolow, Erick Hawkins, Pearl Lang, Sir Robert Cohan, Donald McKayle, Elisa Monte, Jacquelyn Buglisi, Paul Taylor and many others. Graham’s repertoire of 181 works has also engaged noted performers such as Mikhail Baryshnikov, Claire Bloom, Margot Fonteyn, Liza Minnelli, Rudolf Nureyev, Maya Plisetskaya, and Kathleen Turner. Graham’s groundbreaking techniques and idiosyncratic style have earned the Company acclaim from audiences in more than 50 countries throughout North and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.