Gowanus, New York
Samuel Alexander Forest
A Bag of Tricks
Ortega y GassetOrtega y Gasset Projects (OyG) is proud to present A Bag of Tricks, a solo exhibition by Samuel Alexander Forest in the main space, curated by OyG co-director Xingze Li. Across a dark empty stage, a rotating cast of performers step on and off the frame. A ringleader, a violinist, a magician, an aerialist, a jester, and a one-man band, each traced and described by the gleam of the spotlight, bare their life's work. Walk down to the backstage and you'll find their bags of tricks. Cases that held and safely transported tools for their acts now sit and await the end. The lights go out, the bags are packed. We leave behind the stage and the stripes of the tent that lured us in to peer. After the show is over, what is left? A Bag of Tricks features graphite drawings in artist's frames that represent performances on- and off-stage. Six drawings show solo performers standing in a spotlight, set in stepped wood frames that act as steps to the stage of the drawing surface. Other drawings depict performers' bags of tricks, closed instrument cases and containers backstage that hold equipment for the show. Placed throughout are references to Alexander Forest's idols: virtuosic musician, singer and composer Owen Pallett; the historic drag aerialist performer Barbette; Gillian Welch and David Rawlings' case of small tools they bring out to all their shows; and Mary Poppins' magical carpet bag. Two sculptures expand on the thematic and conceptual threads found in the drawings. Central to the show is an oversized briefcase, left closed and rendered in colored pencils and pastels with the same careful hand displayed in the drawings. This sculpture is activated in the performances, in which Alexander Forest opens it to reveal musical instruments housed within while transforming it into a stage to perform on. It's Curtains (2025) is a kinetic miniature circus tent where the curtain opening reveals smaller rotating circus tents inside. Only when all the openings line up can one see through to the innermost, empty, circle.