Galleries

Corridor Gallery

334 Grand Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11238 (718) 230-5002

Hot Sauce and Brown Liquor

Curated by Oshun Layne and Charlotte Mouquin
January 18^th– March 1^st, 2015

Corridor Gallery is excited for this saucy exhibition, Hot Sauce and Brown Liquor, opening with a kick-off on Sunday January 18^th, 4-6pm. This group exhibition brings together artists who have used “hot sauce” or “brown liquor” as a theme, symbol, or metaphor in their artworks. Ranging from drawing, printmaking, painting, sculpture, and installation this collection of artworks will excite the senses and spark conversations. Continuing the exploration of the themes, an artist talk and BYO Hot Sauce party will be held Sunday February 22^nd from 4-8pm. There will also be a closing reception on the final day, Sunday, March 1^st from 4-6pm. Artists include: SOL SAX, Vid Taylor, Luiza Cardenuto, Kira Nam Greene, Robin Antar, Hall Groat II, May DeViney, Naturel, and David Cahill.

Hot sauce and brown liquor, in moderation, have the ability to heat up both senses and ideas, but through mass consumption they have the power to destroy the senses and impair logic. The virtues and vices can be compared to the desires of human nature, and in a broader context, the over-saturation of popular culture through mass-consumed social, print and digital media. Sexy promises in advertisements for such products range from spicing up your life to burning down the barriers of power in our social dynamics, whether it’s a scotch on the rocks or the bottled heat of a scotch bonnet pepper.

The work of Vid Taylor exemplifies these themes as they pertain to hot sauce through print making inspired by pop icons, graphic sensibilities, and Tabasco. He has indeed written “The Hot Sauce Manifesto” that can be located through the Pop Boom Pow artist collective, brand, and salon gallery in which he is a cofounder. Kira Nam Greene uses hot sauce more poetically through her mixed media paintings exploring the dualities of her identity as a woman and an Asian-American immigrant, and an artist in New York as seen in “Cool as a Cucumber in a Bowl of Hot Sauce.”

Luiza Cardenuto combines hot sauce and brown liquor physically to create painting mediums and explore her findings through Rorschach tests. SOL SAX also explores the duality of brown liquor and hot sauce particularly through his mixed media installation relating to the Black American experience. “Big Leg Madonna,” the assemblage work of May DeViney displays a combination of Madonna and Cinderella inside an antique Scotch box.

Traditional still life oil paintings of Hall Groat II contrast the geometric contemporary vanitas-inspired work of Naturel. David Cahill captures everyday street scenes of brown bags held on the street. Robin Antar carves trompe d’oeil pop art creations in stone forever capturing the icon of Johnnie Walker. This exhibition brings new perspectives to current questions and concerns that perhaps prompt us to reevaluate our everyday scenarios, or ask “what’s your poison?”.