Kaveri Raina and Kerry Downey
The exhibition K.2 features the work of Kerry Downey and Kaveri Raina, and is co-curated by Anne Patsch. Downey’s and Raina’s work resides in the world of abstraction. They both conjure subtle physical forms that resist simple names and discrete definitions. In K.2, their work moves rhythmically, swaying together into points of shared color and form, before spinning apart into divergent worlds of expression. Their images dance in a space where language collapses, and binary classifications prove inadequate to express human experience. K.2 is part of Pas de Deux: A Performance Summer Salon, curated by Oxana Chi and Layla Zami.
Kerry Downey’s monotypes from the series Nothing but net are part of a multidisciplinary project that explores the relationship between self and other, the movement between interior and exterior landscapes. Downey’s experimental monotypes, printed with Marina Ancona of 10 Grand Press, use a variety of techniques, from embossment to Chine collé. During the printing process, ghost plates were reused in order to develop the works’ visual vocabulary.
Downey’s invented lexicon of marks and symbols refuses any single signification, but reveals a persistent desire to elaborate their experience and sensibility. Like a queer creation myth, Downey’s images depict an emergence into the world – a process full of pain, pleasure, and discovery, in which the notion of a self is perpetually forming and unraveling.
Kaveri Raina was born in New Delhi and moved to the United States at age 11. Her work revolves around hybrid identity, and her paintings incorporate loosely reimagined experiences from her childhood in India. Her practice is informed by the continuous challenge of navigating divergent social, cultural, and spiritual spheres, as well as the desire to assert herself both as an individual and as part of a community.
Raina’s paintings explore the uncomfortable territory of in-betweeness. She employs burlap, a rough textile often associated with global exchange and mobility. Raina’s process of painting on both the front and back of the burlap references the relationship between the artist’s dual national identities.
