Charles
LaBelle – Sugar
Hill Suite
March 24, 2006 – April 22, 2006
Opening reception: Friday, March 24, 6-9 p.m.
Gallery hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 11a.m – 6 p.m.
Contact: Tony Wight
312.492.7261 info@bodybuilderandsportsman.com
BODYBUILDER & SPORTSMAN Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of
new work by Charles LaBelle, his second one-person show with the gallery. Continuing
his on-going investigation into the relationship of subject and city, the works
presented in Sugar Hill Suite (2005-06) are part of a year-long project exploring
both the history and the physical terrain of upper-Harlem where LaBelle has
been living since 2004. Dubbed “Sugar Hill” in the 1920s because
of its location on a geographic bluff over-looking what was known as the “Harlem
Plain” and because of its relative wealth, Sugar Hill today is an area
undergoing rapid change and gentrification.
The centerpiece of the project is a series of 800 drawings of individual
buildings in the area, from turn-of-the-century brownstones, to historic
churches and
jazz clubs, to neighborhood bodegas, hair-braiding shops, liquor stores and
crumbling tenement buildings. Done in black watercolor pencil on 11 x 11” sheets
of paper, the modest drawings collectively form a comprehensive document of
this specific place at this specific moment in history.
In addition, the project involves a series of “blood maps” outlining
the paths of LaBelle’s daily walks through the area, a group of small
scale sculptures titled “Colonies” utilizing articles of clothing
found on the streets of Harlem, and pair of men’s two-piece suits made
from the upholstery of abandoned sofas. Referencing the body (and the numerous
unseen “bodies” inhabiting the buildings in the drawings), LaBelle
calls our attention to the way in which space- specifically the built space
of the city- plays a powerful role in the construction of both individual and
collective identities.
As Gean Moreno has written, “LaBelle’s explorations of
the city are never divorced from his continuous inquiry of the body.
He roams, collects,
swallows, records, drives-- and the physical act is always as important as
whatever objects results from it.”
Charles LaBelle lives and works in New York City. Selected exhibitions
include: Traywick Contemporary, San Francisco, CA; Lemon Sky Projects,
Miami, FL; Roberts & Tilton
Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Ten in One Gallery, New York, NY; ArtPace, San Antonio,
TX; Triangle Gallery, Marseilles, France; Rogaland Kunstmuseum, Stravanger,
Norway; Red Cat Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Walter McBean Gallery, San Francisco
Art Institute. Charles LaBelle has received both the Getty Trust Fellowship
and the Art Matters Fellowship.
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