Alteronce Gumby: On Earth as It Is in Heaven Nooshin Rostami: un-there

Art-in-Buildings is pleased to announce two new exhibitions opening in the atrium and lobby of 125 Maiden Lane, Alteronce Gumby: On Earth as It Is in Heaven and Nooshin Rostami: un-there.

In an ongoing exploration of when color takes form, Alteronce Gumby’s installation On Earth as It Is in Heaven brings celestial wonder to the atrium of 125 Maiden Lane. Drawing inspiration from Sir Isaac Newton’s Opticks, in which he discovered the visible spectra of color by passing sunlight through prisms, Gumby expands to consider the source of light itself – the cosmos.

As energy from the sun and the stars reach the earth it becomes color and with it, materializes. For Gumby, this phenomenon is represented in a series of colorful prisms floating across the space, born out of a translucent resin monolith that stands six feet tall, anchoring the room. Set against a reflective backdrop, the installation allows light to refract off the visually rich surfaces Gumby crafts and creates a “living” painting. The composition alludes to Hubble Space Telescope images called the ‘Pillars of Creation,’ which depict rods of cosmic dust where stars are born, much like the suspended pieces of quartz, lapis, and labradorite gemstones within the monolith.

On Earth as It Is in Heaven builds on a metaphysical connection between the celestial and terrestrial through color, light, and energy. Gumby’s visually transcendent installation is born out of the cosmos and the artists own desire to live within his ethereal paintings, offering audiences a new perspective towards color and light.

In the lobby of 125 Maiden Lane, Nooshin Rostami’s un-there presents twin sculptures that demonstrate the poetics of light in a masterful exploration of texture and reflection. Spawned from two identical rectangular steel plates, each sculpture rests on a mirrored base alongside its reversed image. Within this doubling, a new geometry is born. “The metaphorical instant of an object merging with its reflection is an invitation to turn one’s gaze internally.” Rostami explains, “a window of perception is unlocked to the viewer, where the solid structure shapes a unified whole with its inner image. A new entirety is born when one catches sight of what lies under.”

As the structures reflect into the metallic oblivion, one draws a triangle and the other, a perfect circle. The contrast of angular corners and smooth curvature rhyme with one another; establishing an electric atmosphere of tension from their divergent formal qualities. One piece is bent at a sharp angle and the other is arched to a simple even curve. Among these tensions include the materiality and the ephemera of light, and the potential for light to activate the space surrounding the sculpture. Contemplating notions of perception, exile, and “whole-ness,” Rostami’s sculptures prompt viewers to consider the potentiality of shifted perspectives and the wonder of drawing with light.

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Alteronce Gumby (b.1985, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; lives and works in New York City) graduated from Yale University’s MFA program where he was awarded the Robert Reed Memorial Scholarship, after earning a BFA from Hunter College, New York, NY. In 2019 he was a resident at the Rauschenberg Foundation in Captiva Island, FL and, in 2017 he completed a yearlong residency as the Harriet Hale Woolley scholar at the Fondation des Etats-Unis in Paris, France. He was granted the AAF/Seebacher Prize for Fine Arts as well as the Dumfries House Residency, Ayrshire, Scotland in 2015. Gumby has mounted recent solo exhibitions at Parrasch/Heijnen (Los Angeles, CA), Charles Moffett (New York, NY), and FALSE FLAG (New York, NY). He has exhibited internationally at the Camden Arts Centre (London, UK), Gladstone Gallery (New York, NY), the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center (Washington, DC), Frieze New York, (New York, NY), Long Gallery (New York, NY), Independent Brussels (Brussels, BE), The Jean-Paul Najar Foundation (Dubai, UAE), and the Pizzuti Collection (Columbus, OH), among others.

Nooshin Rostami is a New York-based interdisciplinary artist and educator born in Shahroud, Iran. Rostami received an MFA from Brooklyn College-CUNY in NY (2011) and has exhibited, and performed their work in solo and group settings internationally including Holocenter (2020), California Museum of Photography – UCR ARTS (2019), Jardines de Mexico (2019), BRIC art Media (2019), Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions – LACE (2018), Queens Museum (2018), and Flux Factory (2015). Since 2014 they have participated in residencies both locally and internationally such as Tifa working studios, NARS Foundation, and BRIC Contemporary Art. Their work has been featured in a number of publications such as Stir World, Jadaliyya, and Ajam Media Collective.

For press inquiries contact: QUINN | TEI@quinn.pr | 212.868.1900

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Image left: Alteronce Gumby, detail of On Earth as It Is in Heaven, 2021. Courtesy the artist.
Image right: Nooshin Rostami, un-there, 2021. Courtesy the artist.

Photos of On Earth as It Is in Heaven by Marcie Revens.
Photos of un-there by Jack Hyler.

Alteronce Gumby: On Earth as It Is in Heaven and Nooshin Rostam: un-there is curated by Tessa Ferreyros with Eliana Blechman and sponsored by the Time Equities Inc. (TEI) Art-in-Buildings. TEI is committed to enriching the experience of our properties through the Art-in-Buildings Program, an innovative approach that brings contemporary art by emerging and mid-career artists to non-traditional exhibition spaces in the interest of promoting artists, expanding the audience for art, and creating a more interesting environment for our building occupants, residents, and guests.

Founded in 1966, Time Equities, Inc. (TEI) has been in the real estate investment, development and asset & property management business for more than 50 years. TEI currently holds in its own portfolio approximately 22.61 million square feet of residential, industrial, office and retail property – including more than 3,078 multi-family apartment units. In addition, TEI is in various stages of development and pre-development of constructing approximately 1.62 million square feet of various property types which includes at least 1,157 residential units. With properties in 27 states, five Canadian provinces, Germany, the Netherlands, and Anguilla, British Virgin Islands, the TEI portfolio benefits from a diversity of property types, sizes and markets. There are concentrations in the Northeast, Southwest, Midwest and West Coast, and new markets are always being evaluated.