Kevin Cooley: Primary Forces

The Time Equities Inc. Art-in-Buildings program is pleased to announce the presentation of four videos from Kevin Cooley’s series Primary Forces at the 55 Fifth Avenue Lobby Exhibition Space.

Kevin Cooley’s work examines the relationship between the natural and built environment and the moments when the two collide. Devils Churn (2010), Path (2008), Toss (2010), and Saguaro (2010) highlight simple meditative gestures — a bobbing inner tube, floating balloon, waving flag and tossed ring — that serve as surrogates for the endurance of the human spirit in the face of an indifferent nature. Disparate and powerful landscapes play the role of nature in the videos including, the Oregon Coast, Northern Iceland, Southern Utah, and Western Arizona. Cooley did not edit these videos; instead they present moments as they unfolded in real time. Cooley recounts simple, elemental moments that his careful framing and patient depiction elevate to a higher order. The fluorescent pink in each video knits the disparate actions together into a subtle yet personally epic struggle against nature.

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Kevin Cooley received his MFA in photography from the School of Visual Arts, New York City. His first solo museum show was at the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego in 2013. His work, Remote Nation, (comprised of 100 analog TV sets placed throughout a vacant NYC apartment building and playing programs controlled by his father’s remote control in Colorado) was on view in New York in 2011 and could be seen from the High Line. He has also had solo exhibitions at The Kopeikin Gallery, Los Angeles; The Boiler, Brooklyn; La Esquina, Brooklyn; White Columns, NY; and Swiss Institute, NY, among many others. He lives and works in Los Angeles.

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Primary Forces is curated by Jennie Lamensdorf 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 their guests.