Chris Bogia: The Sun, The City Jade Yumang: Open House Spatter

Art-in-Buildings is pleased to announce two new exhibitions opening in the atrium and lobby of 125 Maiden Lane, Chris Bogia: The Sun, The City and Jade Yumang: Open House Spatter.

Chris Bogia’s glowing fifteen-foot embellished mandala shines down from the soaring marble walls of the 125 Maiden Lane atrium, beaming over a stark white abstracted cityscape. Aptly titled The Sun, The City, Bogia conceived of the sculptures as companion pieces for the entryway of 125 Maiden Lane, offering visitors and passersby, as he describes, “something accessible, visually generous, and above all optimistic. I imagined a large hand-made sun imbued with craft and nostalgic references to groovier times shining down on a complimentary cityscape.”

Employing materials familiar in his work, in The Sun, The City Bogia combines yarn carefully laid down strand by strand, lacquer, and textured wallpaper to execute skillfully crafted, sumptuous surfaces. In creating these highly detailed, beautifully rendered pieces, he places the decorative arts firmly in conversation with contemporary fine art. Bogia is simultaneously “courting and resisting both worlds,” creating a unique space where his distinctive visual language flourishes.

Equally prevalent in Bogia’s practice is a nod to domestic spaces and crafts, largely inspired by his upbringing in a colorful home where he saw the power of interior design at play. Using simple shapes that resemble kids building blocks, The City sees Bogia enlarging these otherwise intimate objects to a near human scale, creating a nostalgic and serene cityscape. Contrasting the monochromatic city below, his glowing sun bursts outwards with dewy lacquered teardrops and blooming floral patterns meticulously layered in orange, yellow, and rust colored yarn with pops of green and blue.

The immediate visual impact draws viewers into the space, acting as a beacon of light in an otherwise gray environment. The two worlds of The Sun, The City complement each other – the light and playful surface of the sun against the tranquil white city. Bogia perfectly sums up the welcoming world he created in 125 Maiden Lane’s atrium: “Together the two sculptures conjure the optimism required as we collectively look forward to the joys of both our domestic and civic futures.”

Installed in the lobby of 125 Maiden Lane, Jade Yumang’s Open House Spatter presents several textile sculptures and woven nets from the artist’s series of the same name. Yumang’s sculptural installations and site-specific environments investigate queer form and identity as reflected in popular culture and media. His colorful and playful objects act as entry points into discussions about queer histories, visibility, and social and political prejudices. By reappropriating historical representations of gay culture found in magazines and film, Yumang inserts abstracted acts of resistance and protest into the visual narrative.

Yumang’s most recent body of work, Open House Spatter, reacts to two independent 1964 articles that examined the “new social phenomenon” of gay communities in the US and Canada. One article uses fear-mongering techniques while the other uses a sympathetic approach to paint images of queer life in the suburbs and cities of North America. Yumang explains that while the articles “demystify queerness and challenge rigidly gendered suburban life” they also “perpetuate the idea of sameness rather than celebrating differences conceived within the confines of an idealized and fixed home.” This ’60s concept of the idealized home was encouraged through contemporary advertisements for home décor, including the pattern “gay spatter,” an asbestos vinyl floor tile design that featured bright colors and a splattered paint design.

Using monochromatic color schemes and “gay spatter” patterning, in Open House Spatter Yumang recreates materials and objects that reference domesticity. Fabric-stuffed hands, arms, legs, and feet swell and curve to interact with textile versions of everyday household objects and attire. In Arlington Cedar No. 740, named for the 1960’s tile pattern, a brown wooden frame traps a puffed up foot, which supports a dangling beaded necklace. An inflated textile hand, reminiscent of a dishwashing glove, reaches through the wooden frame towards a dishtowel. Throughout the series, Yumang’s bright colors and fun patterns mask the more ominous implications associated with dismembered body parts. In Yumang’s seemingly innocuous, colorful sculptures, creeping limbs reach through, encircle, and become tangled with the artist’s domestic constructions.

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Chris Bogia received his MFA from Yale University, New Haven, CT and his BA from New York University, NY. Bogia was a recent recipient of the Jackson Pollock – Lee Krasner Foundation Grant, a Queens Council for the Arts, New Works Grant, as well as a Rema Hort Mann Foundation Artist Community Engagement Grant. He also was an artist in residence at the Queens Museum Studio Program between 2017-2018. Recent exhibitions include, Grizzly Grizzly, Philadelphia, PA; The Bureau of General Services: Queer Division, Bravin Lee, Kate Werble, Spring/Break, the New Museum, New York; Mrs., Maspeth; Ortega y Gasset and BRIC, Brooklyn, NY. Bogia is also the co-founder of Fire Island Artist Residency, the world’s first LGBTQ artist residency. He has been represented by Mrs. since 2019.

Jade Yumang received an MFA at Parsons School of Design with Departmental Honors in 2012, and a BFA Honors in University of British Columbia in 2008. Selected exhibitions include: Brooklyn Museum (Brooklyn), Museum of Arts and Design (New York); Art League (Houston), TRUCK Contemporary Art (Calgary, AB); Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art (Overland Park, KS); Des Moines Art Center (Des Moines, IA), Western Exhibitions (Chicago), BronxArtSpace (Bronx, NY), The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art (New York, NY), District of Columbia Arts Center (Washington, DC), Glasshouse (Brooklyn, NY), and ONE Archives (Los Angeles). Jade is the recipient of several grants from Canada Council for the Arts and British Columbia Arts Council; and is featured in the book Queer Threads: Crafting Identity and Community. Jade was born in Quezon City, Philippines; grew up in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; immigrated to unceded Coast Salish territories in Vancouver, BC, Canada; and currently lives in Chicago, IL, USA, which sits on the traditional homelands of the people of the Council of Three Fires, the Ojibwe, Potawatomi, and Odawa as well as the Menominee, Miami and Ho-Chunk nations. Jade is part of a New York-based collaborative duo, Tatlo, with Sara Jimenez; and is an Assistant Professor in the department of Fiber and Material Studies at School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

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

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Image on the left: Chris Bogia, The Sun, The City, 2021. Courtesy the artist and Mrs.
Image on the right: Jade Yumang, Open House Spatter, 2021. Courtesy the artist.

Photos by Marcie Revens.

Chris Bogia: The Sun, The City and Jade Yumang: Open House Spatter is curated by Tessa Ferreyros and 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.

Special thanks to Sara Maria Salamone and Mrs.

Jade Yumang’s series Open House Spatter was supported by the Canada Council for the Arts.