Visual Implications
Curated by Ashley Ouderkirk
Visual Implications is a two-venue exhibition curated by KUNSTRAUM Curator-in-Residence 2022-23 Ashley Ouderkirk at 340 E 64th Street in Manhattan and KUNSTRAUM in Brooklyn. It explores how artists tap into our 21st-century visual comprehension through gesture, symbolism, and pop-culture iconography — all deeply rooted in art historical traditions. In a flood of text messages, emails, and notifications, we have shifted our focus away from the written word, and instead, have gravitated towards a visual vocabulary of selfies, memes, and iconographic and pop culture references that signal both personal identities and worldviews, and serve as symbols of literacy and community connectedness in our rapidly developing upcycling image culture. Using the artworks of Charles Clary, Nanse Kawashima, and Cassandra Zampini, viewers are invited to flex their visual literacy by recognizing familiar gestures, symbols, and icons while contemplating the artist’s intention behind each work. When viewed together, these artworks delve into deeper conversations about the seductive power, nostalgia, and simplicity of visual communication, while also addressing the dangers, biases, and miscommunications. The show asks, “As we continue to navigate in this digital age, should we place a higher value on visual literacy? Is our society aptly weighing the Visual Implications?”
This exhibition is a culmination of Ashley Ouderkirk’s tenure as Curator-in-Residence 2022-23. Visual Implications is sponsored by KUNSTRAUM, with the kind support of Art in General and Chashama.
KUNSTRAUM LLC is a gallery, artist hub, and studio space located near the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Engaging artists, architects, curators, designers, filmmakers and writers, we are an interdisciplinary community that seeks to redefine the way creatives and curators collaborate. We offer thought-provoking exhibitions, public programs, networking opportunities, research, affordable studio space, curatorial fellowships, artist residencies, and discourse for creative production. By opening our gallery to different art professionals interested in engaging ideas, unconventional thinking, and risk-taking, KUNSTRAUM pushes the parameters of emerging, international, contemporary art.
To attend the opening reception and curator tour at KUNSTRAUM, please see the below details.
Opening Reception
Date/Time: Jan 22nd, 2023 4:00pm-6:00pm RSVP
Location: KUNSTRAUM, 20 Grand Avenue, Loft 509, Brooklyn, NY 11205
Curator Tours by Ashley Ouderkirk
Date/Time: Feb 12th, 2023 4:00pm-5:00pm
Location: KUNSTRAUM, 20 Grand Avenue, Loft 509, Brooklyn, NY 11205
About the Artists
Charles Clary is a South Carolina-based artist who creates artworks using layered, hand-cut paper and salvaged, found-objects. His recent sculptures are deeply personal and nostalgic; they explore issues of death and neglect, while maintaining elements of hope and beauty. Clary’s sculpted works and commissions are in numerous private and public collections including the Telfair Museum of Art, Georgia.
For more information on Charles Clary, visit his website and follow him on Instagram.
Nanse Kawashima is a Japanese-born visual artist, working in painted collage. Based in New York, Kawashima takes printed vintage ephemera and paints over areas, isolating parts of the subject from their background to transform the presence and symbolism of non-specific moments and places. Kawashima has shown her work in galleries both in New York and Japan.
For more information on Nanse Kawashima, visit her website and follow her on Instagram.
Cassandra Zampini is a New York based new-media artist examining the breakdown of truth online, and exposing the invisible influences behind our always-on digital culture. Zampini creates Internet-mined artworks by harvesting vast amounts of existing digital media, and then recontextualizing the content into large-scale physical and digital canvases. Zampini’s work has been collected by private, public, and corporate collections including the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston and Armoni Investments in Boston and she is currently an artist fellow at the New York National Arts Club.
For more information on Cassandra Zampini, visit her website and follow her on Instagram.
Ashley Ouderkirk is an independent curator and art writer based in New York City. She aims to acknowledge, examine, and value frequently overlooked artists and unconventional art venues.
For more information on For more information on Ashley Ouderkirk, visit her website and follow her on Instagram.
