et al Projects presents Numb Nothing Close, a solo exhibition of new paintings by Brian Kokoska. Kokoska’s recent works investigate areas of portraiture and post-feeling aesthetics. In this exhibition, intimately scaled paintings both communicate and isolate from one another. Predominantly monochromatic, each work introduces a different approach to forming a face – a reference to the artists fascination with mask sensibilities – and in reaction to his recent sculptural works. Here, Kokoska’s paintings are not only self-aware, but claim awareness of tradition, theatricality, youth, internet culture, and whimsy. His work proposes a post-sentimental state whereby facial attributes, shapes, gestures, composition, and color no longer determine an obvious emotion or circumstance, but rather a playful experience on hyper-hybrid-identity.
Brian Kokoska (b. 1988 Vancouver, Canada) is an artist based in New York. He received a BFA from Emily Carr University of Art and Design. Recent solo exhibitions include Vox Populi Gallery, Philadelphia, Preteen Gallery, Mexico City, and Blanket Contemporary Art Inc., Vancouver. Group shows include White Columns, New York, Black Cubicle, Mexico City, and NADA Art Fair, Miami Beach. His paintings have been seen in artUS, V, Art Papers, Whitehot, La Tempestad, Canadian Art, and The Philadelphia Inquirer. Upcoming shows are to be held at 72 Truck, Madrid, Hinter Haus des Meeres, Vienna, Museo La Ene, Buenos Aires, and a collaboration with Devon Halfnight LeFlufy for Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Antwerp. Numb Nothing Close is Kokoska’s first solo project in Brooklyn.
et al Projects | 56 Bogart Street | Brooklyn NY | 11206
