Pinky?

PAUL SOTO is pleased to announce Pinky?, an exhibition of paintings, video, and multimedia works by six artists working in New York, Los Angeles, and Tbilisi.

“Pinky?”

"Is it a question or an exclamation or both?  I was walking through New York this past summer and happened to look up from my phone, and there it was written on a billboard, 'Pinky?' A number of associations came to mind: cartoons, etiquette... But mostly I was intrigued by it as an utterance that was abstract. It had no meaning for me until it did. It is language but it is almost just sound, and also a color and also a body part. Kind of girly and kind of gay, too, but not entirely those. Just, 'Pinky?'

"This utterance inspired the show, or my experience of it at that moment. These artists use methods of abstraction that seem peculiarly subjective, with decisive or objective qualities that reflect something personal.  They observe, document, compile. Some deal with media and some with art and architectural history. And then they translate or transform their subject matter through a sort of filtration process. There is a personalizing element that ends up in their artworks as they do this, so strong for each that their artworks take on personified qualities. Erudite scholar, transcendent stargazer, angsty adolescent, obsessive fan, etc. Looking at these works I am transformed out of myself and into myself. 

"I wanted to know, how could something so personal (representation, subjective decision-making) also be so universal (abstraction)? Invisible, affective substances seep off the works, producing a kaleidoscope of feelings in my body: longing, alienation, tenderness, humor."

 –Paul Soto