Alessandra Norman
NEVER ODD OR EVEN
Opening reception: Saturday, September 28th, 6-10pm
Closing reception: Friday, October 25th, 6-10pm
Extase is pleased to present “NEVER ODD OR EVEN,” a solo exhibition of new sculptural wall work and a site-specific installation by Chicago-based artist Alessandra Norman. This is Norman’s first solo show.
The exhibition’s palindrome title alludes to the artist’s desire to draw attention to the fallibility of visual representation while contending with our increasingly virtual society. When the viewer enters the installation, they will be confronted with a disorienting setting of a non-functional interior: the room has been literally remodeled, the result a mirror-like reflection of itself. Two doors, two windows, and two outlets now exist in the small space as opposed to the room’s original one of each. Just as “NEVER ODD OR EVEN” spells the same phrase written backward as it does forward, the artist has transformed the gallery space into an immersive cube, where, regardless of where one looks they will encounter false reflections posing as replications. This interest in perception, looking, loss of functionality, and the creation of new environments in previously seemingly static spaces comes from Norman’s commitment to confusing and conflating representation in her work.
In the second gallery space the viewer will find a suite of new wall-mounted sculptural mirror pieces. These pieces serve as evolved iterations of similar works that the artist has been constructing for the last year. This body of work continues to demonstrate Norman’s exploration of the contentious relationship between reflection and perception in art as well as daily life, the mirror serving as an apt material through which to consider these ideas. For these pieces and throughout Norman’s practice she employs utilitarian, quotidian, or found materials
– like poplar, plastic tarp, wire, and mirrored glass– subsequently providing social commentary through object and deliberate material choices.
- Budgie Birka-White, Director and Curator, Extase
Alessandra Norman (b. 1990 El Paso, Texas) is a Chicago-based interdisciplinary artist. Norman received her MFA in Printmedia from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2019. She received her BFA from Birmingham-Southern College (Birmingham, Alabama). Her work has been exhibited at the Gowanus Ballroom (New York), Baby Blue Gallery (Chicago), and Cleve Carney Gallery (Glen Ellyn, IL), among others. She will be participating in the upcoming Chicago Art Book Fair as part of her two-person curatorial project, Gesamtkunst Werkshop.
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