Launch F18 is pleased to present Wrestle. A group exhibition curated by Tim Donovan. Participating artists include Andrej Dubravsky, Brian Kenny, Frankie Rice, Elizabeth Smolarz
Wrestle, whether voluntary on involuntary, physical or mental, positive or negative is an action. We may wrestle with the result of a past dilemma, a projected decision, or current situation but the fret (or comfort) of this quandary takes place in the moment, often finding it’s not so much the finite content we wrestle with; it’s the strategy in how we’ll respond to it. This exhibition focuses on the broad aspects of circumstance. Brian Kenny sets the pace with the immediacy of the physical and strategic points necessary in the actual sport, projecting formality and beauty. He expands on that notion with Boys Never Fail, which affirms the winning aspect of boys as champions and their unique ability to hit the bulls-eye, as champions, on many different levels. Andrej Dubravsky examines youth and fantastical identity in the arena of alter egoism where young gay men break free from restriction. Frankie Rice demonstrates his ability to transform the containment of a medical solution to a social pandemic through the use of a visual a metaphor of hope and endurance, while Elizabeth Smolarz utilizes video to relay the stages of death in a banal setting of a Laundromat, with its delivery being both stunning and mundane. These combined works may not leave us with the artists solution to the theme yet more effectively, demonstrates how they contemplate it.