Paul Shore: Whirligig.

Jonathan Miller Spies Fine Art presents Paul Shore: Whirligig, an exhibition of drawings at C. G. Boerner, September 12 through October 5, 2024.

Shore's second exhibition with Jonathan Miller Spies Fine Art meditates on the folk-art whirligig–a simple machine that moves when the wind blows–as a metaphor for the iterative, contingent quality of modern life.

The artist writes: "In the late 1980s at a yard sale in Vermont, I bought a bunch of whirligigs. When I moved to New York City, because I had less space, I put them in storage. Over the next 30 years or so, I thought about them now and then. In 2021 I hauled them out. When I started the Whirligig project, to imprint the basic form and mechanism in my head, I drew each of the three whirligigs. From then on, I pretty much let go of reality. There is no friction or gravity in a drawing."

The series embraces the free exploration of these fantastical machines, with nods to art history and the artistic process, and the banality of both the quotidian and the extraordinary in modern life. They are at turns anxious and breezy, as befits their shared mechanism: a small, repetitive motion powered by the wind. 

Join us for the opening reception on September 12 from 5 to 8 PM, at CG Boerner, 526 West 26 St., #419. The exhibition is open to the public Tuesday through October 5, 2024.

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