April 7 - 10, 2022

EXPOSURE | Booth 270

Northern Trust Purchase Prize for Walker Art Center

Adler Guerrier (PDF)

Levani (Levan Mindiashvili) (PDF)

PRESS: ARTnews

Our two-person presentation features recent works of Haiti-born Miami-based Adler Guerrier and Tbilisi-born New York-based Levani (Levan Mindiashvili). With poetic inquiries into history, race, and representation, the works of both artists are centered around the imagery of plants and nature. They present the landscape as sites of openness, possibilities, learning, and liberation.

Adler Guerrier's photographic series and works on paper "Wander and Errancies,” were developed during a 2020 residency at Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida - the oldest city in the United States that has been part of both colonial Spain and colonial England. It's also, arguably, part of the Caribbean, and Florida borders the former slave states of Georgia and Alabama. As the artist remarks, "the project developed around the question, What would it mean to use the mythology of the flaneur to walk around in this place, to try to find traces that are connected to other histories or new poetics?" The central work of the series "Wander and Errancies— memories within; citrus in Saint Augustine" (2021) shows vibrant Florida oranges with rich green leaves against a dark, dark sky. "I was thinking about how traveling at night was part of the experience of runaway slaves who were seeking freedom. They didn't escape only north, but also south—to the wilds of Florida or to Latin America. The Spanish had announced that they would embrace any formerly enslaved people, provided they became Catholic. Others went south to Cuba or the Bahamas. I was thinking of the oranges as this signal that we're getting closer to freedom —there are almost no orange groves north of Florida, so when you see them on your journey south, it's a symbol that you've entered another land. The work is about finding that sweetness, that possibility."

The transdisciplinary practice of Levani is informed by their interest in microbiology, ecology, and psychology. "Eco-conscious spirituality, the interdependence of every life form, and the holistic approach to the accumulated knowledge are the main frameworks to propose the new models of being in the world," - says the artist. Multi- panel paintings in our presentation belong to the newest body of work collectively titled "Gardens of Eurasia.” This project furthers Levani's ongoing inquiry into ecology as a vehicle for reconnecting with one's ancestral heritage and regaining a sense of belonging. Concerned with the politics of representation and current geopolitical shifts, Levani presents the place of their origin— Eurasia—not as an enduring binary opposition (West vs. East) as it has historically been shown. But as a site of vast cultural legacies and, therefore, potentialities. These paintings are inspired by the medieval carvings of Georgia and hand-painted with a liquid mirror on glass. They act like an actual mirror, reflecting viewers and surroundings, and erasing the boundaries between themselves and the environment. The paintings become embodiments of porousness and merging.