“Secondary sources are not evidence, but rather commentary on and discussion of evidence.” - Yale University Library  

BROOKLYN, NY – Tiger Strikes Asteroid New York is pleased to present Secondary Sources, a group exhibition curated by Jackie Hoving and Norm Paris that includes the work of Anthony Campuzano, Nyeema Morgan, Leslie Roberts, Brandi Twilley, and Shoshanna Weinberger.

This exhibition brings together artists who are interested in archiving the records, scraps, and ephemera that exist within their spheres of interest. Sometimes these drawings and paintings directly tally and depict subject matter, and in other instances they digest and transform information. All of them catalog material, and yet this archive is not a neutral accounting. Evocative meanings spring from editorial decisions concerning what sources to present and how to present them. These artworks function as “secondary sources,” digesting facts and providing new contexts, responses, and orders.

Nyeema Morgan’s large-scale graphite drawings such as Like It Is: Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions are selections from an ongoing series, all based upon images of book covers that include the word “Extraordinary”. The drawings are an implicit challenge to accepted ideas of meaning and re-presentation.

Anthony Campuzano’s gem-like drawings intimately connect to seemingly untouchable sources through transcribed text-based records. Portrait of Philip Guston via Partial Artist File from KK (study) is culled from documents delivered by a friend regarding the famous artist. Collaged handwriting is rendered in bits and pieces, floating upon a hand-drawn field.

Brandi Twilley’s paintings document the library books that avoided the fire which subsequently burned down her childhood home. Paintings like Picasso and Titian Back exist halfway between representation and one-to-one transcription; Twilley hand-traced each book onto canvas to set the scale for each work.

Shoshanna Weinberger creates a series of amalgamated representations in her 18 Yearbook Portraits. Individuals are transformed into silhouettes atop which the artist’s lipstick imprint completes the image. Dispersed into a grid formation, Weinberger’s abstracted portraits conjure hybrid and ambiguous identities through the lens of the yearbook photograph, obliquely exploring her own Caribbean-American heritage.

Leslie Roberts’ system-based paintings provide order for lived experiences that often prove too ephemeral for systematic evaluation. Guarantees, instructions, acronyms, or street names might offer the initial texts from which geometry is derived. In works like “Gansevoort Street”, the coding of information sets into motion a series of causes and effects that lead to rigorous and idiosyncratic abstractions.

These works present a clear residue from the world. Handwriting, books, everyday life, and lists are directly recalled. There is simultaneously a level of remove and immediacy intrinsic to these practices, due to both the referential nature of these varying projects and the high level of closeness to their sources. We can almost feel the artist breathing on the document.

Tiger Strikes Asteroid’s 2019 Exhibition Program is sponsored, in part, by the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, administered by Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC).