The Brick presents
The Sea
at Brick Aux Gallery – 628 Metropolitan Ave
October 12 – November 2, 2024

A multimedia gallery show by Helen Oliver Adelson & Alex Wolkowicz

Please join us for an Opening Reception on Saturday, October 12, 6-8PM

“This exhibition is, for me, an ode to the Sea. Its Beauty, Its Mystery, Its Power, To the Joy and the Terror that it can inspire.”

–Helen Oliver Adelson

Oliver’s gestural line and the deeply felt presence of the sitter create “images [that] vacillate between the hallucinatory, bordering on Surrealism, and a raw pragmatic quality that makes them appear utterly truthful,” says David Ebony. Her joyous, bohemian character imbues her paintings with an imaginative inner narrative, and style that goes beyond any affiliations to contemporary art trends, schools, or movements. An air of whimsy permeates some of her portraits, while languid nudes stare frankly into the viewer.

Since the late 70s, Helen Oliver has been an integral part of the artistic and performance-art scene of the Lower East Side, tapping into the personalities of the vanguard and rendering oil paintings of artists, musicians, filmmakers, and writers including John Kelly, Hapi Phace, Penny Arcade, Lenny Kaye, Louie Cartwright, Kembra Pfahler, Samoa, and Brian Damage. She is also well known for her stage-set design, especially for her brother Edgar Oliver’s plays, many of which premiered at La MaMa.

Adelson and Wolkowicz have collaborated since 2015, when Alex began sitting for Helen’s paintings channeling different characters. The Siren (exhibited here) sparked the idea for a two person show, in which they enter an artistic dialogue within the framework of their shared backgrounds in theater and performance art. The Sea invites the viewer to explore the gallery as a quasi theatrical environment.

Alex Wolkowicz’s audiovisual installation for The Sea draws on symbolism from mythology and her inner world. She reflects on contradictory voices, projections and dangers inherent in navigating one’s own psychic depths.

In her multimedia installation with sound, Wolkowicz explores unknowable forces lurking between desire and destruction. She employs processes she developed over years of experimenting with domestic, industrial and waste materials to create sculptural objects imbued with symbolic meaning. Alex’s soundscape of treated field, drone and voice recordings adds a sonic atmosphere to the narrative.

Brick Aux Gallery hours are 12-6PM on Saturday, varied hours on weekdays, and by appointment: lydia@bricktheater.com