Exhibition Dates: January 10–22, 2022
Gallery Location: 432 Julia Street, New Orleans, LA 70130
Hours: Tuesday–Saturday, 12 pm–5 pm
Contact Info: 504.522.1999; www.arthurrogergallery.com
The Arthur Roger Gallery is pleased to present Randy Polumbo: Bunker installed on Julia St. in front of the Arthur Roger Gallery, located at 432 Julia Street, from January 10–22, 2022. The gallery will host an all-day event on Saturday, January 22 from 12–5 pm in conjunction with the closing of Prospect.5.
Randy Polumbo uses sculpture, architectural combines, and twisted archeological or salvaged “containers” to create site-specific interventions that welcome participatory interaction. Most recently, he is focused on the visual disruptions that result from the intersection of geologic time—excavating layers—to immediate perceptual experience. The luminescent, hyperreal grottos and other architectural forms he creates unfold inside often repurposed, disheveled, or antiquated structures. In the case of Bunker, 2021, the structure involves a repurposed military bunker turned into a reflective, meditative cave that positively stimulates the nervous system.
Polumbo states, “There is something cool about these projects popping up on the street overnight, a curious, futuristic mushroom or reflective pool, attracting human pollinators.”’
Grottos, a common architectural feature in the homes of 16th-century Italian nobility, traditionally featured artwork set among rocks, water, stalactites, sponges, shells, and other natural forms of life. The main impulse behind them was to create alchemy based on the idea that shapeless matter and chaos could be transformed into a harmonic higher order. For instance, the first room of the Buontalenti Grotto in Florence was adapted to house Michelangelo’s four Prigioni statues. In a world that seems determined to hasten its own destruction, Polumbo aspires that his works be life-giving, that they help people return to and reclaim their haptic senses. Whereas the mean time for looking at a piece of art is less than 30 seconds, viewers linger in Polumbo’s spectacular installations.
Randy Polumbo lives and works in New York City and Joshua Tree, California as a visual artist, master builder, and sometime designer.
A graduate of The Cooper Union School of Art, his work has been exhibited nationally and abroad and is in the collection of the Museum of Old and New Art, (MONA.) His work is also included in numerous private collections. He has exhibited recently at Coachella, Bombay Beach Biennale, Bass Museum in Miami, Art Basel Miami Beach, and Burning Man. Recent exhibits include Steven Kasher Gallery, Imago Gallery, Paul Kasmin Gallery, BoxoFFICE, and High Desert Test Sites, Joshua Tree, CA.