John Kissick Sugar Won't Work // Sam Mogelonsky Pins Needles

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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Please join us Thursday, September 11, 6-9p for the opening reception of two exhibitions: John Kissick “Sugar Won’t Work”, and Sam Mogelonsky “Pins & Needles”

“Sugar Won’t Work” is the most recent and perhaps radical iteration of John Kissick’s painterly approach the most obvious indication of this being the introduction of craft glitter in large sections of his new paintings. Having reached a seminal junction in his career as an abstract painter, Kissick faced the dilemma of either stylizing his own aesthetic, or departing from it altogether. Instead, he chose to force and contort his artistic scope, driving his aesthetic beyond easy convention to become more himself in his work than ever before. His material departure inclusion of riotous swaths of dense, seductive glitter is an expansion of Kissick’s ongoing interest in creating a disorienting, even manic, visual dynamic within his work. The glitter bombs reflect light in unpredictable ways, and provide a visual barrier to reading the paintings in a traditional spatial manner. The paintings encourage the viewer to actively engage in interpretation, and support a more fluid and open-ended discourse. Glitter also has the added advantage of functioning as a cultural signifier of low tech ornamentation, nostalgia, and kitsch in keeping with Kissick’s use of faded supergraphics and over-crafted decorative gestures, and in direct tension with a variety of expressionist tropes that attempt to purposefully complicate any easy reading of the work.

Throughout his career, Kissick has been preoccupied with one central concern: how does one make abstract paintings that appear knowing, without succumbing to easy cynicism; or visually enticing without collapsing into feigned sentiment or pastiche. Kissick’s work is procedurally messy, historically contingent, purposefully disorienting, and in a constant critical dialogue with the historical conventions of abstract painting. Sugar Won’t Work is the natural evolution of Kissick’s rigourous and uncompromising visual exploration of a reflected and refracted world.

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“Pins & Needles” is decorative, playful, and obsessive, with a hidden sinister edge. Sam Mogelonskys painstakingly constructed sculptures use embellishment to speak to notions of craft production and decoration. Her work references ostentation and design, the dual nature of bodily pleasure and pain, and at the same time initiates a dialogue between the mass-produced and the hand-made.

Mogelonskys biomorphic forms draw the eye, reflecting changing light and colour. While these surface qualities entice viewers to approach for a closer look, upon inspection, their decadence is revealed as faade the captivatingly vibrant forms conceal sinister undertones. The sequins, systematically hand-pinned to these styrofoam figures, remind the viewer of the intense process of the physical acts of labour and the resulting pain involved in their creation.

Mogelonsky also encases document tubes with sequins, secured with long, sharp pointed pins. The spiraling interior view produces a kaleidoscopic effect that speaks of extravagance and decoration, while also calling attention to the dual nature of pleasure and pain. These objects reveal a studded interior core of methodically placed pins whose deliberate labour results in a threatening spiral arrangement; an intoxicating aesthetic that solicits further investigation.

Mogelonskys sculptural practice focuses on the manipulation of light hearted, navely seductive, artificial surfaces to reveal narratives that oppose the materials used in the creation process. Her obsessive repetition of decorative elements and process-driven labour challenges the limits of adornment, as well as contemporary consumption and its tendencies towards the ominous consequences of excess.

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