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Jared Abner: Hauntology
HallSpace presents Hauntology an exhibition of wood sculpture by Jared Abner. This is Abner’s first solo exhibition at HallSpace. In 2021, he was in a 2-person show.
In Hauntology, Jared Abner pays tribute to the history and memories of the artists that have influenced contemporary sculpture. The organic standing shapes of articulated wood forms maintain their equilibrium as they swirl in space. Abner has developed a craftsmanlike devotion to wood but does not lose sight of the importance of play. The materials do what they do, and Abner does his thing. Abner gets lost in the materials, finding meaning, and making art.
Abner talks about working in a wood shop in the basement when he was very young. He relies on his own histories to recognize the importance of other stories. Here is his most recent statement:
I was an annoying younger brother. My brother, with whom I shared a bunkbed, often felt the brunt of my behavior. One night in my bed, I looked above my head, and noticed constellations of small, construction-paper cut-outs scotch-taped to the old plaster ceiling of our bedroom of different objects and figures. Later in the night, when my brother tried stealthily tiptoeing through the cracked door and up the ladder to his top bunk, I asked him what the paper was for. He began telling me a story. He turned on a small flash light and aimed the light at the various pieces of paper, using them as props to his story until I fell asleep. He did this frequently for me until we had separate rooms. Each night a new story but the same shapes.
Even as the picture books sprawled across the bedroom floor gradually morphed into text books as the years went by, no one ever removed the paper on the ceiling. But gradually, one by one, they fell with the tape’s deterioration. Now, that old bedroom is just a guest room – save for one small paper sword still hauntingly taped to the ceiling.
The memory of these paper shapes created a latent framework for my work today. Much like my brother's stories being contingent by the previously cut paper on the ceiling, my pieces are created through a playful exploration and the contingent property of wood. This is a further persistence of the past, the notions of hand made wood crafts. Each of the individual assemblages of a piece start out as a plank of wood. Using a mix of traditional and modern techniques, I first cut and machine subsections in a way that allows me to play and explore compositions which only present themselves in their dimensions.
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Jared Abner
BFA, Rochester Institute of Technology
Two Person Shows:
2D-3D at Susan Eley Fine Art, 2025
Ingrained at Susan Eley Fine Art, 2022
Wood Play at HallSpace, 2021
Group Shows:
Fresh Faces at Abigail Ogilvy Gallery, 2022
New Voices for the Twenties at Susan Eley Fine Art, 2021
New England Collective XI at Galatea Fine Art, 2021
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Gallery Hours
Friday + Saturday 12-5pm
By Appointment
Monday - Thursday
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New Exhibition Catalogues
John Tracey: Biomorphs
Deborah Kamy Hull: Cross-Pollination
Rhoda Rosenberg: Between Two Ends
Kathy Soles: Littoral Spaces
Gerry Perrino: Fables, Foibles, & Badvertisements
Ellen Shattuck Pierce: Taking Place
William Flynn: 50 Years, 50 Drawings
Peter Thibeault: A Flaneur’s Bricolage
Adriana Prat: Topographical Visions
Black Futures: How to See in Total Darkness
Kenneth FitzGerald: Trypophilia
Joe Caruso: Makers and Shakers
Visit HallSpace.org for more information.
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