Modern Love Club 156 1st Avenue, New York, NY 10002

FOMO A Group Exhibition curated by Marina Press Granger December 1, 2019 - January 4, 2020 Opening Reception: Sunday, December 1, 6 - 9 pm

”The expression on Clementine’s face, the subject of Nadine Robbins’ painting Try and Stop Me, is a reaction to not having the opportunities she deserves. The opportunities she is missing out on because of her gender. Clementine asked her father for a small loan to jump start her business. Her father explained that he would rather give the loan to her brother because, as a man, he can maintain a business. Here we see Clementine’s visceral reaction of not having the support of the better option when starting her business based on her gender.”

— Marina Granger, curator.

The Modern Love Club is pleased to present a group exhibition entitled FOMO, featuring a ​ ​ dozen contemporary artists and curated by Marina Press Granger. FOMO is an acronym for ​ ​ Fear of Missing Out, a condition identified in the early 2000s by Patrick J. McGinnis in an article for The Harvard Business School magazine, The Harbus. Over a decade later, FOMO, now a ​ ​ noun and not just an acronym, affects us all. As a society, we are constantly bombarded by information especially information about other people’s fun; their travel, their successes, their failures, and all the details of their lives. And so, we are oversaturated with this information and face FOMO in that way. We constantly think we could be doing something else or may have a better option of what to do. The works in this exhibition are all connected to FOMO. So appropriately, it is being presented in one of the busiest neighborhoods of the city that never sleeps - New York City. Here something is always happening. Something that someone is almost always wishing they were a part of.

The exhibition is organized into four categories; Society, Identity, Interaction, and Nostalgia. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Society features paintings by Lis Pardoe, Nadine Robbins, Joanne Handler, and Monica ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Wynn. Identity features paintings by Brooke Bowen, Julie Tsang Kavanaugh, and Akané ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Ogura. Interaction features paintings by Anna Mogilevsky, Tatiana Akoeva, and Deb Slowey. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Nostalgia features a collage by Brianne Lanigan and a painting by Tatiana Levina. Each ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ category signifies the catalyst for the FOMO in each work of art.

SOCIETY

Nadine Robbins’ painting Try and Stop Me (2019) is a painting of the model’s reaction to her ​ ​ ​ father’s choice of financing her brother’s business and not hers. The model, Clementine, a muse of Robbins’, explained that her father refused to give her a loan to start her business because he felt it would be more appropriate for a man, the model’s brother, to succeed in business. So, Clementine’s father gave his son a loan. Clementine’s reaction is akin to that of many who have been discounted because of their race or gender. It is a more serious effect of missing out.

Open Weekdays by Appointment only Open Weekends, 1 - 7 pm Modern Love Club 156 1st Avenue, New York, NY 10002

Robbins lives and works in Rhinebeck, NY. While she earned her BFA in Graphic Design from ​ SUNY New Paltz (New Paltz, NY), she is a largely self-taught artist. Named one of Buzzfeed’s “Top 100 Figurative Painters Working Right Now” in 2017 and 2018, Robbins has shown her paintings throughout the country and in Europe. She is represented in prestigious private collections, including the Howard A. & Judith Tullman Collection in Chicago and the Count-Ibex Collection in Germany. Robbins’ work has been shown notable institutions such as The Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art (Wausau, WI), the Rockwell Museum (Corning, NY), and the European Museum of Modern Art (MEAM) in Barcelona, Spain. Publications featuring Robbins’ work include Artsy, American Art Collector, Fine Art Connoisseur, Poets and Artists, and The Huffington Post.

Lis Pardoe’s Paradox Persona (2016) is a painting of a woman sitting with a carrot in her hand. ​ ​ ​ There are cigarettes on the table next to her. But, she chooses the carrot. The choice is between the healthiness of eating a carrot and the instant gratification of smoking a cigarette.

Pardoe lives and works in Salt Lake City, Utah. She completed a half-decade long ​ apprenticeship at the Hein Atelier of Traditional Art. Her work has consistently been included in the Springville Museum of Art (Springville, UT) Annual Spring Salon.

Monica Wynn’s Suffocate (2019) is a small scale painting of representing the various elements ​ ​ ​ that would dominate our atmosphere if the planet continues on a destructive path; burning fossil fuels and producing plastic. Wynn explores what could happen and what we may want to miss out on. Ultimately, like Pardoe, she questions doing what is environmentally friendly for ​ ​ the planet, or healthy, versus succumbing to instant gratification.

Wynn lives and works in New York, NY. She holds an M.Arch from Pratt University (Brooklyn, ​ NY). While she is somewhat of a self-taught artist, her maquette building is informed by her career in Architecture. She has exhibited a large scale installation in the historic building 675 Hudson in New York. Wynn has exhibited her work in notable group exhibitions at the Lake Oswego Arts Center (Lake Oswego, OR) and Palazzo Albrizzi (Venice, Italy).

Joanne Handler’s Dazed and Confused is an exploration of abstraction using a variety of ​ ​ ​ tools, hardware tools to be exact. Handler, a native New Yorker, has never had to use these materials. With this painting, Handler in explores the dichotomy of blue-collar and white-collar labor. Where does being a fine artist fall?

Handler lives and works in New York. She studied painting at the Art Students League (New ​ York, NY) and continues to study with artist James Little. Recently, Handler’s work has been included in group exhibitions such as The White Room Gallery’s Zen and the Art of Women in Bridgehampton, SITE Brooklyn’s Color: Primary to Tertiary, Harlem School of the Arts Shelter 2018, and the New York Borough President’s office City Views.

Open Weekdays by Appointment only Open Weekends, 1 - 7 pm Modern Love Club 156 1st Avenue, New York, NY 10002

IDENTITY

Brooke Bowen’s Swan (2109) is a painting of a swan in a luscious green field. The Swan is ​ ​ ​ grazing on the surrounding greenery and is representative of the artist. Bowen grew up in Utah as a sort of ugly duckling - a symptom of which, was not going to her High School prom. Now as an adult, she feels she has blossomed into a beautiful, graceful Swan. Reflecting on the experiences she missed out on when she was younger, she is quite happy with what she has now.

Bowen lives and works in Southern Utah. She has studied closely with a myriad of artists ​ including Casey Childs and Gregory Kondos. Her work has been exhibited at notable institutions such as the Springville Art Museum (Springville, UT), the Southern Utah Museum of Art (Cedar City, UT), and the Bountiful Davis Art Center (Bountiful, UT).

Julie Tsang Kavanagh’s Jacket is a painting of a woman's military-style jacket on a hanger. ​ The way it is painted mimics the techniques of 17th Century Dutch Still-life artists. However, symbols of contemporary life are the brand label on the inside of the jacket, and the hanger it is on. As consumers, we may miss out on a clothing sale, on buying clothing that we hope will make a difference.

Kavanaugh lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area. She holds a degree from UC ​ Berkeley where she studied biochemistry and fine art. She also studied at the Angel Academy of Art (Florence, Italy). Kavanagh has received the La Fortuna Foundation Scholarship, Art Renewal Center Scholarship, and the Hudson River School of Landscape Fellowship. Her works have been exhibited in Florence, London, and various cities in the US.

Akané Ogura’s Gaze (2018) is a painting of the artist’s muse, a dancer. She is wearing a ​ ​ ​ vintage turn of the century piano shawl. Her gaze is powerful and blank and is indicative of having no fear. She’s in an open pose and fully present.

Ogura is originally from Ibaraki, Japan. She lives and works in New York City. She earned a ​ Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, CA. Since 2009, she has been exhibiting her paintings in numbers of group shows internationally in Tokyo, San Francisco, and New York City.

INTERACTIONS

Anna Mogilevsky’s Awareness (2019) is a mixed media painting that includes embroidery. The ​ ​ ​ rainbow is embroidered. The three figures are representative of three different aspects of the artist. Heavily influenced by Buddhist philosophy, Mogilevsky explores mindfulness and being present.

Open Weekdays by Appointment only Open Weekends, 1 - 7 pm Modern Love Club 156 1st Avenue, New York, NY 10002 Mogilevsky was born in Moscow, Russia and now lives in works in the Northeast, dividing her ​ time between New York City and Philadelphia. Mogilevsky holds a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design (Providence, RI) and an MFA from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Mogilevsky’s work has been on view in notable institutions, such as Mana Contemporary (Jersey City, NJ), The Art Student's League of New York Vytlacil Campus (Sparkill, NY) , A.I.R Gallery (New York, NY), Kate Oh Gallery (New York, NY), Oh Gallery (Damyang, Korea) and Boo Sung Art Center (Seoul, Korea). She is a recipient of several awards, including the Ruth Katsman Scholarship, Massart Young Master Fellowship, and Florence Leif Award.

Tatiana Akoeva’s The Date (2019) is a painting of two people having an intimate interaction in ​ ​ ​ a public space. They are not looking at one another. One figure is staring off into the distance. The other hangs his head in his hands and looks down.

Akoeva lives and works in New York, NY. She holds an MFA from the New York Academy of ​ Art. Her work has been exhibited in group exhibitions at The Artists Space (New York, NY), AIR Gallery (New York, NY), Cheim & Reid (New York, NY), and other notable galleries. She received a Chashama Artist Grant in 2016 and the New York Academy of Art Merit Award in 2017.

Deb Slowey’s Daphne Turning into a Laurel (2017) is an allegorical painting of Daphne trying to ​ ​ ​ get away from the advances of Apollo. She chooses to turn herself into a Laurel tree to escape his desire. In turning into a Laurel tree, Daphne releases her beautiful human form. And so, is Daphne missing out on being a human in this situation? In some ways, she is not because even being a Laurel did not prevent Apollo from advancing on her.

Slowey lives and works in the Tampa Bay region of Florida. She studied painting at the ​ Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts and aesthetics at the Barnes Foundation School of Art. Slowey had solo exhibitions at notable galleries such as Chuck Levitan Gallery (New York, NY) and The Stone House Museum (Hasbrouck, NY). Her work is also in prominent permanent collections such as the US Embassy in Paris, France, The Printmaking Workshop Collection (New York, NY), St. Mary's College (Maryland), Parana Curitiba (Brazil), and many more.

NOSTALGIA

Brianne Lanigan’s Don’t Kill My Vibe (2018) is a collage on painted canvas. Lanigan uses ​ ​ ​ imagery from vintage American news and lifestyle magazines like Life and Time. She uses images of violence and disarms in its new life, in her collages. In this collage, detectives and cops once photographed while studying a crime scene, are now repurposed as picnicking on the moon, observing a group of women vacuuming the rings of Saturn.

Lanigan lives and works in the Washington DC area. She is a self-taught artist. She has had ​ solo booth exhibitions at the Superfine! Art Fair during Art Basel Miami Beach (2016-2018), as well as, in Washington, DC (2018) and New York City (2019).She has also exhibited in group exhibitions in notable galleries such as Van Der Plas Gallery (New York, NY) and Arthouse NYC (New York, NY).

Open Weekdays by Appointment only Open Weekends, 1 - 7 pm Modern Love Club 156 1st Avenue, New York, NY 10002

Tanya Levina’s Speak Memory (2018) is a painting that explores the beginnings of the artist’s ​ ​ ​ life from her memory. Levina, the figure on the left, is the oldest of three sisters. Born behind the iron curtain in Minsk, Belarus, Levina painted a moment in her Soviet home from her childhood with her two sisters. She does not have any photographs of their home but recreated it from memory. Her sisters are wearing bows on their heads - a custom for Soviet children. There is a carpet hanging on the wall behind them, a common decorative motif of a Soviet home. Now Levina lives and works in New York City and has very little connection to or memory of a different life. A life that could have been but wasn’t.

Levina studied painting at the Art Students League, Slade School of Fine Arts in London, and ​ The New York Academy of Art. Levina is a recipient of a COJECO Blueprint Fellowship award and has been featured in numerous exhibitions at venues including Trask Gallery at the National Arts Club (New York, NY), The Annmarie Sculpture Garden and Arts Center (Solomons, MD), and MoRA (Museum of Russian Art) in Jersey City, NJ.

About the Curator

Marina Press Granger lives and works in New York, NY. She holds an MA in Art History from ​ The City College of New York (New York, NY) and a BA in Art History from Pace University (New York, NY). After working in the New York art world for over fifteen years, Granger founded The Artist Advisory, a consulting service for artists. While she has curated for the institutions she worked in, independently she has curated The Love Museum: Girls I Love (2016) at the Modern Love Club and Three Points Define a Surface (2011) at the Brooklyn Arts Council Gallery.

Open Weekdays by Appointment only Open Weekends, 1 - 7 pm