Gary Kuehn

Gaa is pleased to present Sex of Heavenly Bodies, a solo exhibition by Gary Kuehn highlighting two work series, Sex of Heavenly Bodies (1994-1997) and Berlin Series (1977-1980).

The Berlin Series collages, inspired by Kuehn’s time living in Germany during the late years of the Cold War, feature expansive, landscape-like compositions with cuts in the paper allowing painted geometric and architectural shapes to intervene, defining and crossing boundaries. Kuehn states of his time in Berlin in the 70s, “Without being promiscuous it was a reckless and an expansive erotic atmosphere in which to be a young artist at the dawn of the new age.”

The Sex of Heavenly Bodies are wood and graphite sculptures loosely inspired by the Claude Lévi Strauss essay, “The Sex of The Sun and Moon.” The works suggest a complex ambiguous sensuality through the juxtaposition of form and materials. Kuehn’s metaphoric approach to materials and process implies an erotic joining, while meditating on weight, gravity, and the ways in which forms relate. Working with chance procedures and the inherent qualities of materials, Kuehn’s work considers the binary forces that dictate any material or human interaction. Soft/hard, solid/liquid, freedom/control: these are some of the contradictory themes that Kuehn forces into a relationship.