Light Whispers, Part I

Taína Cruz

Devin Kyle Cuthbertson

Isaiah Davis

Nathaniel Oliver

Housing is pleased to present Light Whispers, Part I.

A group of rats and pigeons circle around a glowing manhole: what special knowledge does the sewer hold for those creatures? What whispered secrets are revealed when we illuminate that which is typically obscured and hidden away? What veiled truths come to light when we explore that which dwells in darkness and profanity?

The paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures, and videos featured in Light Whispers–like the image described above, a drawing by Taína Cruz–will take up these difficult questions, conjuring an investigation into the dichotomy of light and shadow. The show is in part inspired by the life and work of the Renaissance painter Carvaggio, especially his radical use of chiaroscuro, an artistic technique in which a dramatic contrast between light and dark is employed to create depth and volume. Carvaggio pushed the limits of this method, expressing crucial moments of struggle, death, and torture against shadowy backdrops, illuminated only by jarring shafts of bright light. Despite his significant acclaim as an artistic genius, however, Carvaggio’s legacy was fraught with hushed rumors of mental instability, disfiguration, and violent tendencies. Thus, the name of the exhibition, Light Whispers, takes on another meaning–one that explores the duality of light and dark not just formally, but thematically as well. On one hand, the artists in this show will employ the practice of chiaroscuro in their work visually. On the other hand, the pieces in this exhibition will take on troublesome, raw, or otherwise unremarked upon subjects with profound clarity.

Nathaniel Oliver’s heavy charcoal drawings, for example, are both physically and emotionally dark, featuring moments of quiet subversion that come to life against a seething silhouette of Christianity. Similarly, Taína Cruz’s paintings play masterfully with light and color in order to blend surrealism and spirituality, eliciting both whimsical and more sinister omens simultaneously. Devin Kyle Cuthebertson’s paintings think through questions of visibility as they relate to technology and incarceration; light emanates from the glow of a phone or computer screen to render incarcerated bodies. Isaiah Davis’s video work, meanwhile, takes on a brutal and perverse approach to deconstructing hyper-masculinity, fetishism, and sexuality while venturing into hitherto unexplored dark corners.

Taína Cruz is an archivist, artist, and researcher based in New York, United States of America. Spanning 3D rendering, painting, and video, her work focuses on contemporary relations with Indigineous American and West African material, ritual, and visual culture, Recent exhibitions include Embajada’s 5th Anniversary Exhibition: documento, San Juan; A Gathering, HOUSING, New York; Decameron 7 at New Release Gallery, online; a ribbon, a pearl, a sedimentary rock at The Gormley Gallery, Baltimore. Cruz also received the GO-A: Goya Opportunity Award, San Juan, Puerto Rico and was featured on the MICA Dean’s List 2016-2020, Baltimore.

Devin Kyle Cuthbertson (b. 1984, New York) is an artist currently residing in New York City. He received his BFA from Cooper Union. Devin has lived and worked in many other places, including Los Angeles; Richmond, VA; and Florida, respectively. Having a background in music and performance, he has worked and collaborated with Mykki Blanco, Yves Tumor, Cities Aviv, and other artists from Black alternative music spheres. Devin is now focusing his attention on visual modes of expression with painting being his primary vehicle. His current work uses imprisonment as its subject matter and explores the ways in which technology functions to allow incarcerated bodies to both be seen and interact with society, despite being marked as contraband, illegal, and forbidden.

Isaiah Davis (b. 1992, Bronx, New York) is an artist living and working in New York City. He received a BFA from Cooper Union School of Art in 2018, and has participated in group exhibitions at 128 Avenue C, New York and Love Gallery, New York. Davis’s first New York solo show, I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream, went up at Participant Inc. in 2021.

Nathaniel Oliver (b. Washington, DC 1996) is a multidisciplinary artist currently based in New York City. His practice in painting, sculpture, performance, video, and installations focuses on veracity not being absolute. Guided by perspective, he challenges the normality of the world in which we live. In this digital world, fact is manipulated and cropped to its beneficiary. Conversely, veracity both builds and dismantles spaces. His works reflect the literal and metaphorical experiences that he has come to comprehend and the attestation of him being there.