Rachel Fäth

Francis Irv is pleased to present (Coördinator) by Rachel Fäth. This is the first solo exhibition by Fäth in New York, and the inaugural exhibition of Francis Irv’s new location at 106 Walker Street.

Fäth’s welded sculptures are innocuous but highly specific forms, implying a possible use value that is undermined by her signature joints and appendages. She’s dubbed these components, “extenders”: crudely applied steel sourced from local sidewalks and construction sites in the area surrounding her studio, which overlooks the mouth of the Holland Tunnel. Rather than serving a decorative goal, Fäth demarcates and implies these passages, making explicit use of the space at her disposal.

The works are installed in a direct axis with one another, forming void spaces that underscore the material absence between one another. In this way, Fäth’s objects masquerade as functional hardware, articulating moments of egress between the gallery and its exterior environment. These gestures thwart conventions of display and draw attention to the hermetic aspirations of a gallery space, including the layered relationship it has with the space outside its walls.

Rachel Fäth (b. 1991, Berlin) lives and works in New York. Selected solo and two-person exhibitions include Invisitor, Diez Gallery, Amsterdam (forthcoming); Haus, Shahin Zarinbal, Berlin (2022); Lock, Loggia Loggia, Munich (2022); Die zwei Seiten der Medaille (with Johannes Büttner), Mauer, Cologne. Selected group exhibitions include Weathering, Kai Matsumyia, New York (2023); Crewed, New Jörg, Vienna (2023); The Age, Shahin Zarinbal, Berlin (2022); Jahresgaben, Kunstverein Munich, Munich (2022); Under the Volcano II, Lomex, New York (2022); Haus Wien, Vienna (2021).