Assume Vivid Astro Focus

The Suzanne Geiss Company is pleased to present new work by assume vivid astro focus (avaf). In their first major solo exhibition in New York since 2008, avaf interfaces geometric abstraction and transgender imagery in paintings that challenge social and sexual norms.

The paintings, hung on top of an original mural by the artists, range from visually explosive figurations to pared-down abstractions. Presenting expressive forms against constructivist patterns and a restricted palette, the artists engage tensions inherent in class, gender, and identity politics.

The dichotomy is furthered by the exuberant features applied to the figures. avaf’s imagined trannies have kaleidoscopic skin, titanic breasts, and penises with minds of their own. They become extraordinary, mighty foils to the hyper-sexualized female figures advertised in porn magazines and Marvel comics.

Underlying the buoyancy of avaf’s characters, there is also a frenetic, spent quality inspired by the non sustainability and failure of contemporary ideals. The bodies come in all states: curved, swelling, drooping, splintered and, occasionally, completely dismantled.

These varied states of transformation infer contemporary life-styles supported by shaky systems of technology, drugs, and advertising. As avaf’s figures combust and blend in and out of their abstracted, networked backdrops, bodies become architectural fragments, cyborgs, and cogs.

The possibility of fragmentation and degradation alludes to fallibility and transformation, but not to complete failure. Even as fragments, the forms are vibrant and resilient. Here, the artists restructure the language of portraiture and abstraction to create new icons of liberation.

About assume vivid astro focus: The collective assume vivid astro focus (avaf) was formed in New York City in 2001. Its principal members are Eli Sudbrack (born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1968) and Christophe Hamaide-Pierson (born in Paris, France in 1973).

Their work has appeared in major exhibitions at Centro De Arte Contemporaneo, Murcia (2010); the New Museum (2010); National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo (2009); São Paulo Bienal (2008); ENEL Contemporanea, Rome (2008); Museum of Modern Art, New York (2008); Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid (2007); Museum of Contemporary Art (MOT), Tokyo (2007); Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2007); Kunsthalle Wien Project Space, Vienna (2006); Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2005); Indianapolis Museum of Art (2005); Tate Liverpool (2005); the Public Art Fund (2004); and the Whitney Biennial (2004). Eli Sudbrack lives and works in New York City and São Paulo; Christophe Hamaide-Pierson lives and works in Paris.