Aggregate

Sammy Bennett James Bertucci Bradley Milligan

Aggregate presents the work of three artists who use various interlocking methods of pictorial and dimensional construction to engage with the daily practice of ‘active looking’ in and at our urban environment. They each address our built spaces, painting and sculpting observed cityscapes and interiors that are uniquely characterized by their respective material preoccupations: as patiently process-oriented, trompe l'oeil-esque renderings in oil paint (Bertucci); as illustrative, warmly theatrical, and mostly-soft mixed media installation (Bennett); and as intuitively constructed wood and plaster sculptural homages to architecture and altars (Milligan). The true character of these artworks lies in the aesthetic, structural, and referential properties of their own corresponding material dna. While there are acts of subtle mimesis, they are always played for style, not for foolery. As a result, each artist's intimate knowledge of their crafts’ capabilities and strengths allows them to maximize the story-telling potentials of each medium with humor and a playful ease.

One way to potentially understand this trio is as a group of painters sculpting paintings. The work is tied together through an image-oriented preoccupation that takes form in a fuller, more considered dimensionality. All of this work is *built*, with the hybrid, historical considerations of the painter’s picture plane and the sculptor’s total object both simultaneously front of mind. Bertucci’s paintings consider paint as full-bodied and structural, the meticulous makeup of the work in much the same way Bennett layers textiles into palimpsest-like configurations, and Milligan intricately utilizes lumber as both flesh and bone. These works' relationship to landscape is one that is far less concerned with alchemy or illusionary representation, and more preoccupied with an expressive transmission of experience and perception.

In one particular craft tradition, touch is buried in an effort to let design and material breathe, to exist and be enjoyed idyllically unfettered by human presence; the hallmark of the master builder is one who leaves no trace. As beautifully discreet as pre-civilization arcadia. However, that sensibility is inverted in Aggregate. The hand is continually embellished, ever present, imbuing the objects with a narrative that can be read in the works’ physical make-up. The work preserves the meticulous traces of each artist’s respective processes, a devotional attention to surface and detail that aims to make the invisible things in the city visible, to preserve those mostly overlooked instances of humble wonder. This show seeks that particular elegiac beauty buried as quiet moments, sublime in their everyday-ness, within our daily maelstrom of cement, metal, and glass. If we slow down, deliberate and dreamlike, we can consider our current landscape as our modern pastoral.