Steven Nishimoto & Martyna Szczęsna

It’s 2020: placed in this very moment of hypercapitalistic demand and landscape of steroidal gentrification, Under The Oven Gallery presents Ground Control, an exhibition featuring new work by Steven Nishimoto and Martyna Szczesna that abstract and destabilize the perceived neutrality of construction materials.

Steven Nishimoto’s oil painted studies of the diamond-shaped windows found on regulation-abiding construction scaffolding fences are exhibited in rhythmic formation to evoke the manner in which the urban-pedestrian environment is experienced bipedally. Born in Chicago, IL, Nishimoto is a fourth generation Japanese-American whose practice also extends to forms of derive such as street photography and skateboarding. He has presented work locally at Pablo’s Birthday, Museum of American Books, and internationally at LARM Galleri (Copenhagen) and Fifi Projects (CDMX).

Martyna Szczęsna’s glass powder painted pâte de verre and steel friezes occupy the public-private slippery slope mimetic of weathered construction netting. Unmistakable but often overlooked, these vast stretches of netting act as informal billboards. From functional mark-making of property owners, territorial alterations of transients, and elemental buffing, each mark presents the viewer with a truly collaborative work depicting the new, anthropocentric natural.

Born in Olsztyn, Poland, Szczęsna immigrated to the United States with her family in the early nineteen nineties. She is a graduate of the Cooper Union and holds an MFA in Photography from the University of California, Los Angeles. Her work has been supported by residencies at Yucca Valley Material Lab, Franconia Sculpture Park, Bullseye Glass, and AZ West. Notable exhibitions include: Portrait of a Landscape, Museo Sivori, Buenos Aires, The Third Bronx Biennial, Bronx Museum, as well as Palliative Geometries, Dorsky Projects (NYC).