Ride a Cow to Find a Horse

Alison Kuo

Williamson Brasfield

Mark Sengbusch

Ride a Cow to Find a Horse is a Chinese saying that celebrates the dignity in making the most out of the resources that you have. This saying is from a time when humans traveled primarily on the backs of animals, and horses were the fastest means. However horses were hard to come by, and they signified a level of access that most people did not possess. Therefore it was not uncommon to see someone riding on the back of a cow — a big, heavy-footed cow. But despite the pace, the rider was getting somewhere. The desire was the achievement.

Alison Kuo, Williamson Brasfield, and Mark Sengbusch all use provisional, and often humble means to express their desire to understand societal structures. Alison Kuo uses common ‘Made In China’ store-bought materials. She assembles them into ornate sculptures, exposing child-like fantasies of sparkly opulence with personal experiences of exoticism, humor, and the human need to create a sense of place, and to be seen. Williamson Brasfield’s paintings and video exhibit his laser-focus towards seemingly banal moments, and how these moments fracture and distort themselves, revealing the raw materiality of our public and domestic environments. Mark Sengbusch’s sculptures render his paintings in three dimensions. These sculptures are inspired by his fascination in the ‘impossible joints’ that mysteriously lock together the seams and corners of traditional Japanese buildings, and the metaphorical harmony that these joints propose — a beautifully simple, and terribly complex way to fix a broken part. Throughout their diverse processes, these three artists are all lured by the sumptuousness of suggestion — of crafting a slower way to find a solution.

Alison Kuo creates multimedia sculptures, photos, and performances that examine power and class through the language of food, dollar store plastics, and transnational trends in affordable luxury. Alison received her BA from Southwestern University in Texas, and her MFA in Fine Arts at The School of Visual Arts in 2014. She has shown her work at Cuchifritos, the Abrons Art Center, Beverly’s, Canada, the Grace Exhibition Space, Marvin Gardens, Motel, ICI, Present Company, The NARS Foundation, the Young at Art Museum in Miami, Paraiso Bajo in Bogotá, and Malagana Macula in Managua. She also participated in the 2016 Nanjing International Art Festival. She is a faculty member at the School of Visual Arts in the MFA Fine Arts program.

Williamson Brasfield received his BFA from Penn State University in 2007, and his MFA in painting from Yale School of Art in 2013. His works traverse across sound, object and image making. He was included in the 9th Nicaraguan Biennial of Contemporary Art, curated by Omar Lopez-Chahoud, and has shown his work at the Abrons Art Center, Beverly’s, Space Heater, PAD Gallery in NYC, The Overlook Place in Chicago, and at the Woskob Gallery in State College, PA. As a founding member of the collective Jugo Del Cuerpo, he has shown at Harbor Gallery and the Bavnic X Biennial in Nicaragua. He recently curated 60hz: Songs of Common Current, a sound art showcase in collaboration with BombPop!Up.

Mark Sengbusch received his BFA from The College for Creative Studies, and his MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2008. He has shown in New York at Transmitter Gallery, The Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Regina Rex Gallery, Storefront Bushwick, Orgy Park, and Essex Flowers, among others. He has also shown with David Klein Gallery in Detroit, ADA Gallery in Richmond, and H Gallery in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Mark’s paintings have, over the past year turned into sculptures that draw from Japanese architectural joinery techniques that use precise geometry instead of hardware. Mark just returned from a recent residency at The Byrdcliffe Colony in Woodstock, New York.

On view through July 30th