Magenta Plains is pleased to present a series of new paintings by artist Joshua Abelow for Frieze Viewing Room 2021. Joshua Abelow works in several mediums including large and small-scale oil painting, pencil drawing on paper, photography, poetry, and curating. The artist uses abstraction and figuration to explore and deal with the psychology and psychosis of the Artist and refers to this new group of paintings as Leaky Abstractions. Joshua Abelow's solo exhibition at Magenta Plains, Leaky Abstractions, will be on view May 29—July 3, 2021.
Leaky Abstractions is a term popularized by software engineer Joel Spolsky in 2002. According to Spolsky, we encounter "leaky abstractions" whenever we use our computers and smartphones. In the simplest terms, he is referring to the ways in which user friendly icons conceal complicated networks of software code that can and do fail.
In the context of Abelow's new paintings, the term is descriptive: abstract paintings that appear to be leaking. On a more complex level, the term refers to the way these paintings conceal, or reveal, complicated networks of friends, enemies, curators, writers, bloggers, galleries, and collectors—and the ways in which these social and cultural networks can and do fail.
Joshua Abelow (b. 1976, Frederick, Maryland) earned his MFA from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2008 and his BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1998. His recent solo shows include exhibitions at Sydney, Sydney, Australia, Apartment 13 Gallery, Providence, Rhode Island, Massif Central, Brussels, Belgium, L21 Gallery, Palma de Mallorca, Spain, Real Pain, Los Angeles, California and Et al. San Francisco, California. Abelow's work has been included in numerous group exhibitions worldwide. The artist has several published books including Painter's Journal (2011), ART FICTION (2013), DRAWINGS DRAWINGS (2018), and Good Morning (2018). From 2010 to 2015, Abelow ran ART BLOG ART BLOG, which functioned as art blog, temporary gallery, print publication, and sculpture. Additionally, the artist is known as the proprietor of Freddy, a curatorial project he founded in Baltimore (2014). Joshua Abelow lives and works in Harris, NY and New York, NY.