C. Finley
Our Lives Are Shaped By What We Love
TOTH GALLERY, 195 Christie Street New York City
Opening Reception: Thursday, November 8, 2018, 7pm – 10pm
Exhibition and Events: November 8th-21st
(November 8, 2018, NY NY) New York / Rome based artist C. Finley debuts Our Lives Are Shaped By What We Love, her fourth New York solo exhibition featuring large-scale paintings as talismans for beauty, joy and rapture. Toth Gallery presents the exhibition from November 8 -21st, during which time the space will be further activated by a dance performance, a discussion with a couture crafter,
and a new wallpapered dumpster that will act as a collection point for charitable donations for women and children in need in collaboration with Robin Hood.
Our Lives Are Shaped By What We Love will feature all new vibrant and sensual paintings in the artist’s signature style incorporating intense color and geometry, ranging in size from intimately scaled works to all enveloping large-scale works reminiscent of the artist’s outdoor murals. The works are conceived as talismans that Finley has charged with rapture, divine light, unconditional love, and the celestial realm.
The drive behind Finley’s work is to emanate positive energy and joy, and the source for the exhibition are drawn from elements that inspire her own life, including: spirituality - represented by works featuring the Buddha as well as an angel making ripples in the cosmos; the Tiger as the divine feminine roaring ; and paintings of ancient sculptural body parts bridging her life in Rome with her life in New York. De- parting from canvas, Finley is collaborating for the first time on a work with couture crafter, Aaron Sciandra creating a quilt that wraps you in giant hands, keeping you safe and warm. From the figurative to the hyper-abstract, all are connected through her love of color.
“C. Finley’s Ecstasy of St. Theresa gave me a sense of relief about the future of contemporary art coupled with awe, replacing my too often feeling of contempt”, said artist Penny Arcade. “Finley’s personal vo- cabulary of color, her geometric landscapes, and her use of light reflect the enduring quality of art to transform the way we see - and isn’t that ultimately what art is about?”
A special sculpture transforming activism into unexpected beauty, will be a new version of the artist’s internationally acclaimed Wallpaper Dumpster Project which began in 2006 and has been presented in Rome, Vienna, Dublin, NYC, LA and more. Leading up to Thanksgiving, with the focus on being grateful and coming together as a community, the custom designed art dumpster will be placed within the gal- lery from November 8 - 21st, in partnership with The Robin Hood. Donations supporting women including warm coats, tampons, basic toiletries, pampers, etc. will be collected in the dumpster and distributed to the Rose S. Kennedy Family Center in Brooklyn. “It’s a simple concept, beautifying an ugly object, and the Dumpsters bring together the three things I really care about: art, women and the environment,” stated Finley in The New York Times (1)
Inspired by the project she created, The Whitney Houston Biennial: I’m Every Woman, that launched in NYC in 2014, 2017, with the third installment set for May 2019, in which more than 150 female artists came together in a salon style exhibition, C. Finley will morph the Toth Gallery into an active site to collaborate with other artists and the viewing audience. The space will remain indefinable: a laboratory, an altar, a sa- lon, a happening, a stage, and a dance floor - a fluid space inviting conversation, community, and inter- vention.
(1) Penelope Green, The New York Times, January 13, 2010 https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/14/garden/14events.html
++COCO KAROL will be the Dancer in Residence
November 11th: 4:00pm Conversation with Aaron Sciandra moderated by Bryant Toth
November 17th: 7:30pm Performance with Coco Karol with fashion collaboration with Claire Fleury
C. Finley
New York and Rome based artist C. Finley is known for her elaborate paintings, skillful use of color and her activism through urban interventions. Previous projects include the 2014/17 Whitney Houston Bien- nial: I’m Every Woman, and Wallpapered Dumpsters which has been featured in the New York Times, La Repubblica, Dazed, Fast Company and Women’s Wear Daily. Finley has shown internationally with exhi- bitions at Galerie Ernst Hilger, Vienna; Superchief Gallery Los Angeles; Jenn Singer Gallery New York; Context/Art Miami; Scope Miami and New York; FDA Projects, Rome; High Energy Constructs and Salon Oblique, Los Angeles; and the Dumba Collective, New York. Finley received her BFA from the Pratt Insti- tute, New York and her MFA from California State University, Long Beach.
TOTH GALLERY
Owned and Directed by Bryant Toth, TOTH GALLERY has been open since 2011 exhibiting fine art throughout the US but specifically Manhattan, New York. Initially specializing in contemporary art from Cuba, the gallery has now expanded it’s roster by looking further afield and exhibiting artists from Eng- land, Italy, United States, and Australia.
Aaron Sciandra is a skilled artisan and lifelong stitcher. He made his first quilt when he was a teenager. He has a BFA in sculpture from Pratt Institute and has made countless beautiful objects for store windows and fashion and cosmetic brands around the world. His clients include Barneys NY, Joan Rivers, MAC Cosmetics, Simon Doonan, Jonathan Adler, and IKEA. Aaron works and lives in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn with his husband Garry and their wire-haired rescue-mutt named Sissy.
Coco Karol, is a NY-based dancer/choreographer/ artist who makes cross-disciplinary performances that invite conversations between personal and shared experience. A performer, choreographer, hospice vol- unteer, and dedicated teacher, Coco is interested in how we create meaning and connect to others. For her, dance is the meeting place of poetic and physical experience. She holds a BFA from Tisch Dance NYU, MFA from Hollins University.