CHARLES LaBELLE
Sugar Hill Suite
Janurary 27 - March 3, 2007
Opening Reception: Saturday, Janurary 27th 6-8pm
View Images of Charles LaBelle's Sugar Hill Suite
AnnaKustera Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of new work by Charles LaBelle, his first one-person show with the gallery. Continuing his on-going investigation into the relationship of subject and city, the works presented in Sugar Hill Suite (2005-07) are part of a year-long project exploring both the history and the physical terrain of upper-Harlem where LaBelle has been living since 2004. Dubbed “Sugar Hill” in the 1920s because of its location on a geographic bluff over-looking what was known as the “Harlem Plain” and because of its relative wealth, Sugar Hill today is an area undergoing rapid change and gentrification.
The centerpiece of the project is a series of 788 drawings of individual buildings in the area, from turn-of-the-century brownstones, to historic churches and jazz clubs, to neighborhood bodegas, hair-braiding shops, liquor stores and crumbling tenement buildings. Done in black watercolor pencil on 11 x 11” sheets of paper, the modest drawings collectively form a comprehensive document of this specific place at this specific moment in history.
In addition, the project involves a series of “blood maps” outlining the paths of LaBelle’s daily walks through the area; a group of small scale sculptures titled “Colonies” utilizing articles of clothing found on the streets of Harlem; and a pair of men’s two-piece suits made from the upholstery of abandoned sofas. Referencing the body (and the numerous unseen “bodies” inhabiting the buildings in the drawings), LaBelle calls our attention to the way in which space- specifically the built space of the city- plays a powerful role in the construction of both individual and collective identities.
As Gean Moreno has written, “LaBelle’s explorations of the city are never divorced from his continuous inquiry of the body. He roams, collects, swallows, records, drives-- and the physical act is always as important as whatever objects results from it.”
Charles LaBelle lives and works in New York City. Selected exhibitions include: Tony Wight/Bodybuilder & Sportsman Gallery, Chicago; Artists Space, New York; Traywick Contemporary, San Francisco, CA; Lemon Sky Projects, Miami, FL; Chisenhale Gallery, London; Roberts & Tilton Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; ArtPace, San Antonio, TX; Triangle Gallery, Marseilles, France; Rogaland Kunstmuseum, Stravanger, Norway; Red Cat Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Walter McBean Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute.
For additional information please contact the gallery at 212-989-0082.