THE EMPTY CIRCLE PRESENTS
HOT WAX
New work by Janie Korn and Ernesto Renda
October 8 - NoveMber 8, 2020
Opening Reception Thursday October 8, 4-7pm
The material qualities of wax are central to both of these artists’ practices. Korn’s candle wax serves a tried and true function (burning slowly), while also lending a goopy unique finish to the fun and vibrant figures. Renda’s wax pastels have both the ability to rub off on the canvas and resist the washes of acrylic paint, which allow a primal subtext to emerge from each scene.
Janie Korn is a New York based sculptor whose practice focuses on candle-making. Her candles are one-of-a-kind, figurative, and polychromatic, putting the work in dialogue with painted porcelain and wooden figurines. Her subjects are culled from pop culture, consumer goods, friends, family, and memories.
Ernesto Renda is a New York based painter and mixed-media artist. His paintings combine low-relief, pastel rubbing, and acrylic paint. He imagines his paintings as mourning-objects for the electronic screen, conjuring the presence of moving screen -images with inert media. Each of his compositions is dialectical, presenting a primary line drawing drawn in hot glue and then a pastel drawing on canvas on top of it. In making the pastel drawing, Renda produces a rubbing of the underlying image, synthesizing the two images into a third composition.
Curated by Matt Nasser