Press Release

Mrs. is excited to share a presentation of new watercolor works by Chris Bogia, table top sculptures by Carolyn Salas and new paintings by Soyeon Shin for NADA Miami 2020.  For this presentation we will share Kate Werble’s new uptown location for a collaborative experience with work by Luke Stettner.  The back gallery of Mrs. will be utilized as an in-person exhibition of this joint effort.

Chris Bogia’s colorful symmetric new series of fountain drawings exist in the perpetually nocturnal world he began exploring during the early months of Covid19 crises. “There was something soothing about repeatedly depicting a universal public symbol that expanded my often domestic/decorative formal thinking into the “decorative civic.” Public spaces feel so full of division discomfort and fear right now and I think this series of drawings are my answer to that. Fountains are like decorative art objects for urban spaces that feel so uncontroversial and universally appreciated.”

Carolyn Salas’ new intimate sculptures begin at her kitchen table in the midst of everyday life.  Before translating her works into flat white steel finished work, Salas first constructs paper models, cutting with scissors and adhering with glue, reshaping and configuring repeatedly.  While starting from a place of abstraction and focusing on the simplification of the human form she continues to reference ancient Egyptian carvings, and works by modernist sculptors such as Constantin Brancusi and Naum Gabo.  Suggesting a more complicated and contemporary dialogue derived from art-historical cornerstones these new sculptures seem to simultaneously engage conflicting expectations of womanhood and presenting feminine identity as a balancing act: precarious and full of contrasting possibilities.  Surrounded by children and family, these works absorb her innermost familial and personal moments and in turn reflect imagery of balance and chaos. 

Soyeon Shin invites us into her neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, painting cityscapes, inspired by urban nature and the animals that inhabit it.  Familiar, illustrative and flat, her brightly colored canvases depict the banality of the city, while quietly showing us another dimension of time.  She constructs a  world of brick buildings, empty lots and sidewalks.  As if it were ordinary behavior, squirrels fly through the air, leaving chemtrails as they sore.  Tightly painted dogs scale the sides of buildings while out for their afternoon walk.  Trees are shadow worlds, where human figures transition between the real and imagined.  These works present a surrealistic version of the artist's mindscape, through which the viewer can see into another place, quite like and unlike their own. 

Chris Bogia received his MFA from Yale University and his BA from New York University.  Bogia was a recent recipient of the Jackson Pollock - Lee Krasner Foundation Grant; a Queens Council for the Arts, New Works Grant; as well as a Rema Hort Mann Foundation Artist Community Engagement Grant.  He was also an artist in residence at the Queens Museum Studio Program from 2017 - 2018.  Recent exhibitions include Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles, CA; Grizzly Grizzly, Philadelphia, PA; The Bureau of General Services: Queer Division, Bravin Lee, Kate Werble, SPRING/BREAK Art Show, and the New Museum, New York, Mrs., Maspeth, and Ortega y Gasset, Brooklyn, NY.  Bogia is the co-founder of Fire Island Artist Residency, the world’s first LGBTQ artist residency.

Carolyn Salas was born in Hollywood, CA. She earned a BFA in sculpture from the College of Santa Fe and an MFA from Hunter College.  She has attended residencies at the Abrons Art Center A.I.R. Space Program and The NARS Foundation, New York, NY; Blue Mountain Center, Blue Mountain Lake, NY; the Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT;  and the Santa Fe Art Institute, Santa Fe, NM. She has also been a Chashama Studio Space recipient, and an Elizabeth Foundation Studio Program/Space awardee. Selected exhibitions include the Berkshire Museum, Berkshire MA; Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara; Ever Gold [Projects], San Francisco, CA; Casey Kaplan, Koenig & Clinton, Brookfield Arts, SPRING/BREAK Art Show and Kate Werble Gallery, New York, Mrs., Maspeth, NY; Terrault Contemporary and Towson University, Baltimore, MD; Páramo Gallery, Guadalajara, Mexico; and NADA Special Projects, Miami, FL.  Most recently, Salas was awarded Artist-in-Residence at Stoneleaf Retreat, NY, for summer 2021.  Salas has been represented by Mrs., since 2020 and will have her first solo exhibition with the gallery in May 2021.

Soyeon Shin is a visual artist originally from Seoul, South Korea, who has lived and worked in Brooklyn, NY, since 2010. She received her BFA from the Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea; and her MFA in Sculpture from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY. Shin's work has been exhibited at Alessandro Berni Gallery, New York; The NARS Foundation, Trestle Gallery, Brooklyn NY; and Gallery Giotta, Seoul, Korea. Her work has recently been featured in ArtMaze Magazine.  The artist will concurrently have her first solo presentation at the gallery.