VSF is pleased to present Jim Drain’s solo exhibition, Seems/Seams. After spending the past decade in Miami, Drain recently moved back to Providence, Rhode Island, where he had attended RISD and was a member of the artist collective Forcefield. Using processes derived from his background with textiles and collage, Drain takes a radically visceral approach to painting. The sculptural mark-making for this series can best be described in terms of immediacy and economy, alluding often to the otherwordly aesthetic of Forcefield and the “trashpunk” activities at Fort Thunder, the communal DIY space where they once lived. The panels in Drain’s modular paintings are comprised of cuts from older works, and have dimensions set by the spatial allowance of infrastructurally impoverished AmTrak freight, the method by which they were shipped. These parameters frame Drain’s works within a particular economy of creative reuse that both utilizes and rubs up against those very same parameters.
“The grid is very peaceful. Nothing can go wrong. Everything is complete.” LB
Seems to be undone. That?
Un-joined, a temporary stitch, a disintegrated seam?
Where?
Seems not?
Pick at the seam with a pin; ok; pretty?
Seem-less. A sewing needle repairs, heals.
A staple, too?
“the walls were concrete, and I couldn’t really staple to them.” Brian Chippendale
“The beauty of sewing,” Bourgeois explained, “is precisely in the fact that things can be done and undone without damaging the fabric.”
– Jim Drain
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Jim Drain (b. 1975 in Cleveland, Ohio) He received a BFA in Sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design. Drain was a member of Forcefield, a collective that merged music, performance, film, and installation. Forcefield was active from 1996 to 2002 and was part of the 2002 Whitney Biennial. Drain was one of two recipients of the 2005 Baloise Prize and was recently recognized with artist Bhakti Baxter for creating “best public art projects in the nation” by Americans for the Arts. Drain has had solo and 2-person exhibitions at the University of Florida; Greene Naftali Gallery, New York; Matthew Marks, New York; and the Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas, Austin, amongst others. Drain has participated in numerous group exhibitions including MOCA, Los Angeles; the Fabric Workshop, Philadelphia; Serpentine Gallery, London; Depart Foundation, Rome; and the 7th Bienniale d’Art Contemporain de Lyon. His work is in many permanent and public collections including The Whitney Museum of Art; Peres Art Museum, Miami; Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Rhode Island School of Design Museum; MoCA, Los Angeles, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.