65GRAND is pleased to present Ian Pedigo in his fourth exhibition with the gallery, The Arrows Like Soft Moon Beams.

When trying to categorize or understand the motivations behind artistic practices one solution is to look at the classics. Like any attempt to place boundaries on a variety of occurrences in a given field, we often resort to binaries. In art this often comes down to describing creative pursuits as Apollonian and Dionysian. Is an artist making work with a reasoned mindset, concerned with a noble pursuit of knowledge? Such a cerebral or conceptual approach might be aligned with the Greek sun god Apollo. Maybe the artist is governed by passion, impulse and excess. This would fall into the mindset associated with the debaucherous god of wine, Dionysus. Ian Pedigo thinks these two ends of the spectrum operating as a short hand are just fine. Pedigo notes, however, that following this logic the true opposite of Apollo would be his twin sister Artemis.

“Apollo the Sun and Artemis the Moon, the former standing for reason and latter for the reflection of reason, sub-reason, or subconscious reason,” Pedigo explains. He continues, “Taken in such measure, there is perhaps more than a little credence in turning to the appreciation of art not only in terms of its appeal to our reason or impulses towards excess, but also to the inexplicable, the reflected, the unknown.” This is the jumping off point for the work in the exhibition.

Found objects, every day materials-these are accepted working methods first introduced to art over a hundred years ago. Pedigo’s work is rooted in these idioms but he prefers to think of them as “contemporary artifacts.” Rather than broadcast their quotidian sources or transform their materials in a magical way, Pedigo’s assemblages invite that quiet Artemisian reflection mentioned above. The materials the artist includes in his work never stop being the things that they are but in their presentation they, if for a moment, become unfamiliar, unknown and inexplicable.

Ian Pedigo lives and works in Queens, NY. Recent solo exhibitions include Cosmopolitan Sleep Positions at Klaus von Nichtssagend, NY, in 2014; Eyes Fixed Upon Picture at the, Abrons Art Center, NY in 2013; In A Shaded Corner of the Room…, curated by Laura Mott, at Galleri Rotor, University of Gothenburg, SE in 2012 and Dragged Fondly Into the Woods at Rokeby, London, UK in 2011. Recent group exhibitions include Ad Infinitum, curated by Brian Barr and Lauren Rice, at The Katzen Art Center, American University, Washington DC in 2014; Braccia at MAN museo, Nuoro, Sardinia, IT traveling to Museo Marino Marini, Florence, IT in 2013; and Voids at Super Dakota Gallery, Brussels, BE also in 2013. Pedigo’s work has been written about in Art in America, Artforum, Artnews, Hyperallergic, The New Yorker and The New York Times.

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