Wayfarers is proud to present:
milk teeth
Solo Exhibition by Cynthia Reynolds
September 7th-23rd
Opening Reception: Friday, September 7th, 7-10pm
Gallery Hours: Wed-Sat 11-6, Sun 1-5.
Wayfarers is proud to present milk teeth: the first solo exhibition in a decade and the first ever New York solo exhibition of work by Cynthia Reynolds. Cynthia’s studio practice of recent years has focused on the physical properties and functional implications of salvaged packing materials, such as bubble wrap, corrugated cardboard and foam. Of these typically unappreciated materials, she writes:
They are familiar to the point of invisibility, visually and practically weightless, and thoughtlessly discarded as refuse. They exist on the margin between object and non-object; they are intrinsically unremarkable and blandly ubiquitous, serving exclusively to fill a void or to protect something of perceived worth. They consume the precious commodity that is space, but only to the extent that it becomes unavailable, rather than occupied. By reclaiming them literally and figuratively, I use them as a framing device to explore value, safety, privacy, fragility, and fear.
In milk teeth, Cynthia will be molding and casting from these mass-produced, quotidian objects, addressing the discreet spaces inherent in them as the “real material” that has been shaped or interrupted by their plastic or paper barriers. These commonly regarded “waste” materials are points of departure for investigations involving labor-intensive, technically challenging processes, which run counter to the preexisting perception of the materials’ value. Similarly, the artist inverts notions of value by casting forms in porcelain and glass, materials we associate with the types of fragile items usually protected by packaging materials.
Working with clear, translucent, and opaque media, she presents a kind of continuum of the visual interruption of space, while challenging any substance-based claims to a hierarchy of objecthood. In a process reminiscent of the cast interiors of Rachel Whiteread, or of Bruce Nauman’s formative “A cast of the space under my chair,” Cynthia Reynolds explores the palpable shape of absence. By employing elaborate efforts to replicate the spaces of mundane materials, she reveals the valuable space of emptiness.
Cynthia Reynolds is a sculptor from Louisville, Kentucky. She moved to New York City in late 2014, and has been a member of Wayfarers Studio Program since early 2016. While in Kentucky, she was a member of ENID: Generations of Women Sculptors, she taught workshops and completed commissions for the Education Department of the Speed Art Museum, and received funding awards from the Kentucky Foundation for Women and the Kentucky Arts Council. She holds degrees from Centre College (BA), Kansas City Art Institute (BFA), and the University of Washington in Seattle (MFA). Her work has been featured in exhibitions across the U.S.
