Eli Keszler
Echea
Galerie Pepe is pleased to present Echea an exhibition by artist, composer and percussionist Eli Keszler (b. Boston, MA). April 11th - June 8th, 2024
I’m a musician and composer by trade, but I’ve been feeling a little bored lately. So when Pepe proposed doing an exhibition of visual art at his gallery, I took the chance. The natural if predictable move for me was to “explore the link” between music and art.
On my daily trips across lower Manhattan from my apartment to the studio, I began looking for inspiration. It's always been “ground zero” down here for all sorts of new and interesting developments, for lack of a better phrase. These days, the first thing you notice is the migrants spilling into Tompkins Square Park from the nearby St. Brigid intake center. There was an earthquake in New York on Friday. And an eclipse on Monday. It’s exhilarating to think we’re living in “end times,” but most likely the show just goes on.
In Echea, the figures are conjoined yet disjointed. Men and women, young and old. Adults are children, and children are adults. It’s all the same. The barren and washed-out American landscapes speak for themselves. Child soldiers, broken homes, American flags, Bald Eagles, aging bodies on display, all sorts of unusual groupings and paranoid inner realities. I worked both slowly and quickly on these pieces, taking my time coming up with the initial “concepts” and then smearing and rubbing graphite and wax onto the image surfaces.
“Echea” comes from the Greek word for “sounding vase.” Traditionally, these ceramic vessels were used to amplify sound in temples and, later, churches. In antiquity, the vessels were designed to be proportional with Greek modes, acting as a kind of early “sound system.” In other words, each vessel corresponds sympathetically to a unique tone in the Greek scale.
Produced in collaboration with ceramicist and sound artist Reuben Son, the sculpture in the gallery is fitted with ceramic tongues and hidden speakers. The sounds they emit resonate throughout the space and harmonize with the surroundings. Quiet at first, distant, and a little uncanny, they lend an air of innocence to the work.
Personally, I’ve always enjoyed the relationship between the “generative” and the degenerate. “Ugly Beauty,” the title of one of my favorite Thelonious Monk songs, sums it up well. There’s a point where the two inevitably meet. To be a true environmentalist, you have to love garbage. I’m just trying to watch it burn in peace.
Eli Keszler
I’m a musician and composer by trade, but I’ve been feeling a little bored lately. So when Pepe proposed doing an exhibition of visual art at his gallery, I took the chance. The natural if predictable move for me was to “explore the link” between music and art.
On my daily trips across lower Manhattan from my apartment to the studio, I began looking for inspiration. It's always been “ground zero” down here for all sorts of new and interesting developments, for lack of a better phrase. These days, the first thing you notice is the migrants spilling into Tompkins Square Park from the nearby St. Brigid intake center. There was an earthquake in New York on Friday. And an eclipse on Monday. It’s exhilarating to think we’re living in “end times,” but most likely the show just goes on.
In Echea, the figures are conjoined yet disjointed. Men and women, young and old. Adults are children, and children are adults. It’s all the same. The barren and washed-out American landscapes speak for themselves. Child soldiers, broken homes, American flags, Bald Eagles, aging bodies on display, all sorts of unusual groupings and paranoid inner realities. I worked both slowly and quickly on these pieces, taking my time coming up with the initial “concepts” and then smearing and rubbing graphite and wax onto the image surfaces.
“Echea” comes from the Greek word for “sounding vase.” Traditionally, these ceramic vessels were used to amplify sound in temples and, later, churches. In antiquity, the vessels were designed to be proportional with Greek modes, acting as a kind of early “sound system.” In other words, each vessel corresponds sympathetically to a unique tone in the Greek scale.
Produced in collaboration with ceramicist and sound artist Reuben Son, the sculpture in the gallery is fitted with ceramic tongues and hidden speakers. The sounds they emit resonate throughout the space and harmonize with the surroundings. Quiet at first, distant, and a little uncanny, they lend an air of innocence to the work.
Personally, I’ve always enjoyed the relationship between the “generative” and the degenerate. “Ugly Beauty,” the title of one of my favorite Thelonious Monk songs, sums it up well. There’s a point where the two inevitably meet. To be a true environmentalist, you have to love garbage. I’m just trying to watch it burn in peace.
Eli Keszler
Eli Keszler,
Child Soldiers 1, 2024,
pastel, colored pencil and graphite on paper
, 61 x 46 cm,
24 x 18 in
, frame: 72 x 57 cm, 28 3/8 x 22 7/16 in (EK001)
Eli Keszler,
Eagle Crest, 2024,
pastel, colored pencil and graphite on paper
, 61 x 46 cm,
24 x 18 in
, frame: 72 x 57 cm, 28 3/8 x 22 7/16 in (EK008)
Eli Keszler,
Side Show, 2024,
pastel, colored pencil and graphite on paper
, 61 x 46 cm,
24 x 18 in
, frame: 72 x 57 cm, 28 3/8 x 22 7/16 in (EK006)
Eli Keszler,
American Eagle, 2024,
pastel, colored pencil and graphite on paper
, 61 x 46 cm,
24 x 18 in
, frame: 72 x 57 cm, 28 3/8 x 22 7/16 in (EK009)
Eli Keszler, Domestic Scene 1, 2024,
pastel, colored pencil and graphite on paper
, 61 x 46 cm,
24 x 18 in
, frame: 72 x 57 cm, 28 3/8 x 22 7/16 in (EK004)
Eli Keszler,
Child Soldiers 2, 2024,
pastel, colored pencil and graphite on paper
, 61 x 46 cm,
24 x 18 in
, frame: 72 x 57 cm, 28 3/8 x 22 7/16 in (EK010)
Eli Keszler,
American Family 2, 2024,
pastel, colored pencil and graphite on paper
, 61 x 46 cm,
24 x 18 in
, frame: 72 x 57 cm, 28 3/8 x 22 7/16 in (EK016)
Eli Keszler,
Women at a Bar, 2024,
pastel, colored pencil and graphite on paper
, 61 x 46 cm,
24 x 18 in
, frame: 72 x 57 cm, 28 3/8 x 22 7/16 in (EK011)
Eli Keszler,
Monkeys, Chandelier and Light, 2024,
pastel, colored pencil and graphite on paper
, 61 x 46 cm,
24 x 18 in
, frame: 72 x 57 cm, 28 3/8 x 22 7/16 in (EK007)
Eli Keszler (in collaboration with Reuben Son), Echea, 2024,
Mixed media
, dimensions variable (EK019)
Eli Keszler, Disjoined Twins, 2024,
pastel, colored pencil and graphite on paper
, 61 x 46 cm,
24 x 18 in
, frame: 72 x 57 cm, 28 3/8 x 22 7/16 in (EK002)
Eli Keszler, American Landscape, 2024,
pastel, colored pencil and graphite on paper
, 61 x 46 cm,
24 x 18 in
, frame: 72 x 57 cm, 28 3/8 x 22 7/16 in (EK003)
Eli Keszler,
Domestic Scene 2, 2024,
pastel, colored pencil and graphite on paper
, 61 x 46 cm,
24 x 18 in
, frame: 72 x 57 cm, 28 3/8 x 22 7/16 in (EK012)
Eli Keszler, Three Sisters, 2024,
pastel, colored pencil and graphite on paper
, 61 x 46 cm,
24 x 18 in
, frame: 72 x 57 cm, 28 3/8 x 22 7/16 in (EK005)
Eli Keszler, American Family 1, 2024,
pastel, colored pencil and graphite on paper
, 61 x 46 cm,
24 x 18 in
, frame: 72 x 57 cm, 28 3/8 x 22 7/16 in (EK014)
Eli Keszler is a Grammy-nominated artist, composer, and percussionist based in New York City. Keszler's work has been exhibited internationally, with music, installations, and visual art featured in venues like Whitney Museum, Cologne Philharmonie, Lincoln Center, MIT List Center, Victoria & Albert Museum, Museum of Modern Art, Sculpture Center, The Kitchen, Hessel Museum, Harvard's Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Barbican-St. Luke's, Walker Art Center, LAX Art, and MoMA PS1, among others. Most recently, he collaborated with Jordan Wolfson on his “Body Sculpture” exhibition, in the collection of the National Art Gallery of Australia. He has garnered critical acclaim for his solo records, released through labels such as LuckyMe, Shelter Press, Empty Editions, ESP-DISK', PAN, and REL Records.As a composer, Keszler has written over ten original film scores. Notable examples include Olmo Schnabel’s Pet Shop Days (2023), which premiered at the Venice Biennale, Lofty Nathan’s Harka(2022), winner of the Best Actor Award at Cannes, and Dasha Nekrasova’s The Scary of Sixty First (2021), recipient of the GWFF Best First Feature Award at the Berlin Film Festival. Keszler also made contributions to Daniel Lopatin’s score for the Safdie Brothers’ Uncut Gems (2019).He has received commissions from esteemed institutions and ensembles, including the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra, ICE Ensemble, Brooklyn String Orchestra, and So Percussion. He has collaborated with notable artists such as Oneohtrix Point Never, Skrillex, Laurel Halo, Jandek, Kevin Beasley, Rashad Becker, Laure Prouvost, and David Grubbs, among others.
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