Fleisher/Ollman is pleased to announce Voyeur, an exhibition of new work by Philadelphia- based artist Tristin Lowe, whose practice delves into the crude and rude, absurd and abject, pushing low-brow, low-tech methods and materials toward unexpected ends.

For his third exhibition at the gallery, Lowe will present a minimal installation of two- and three- dimensional works that use the artist's personal vocabulary of images and objects, as well as his characteristic ad hoc materialism. The works, full of grand gestures, irreverence, dark humor and dead-pan warnings, are informed by pop culture and stargazing, yet tempered with the weight of art history. Throughout the exhibition, we are reminded that we are simultaneously everything and nothing, the center of the universe and a speck of dust on its fringes. Voyeur will be on view from May7 through June 4.

In Voyeur, we stand on the threshold of the artist's mind, a cosmic soup that contains child-like wonder, science fiction narratives, half-baked conspiracy theories, internet rumors and nagging questions: "Who are we?" "Why are we here?" "Are we alone?". A fiery comet is centrally placed, while meteors and other celestial debris litter the space. A pair of jeans, the quintessential American garment, are sewn from felt and serve as a self-portrait. Several large- format photographs address inner, personal space and read alternately as abstraction and pornography.

The artist uses a wide range of often unconventional materials to engineer imaginary and often absurd worlds. He has made drawings with clown make-up and fire, and sculptures with butter, chocolate and alcohol. Most recently, he has used felt, an ancient material made of lint, dust, silt, hair, to fabricate sculptures of overlooked objects and cliches such as a chair, a trash can or the Moon. Often, the artist plays with scale to reinvent our relationship to these objects or allows us to experience something that would otherwise be impossible, for example occupying the same space with a 52 foot-long felt whale. The results are ghostlike and painfully beautiful.

Tristin Lowe received his BFA from Massachusetts College of Art and studied at Parsons School of Design and Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. The artist has exhibited widely at The American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York; Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence; The John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Wisconsin; Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin; New Langton Arts, San Francisco; University of California, San Diego; Hudson D. Walker Gallery, Provincetown; Museum of Contemporary Art, Australia; the Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; and the Centre d'Art Contemporain, Switzerland. He has been awarded a Pew Fellowship, Provincetown Fine Art Work Center Fellowship, The Fabric Workshop and Museum Residency, and Girard College Residency. He was co-founder and co-director of the non-profit gallery Blohard. Lowe's work is in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and The West Collection, as well as numerous private collections. His work Mocha Dick will be on view at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Summer 2011 and his installation Under the Influence, commissioned by the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, will travel to the Philadelphia Museum of Art in Fall 2011.

All inquiries:
Amy Adams at
amy@ fleisher - ollmangallery.com 215.545.7562
www.fleisherollman.com