THE SOUP SHOW

Adam Niklewicz

on view: October 25 – November 29
Opening: Saturday, November 1, 4-7pm

The Soup Show, a gallery-wide installation in four parts, looks at the unique and emblematic position of soup, both as a universal phenomenon (means of nourishment) and as a metaphor. Soup – the work proposes – helps to sustain our human civilization and gives insight into its psyche.

Monument to Borscht, 2009
This sculpture re-creates the route of a spoonful of borscht as it climbs to its high point, traveling from plate to mouth.

The Round Table, 2009
This dysfunctional round table, literally a sphere, rests on the floor in the middle of the gallery. A porcelain tureen and ladle are placed at the very tip of the sphere. the top half of this sphere is set with table settings for four, ready to sit down to a meal of soup. Four wooden chairs flank the arrangement.

My Dinner with Marian, 2009
Marian Griffiths, the former director of the Sculpture Center, died on Sept. 8, 2008, right after facilitating this exhibition. This tableau attempts to carry on a conversation with a suddenly departed friend. It features the last postcard the artist received from Marian. Its cryptic content, reverencing Becket and Havel, prompted the interactive element of this work. A table is set with two pairs of scissors, a couple of telephone books, two large pots filled with borscht and two ladles. The borscht’s main ingredients are revealed, when the viewer lifts up the submerged ladles…

Untitled, 2009
A pair of prescription glasses were dipped in red borscht. They hang at the height of the artist’s eyes, and occasionally shed a purple tear

about the artist:

Adam Niklewicz received an MFA from Purchase College (SUNY) in 2006. Most recently his work has been exhibited at Gallery 311, Brooklyn; Long Island University, Brooklyn; Black and White Gallery, Chelsea, and at the Aldrich Museum in Ridgefield, CN.

acknowledgments:

FiveMyles is supported by the Andy Warhol Foundation, the Foundation for Contemporary Art, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the Brooklyn Community Foundation and the New York State Council for the Arts.

DIRECTIONS:

Take 2, 3, or 4 trains to Franklin Avenue. Walk two blocks against the traffic on Franklin. Walk ¾ block to 558 St. Johns Place. FiveMyles is within easy walking distance from the Brooklyn Museum.