FIRST LANGUAGE

DEBRA PEARLMAN

ON VIEW: JULY 4 - 31, 2024

conversation WITH RICHARD VINE: TUESDAY, JULY 16, 6PM
CLOSING RECEPTION AND POETRY: WEDNESDAY, JULY 31, 6-8PM

Young bodies in motion, whether leaping, falling, pushing or jumping become metaphors for aspiration and struggle in Debra Pearman’s work. The choice of children as subjects allows Pearlman to capture unselfconscious expressions of movement, which is difficult to achieve with adult subjects. The identities of the children are obscured because physical expression, not individual identity, is the artist’s concern.

Public demonstrations of young people at play are the source of Pearlman’s images, captured by her in the street photographs that initiate her process. The images evolve as she explores their meanings in multiple materials, altering context, scale, and dimensions. Her primary medium is sculpture in aluminum or paper that straddles the boundaries between photography, prints, and three-dimensional expression. In the works at FiveMyles, dye sublimation and UV printed aluminum substrates are bent to isolate the figures, eliminating references to place and context. The sleek aluminum forms, whose images are backed by blank verso surfaces, offer multiple viewpoints that encourage complex readings.

Conversation with Richard Vine: Tuesday, July 16, 6pm
Closing Reception and Poetry: Wednesday, July 31, 6-8pm. Poets include Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Jennifer Firestone and Kimberly Lyons.

Debra Pearlman’s work was featured this spring at Catskill Art Space in Livingston Manor, NY, and in a one-person show, Roundabout, at Five Myles Gallery, Brooklyn, in fall 2023. Her work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Brooklyn Museum; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; and Smith College Museum. Pearlman has received the Meredith S. Moody Residency at Yaddo and a grant from the Peter S. Reed Foundation. She lives and works in Brooklyn.

Richard Vine is the former managing editor of Art in America and author of hundreds of critical articles, interviews, and reviews. His books include New China, New Art (2008) and Odd Nerdrum: Paintings, Sketches, and Drawings (2001), as well as the artworld crime novel SoHo Sins (2016). He has taught and lectured around the world, and curated exhibitions in Beijing, New Delhi, and New York.

Rachel Blau DuPlessis’s notable long poem Drafts is forthcoming in two volumes from Coffee House Press. Her other recent books are from Black Square Editions, CHAX Press, and Selva Oscura. In her career as a poet-critic, she has written extensively on gender, poetry and both feminist and objectivist poetics. She lives in Philadelphia. 

Jennifer Firestone is the author of five books of poetry, most recently Story by Ugly Duckling Presse and has co-edited two anthologies, including one forthcoming from MIT Press, Other Influences: An Untold History of Feminist Avant-Garde Poetry.  She is an associate professor of writing and co-chair of literary studies (writing) at Eugene Lang College, The New School.

Kimberly Lyons’ books of poetry and chapbooks include Approximately Near Metambesendotorg) and Capella (Oread Press). Her poems have appeared in Readings in Contemporary Poetry: An Anthology, and Best American Poetry 2023.  Her poetry and prose have appeared recently in The Swan, Middlelost, Columba, Big Other, Live Mag, Broadside Portfolio #1, and Blazing Stadium. She lives in Brooklyn.

GALLERY HOURS:

Installations are on view 24/7 through the Plus/Space gate, or by appointment - 347-534-6776

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.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

FiveMyles is in part supported by the New York State Council for the Arts, Public Funds from the New York City Dept. of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, Council Member Crystal Hudson, The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Foundation, the Joseph Robert Foundation, and the William Talbott Hillman Foundation.