Alumnus Cy Gavin '16 in Solo Exhibition at Aspen Art Museum

Visual Arts alumnus Cy Gavin ’16 has a self-titled solo exhibition on display at Aspen Art Museum (AAM) in Aspen, Colorado.

Cy Gavin, curated by Saim Demircan, features paintings that depict the natural world in moments small and large. Renderings of trees, rocks, and waves, subjects typically viewed as distinct from the human experience, nonetheless evoke the movements of people as they journey from one place to another. On its website, AAM cites the glacier-displaced boulder in Gavin’s Untitled (Glacial Erratic), 2021 as an example of this effect. 

In Untitled (NEOWISE), 2021, a rare, stunning comet, which appeared in the Northern Hemisphere last summer, fills the frame: rendered in pastel pinks and blues, it splashes bright against the dark, star-flecked sky. The comet’s appearance coincided with a particularly turbulent point in American history, and, according to AAM, “While looking at the stars might allow reflection on the transience of humankind, this comet’s depiction is simultaneously a marker of time as it passes the earth every 6,800 years.”

The largest piece in Gavin’s exhibition is Untitled (Cavern), 2021, a depiction of a dark cavern. The canvas hangs alone on one of the gallery’s light-absorbing-paint-covered walls. Caves have been depicted in Gavin’s past work as well, “...following [the artist’s] interest in the subterranean both as a geological phenomenon and historical site impacted by human intervention. As such, the changing political landscapes that redefine citizenship underlie the exhibition,” AAM states.

Gavin is a New York-based artist whose work spans painting, sculpture, performance, and video. His solo exhibitions include Gavin Brown's enterprise, 439 W 127th Street, New York (2019); Devils' Isle, VNH Gallery, Paris, France (2018); A Heaven's Command, Sargent's Daughters, New York (2016); and Overture, Sargent's Daughters, New York (2015). 

Gavin has also participated in numerous group exhibitions, including Dreamweavers, UTA Artist Space, Los Angeles, CA (curated by Nicola Vassel) (2019); The Lure of the Dark: Contemporary Painters Conjure the Night, MASS MOCA, North Adams, MA (2018); Between the Water, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2018); Hecate, Various Small Fires, Los Angeles, CA (2017); Dirge, JTT Gallery, New York (2017); Frame by Frame, Callicoon Fine Arts, New York (2017); Summer Show, Kostyál Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden (2017); and High Anxiety: New Acquisitions, Rubell Family Collection, Miami, FL (2017). 

The exhibition will run from March 30, 2021 to July 11, 2021.