YOU JUST NEVER KNOW WHO SOMEBODY IS | Nicole Reber & Eric Wiley
YOU JUST NEVER KNOW WHO SOMEBODY IS
A two-person exhibition featuring Nicole Reber and Eric Wiley
August 25 - September 16, 2018
Opening Reception | August 25, 6-9 PM
These two artists from either side of the country operate in the realm of post-surrealist America but explore that world through very different, yet complimentary, mediums.
The subject matter of Wiley’s lush oil paintings and stark graphite drawings originates from common slice-of-life moments that in other hands might seem mundane. But in Wiley’s they’re reshaped into the strange and wonderful through his use of thick vibrant colors and oddly charming characters whose enigmatic gestures and expressions imply stories that only the viewer can create.
Reber, too, nods to the commonplace through her use of directory boards of the sort that normally occupy office building lobbies to direct us to the dentist. She utilizes this medium to share with us fractured, metrical lines of her obscure poetry that read like half-thoughts, and partial memories. In their new context, the utterly relatable and familiar become unusual and disarming.
Friends for many years, Reber and Wiley are excited to be exhibiting together for the first time.
From the artists;
you just never know who somebody is
awareness is a weak vacation
gunk from seeing
too much being in my head
at everyone's disposal
no I can't tell you how to be
godot falling through a skylight
imagine having more opinions about yourself
than anyone could project onto you
the text within contains the monkey thing
a friend who doesn't work always wants to hang out
slims nicer aggression is nicer in
its little crystal which never truly heard anyone
stuffed a crib full of trash
and it's august and dumpster smells like hot shit
working on appealing to more people
working on understanding moooore people
started a brand and it changed life
the magic insanity
force moves metals and buys blood
I turned a picture of my boyfriend into my debit card
escalators lots of them
talk to the pilot bently my son
here we have rules
self-pulling the what is
and able to implement conversion
to want to be successful
don't care what anyone says
are you warm
to the ground
the meeting is at 7 in the morning
—Nicole and Eric are interested in the way language is both divided from, yet embedded within one’s interaction with the world. Their artwork is a joyful exploration of that paradox, and what a wonder it is!
Nicole Reber (b. 1989) is a Los Angeles-based artist working within sculpture, painting, collage and language. In her examination of counterculture, celebrity, and cultural appropriation, she reevaluates the collective memory and expectation of iconic elements of Western life. Through her incorporation of writing, she explores the complicated and calculated role that text plays in both our online and offline lives.
Eric Wiley (b. 1988) was born in Ft. Collins, CO and raised in the suburbs of Boise, ID. A 2010 graduate of Pratt Institute in New York, his fondest memories are of his months spent deep within the mountains of the Payette National Forest digging trails and fighting forest fires. He wonders if mountain yogi Shangri-la’s actually exist – if that kind of isolated enlightenment truly holds water? Eric currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY awaiting first contact with extra-terrestrials, the development of artificial intelligence, interstellar transportation, and, finally, entrance into the forthcoming virtual oblivion.