An embarrassment of riches

Tim Berg & Rebekah Myers

Exhibition dates: January 17th – February 15th 2012

Opening reception: Thursday March 1st - 6 to 8pm

DEAN PROJECT is pleased to present An embarrassment of riches, an exhibition by Tim Berg and Rebekah Myers. It is the collaborative team’s third solo show with the gallery.

The work in this exhibition addresses notions of fortune, overabundance, value, and authenticity. Inspired by our consumable culture, Berg and Myers create ambitious handmade works in a variety of media, including ceramic, wood, and fiberglass with a degree of finish so high that all evidence of the hand is erased, thereby linking the works to designer goods and products.

An embarrassment of riches is a commonplace trope used to describe too much of a good thing, and is most evident in the pieces and then some…, and An embarrassment of riches (billboard). and then some… features a four-foot-tall lemon wafer cookie with such an overabundance of filling that it drips with excess. As the drip from the filling falls away from the cookie, it turns to 23-karat gold. An embarrassment of riches (billboard) employs the most conventional and prominent means of advertising to announce the exhibition. The billboard, like all of its kind, speaks to the overabundance of objects and experiences that saturate our daily lives. Impossible to ignore, billboards litter the landscape, both tantalizing and overwhelming the viewer with a conspicuous profusion of opportunities.

The central piece in the exhibition, titled a thing of the past, is comprised of a large, modernist-looking walnut table upon which a stylized replica of an adolescent triceratops skull rests inverted. This piece simultaneously relies upon and subverts the conventions established in natural history museum displays in order to explore how we value the past, making it into an allegory for the present. Ten small souvenirs of this project made to look like the larger version further reinforce our culture's propensity for transforming all things into something consumable. The sale of these souvenirs describes how human desire causes things to disappear.

for all it’s worth is a playful take on how humankind values nature. Double-sided wooden calipers compare the height of a perfectly manicured bonsai tree to a stack of chopped wood, creating a contrast between a human ideal and natural beauty. Though they are made of the same materials—as are the wooden calipers that measure and compare the two forms of wood—the two items are valued in completely different ways.

Tim Berg and Rebekah Myers are a multimedia studio-art collaborative based in Claremont, California. Berg and Myers have participated in multiple solo exhibitions, including on the brink at Dean Project Gallery in New York, NY (2011); As Luck Would Have It at Nääs Konsthantverk Galleri in Göteborg, Sweden (2009); All Good Things… at Dean Project Gallery in Long Island City, NY (2008); Hope Springs Eternal at Seigfred Gallery at Ohio University in Athens, OH (2007); and Glacial at Ironton Studios in Denver, CO (2007). Over the years, Berg and Myers have also participated in numerous group exhibitions in the US, Mexico, South Korea, and Kuwait. Their work is included in many private and public collections, including The Betty Woodman Collection at the University of Colorado and the Biedermann Museum in Germany. Berg additionally works as an Assistant Professor at Pitzer College in Claremont, California and as a freelance curator. He has curated a number of exhibitions, including Tannaz Farsi - Crowd Control (2012); the 67th Scripps Ceramic Annual - Making Fun (2011); and the Northern Colorado Regional Student Show (2004). Berg received his MFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in 2003 and his BFA magna cum laude from the University of Colorado in Boulder in 2000. Myers received her BFA from the University of Colorado in Boulder in 2000 and continued her studies in graphic design at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco, CA.

DEAN PROJECT, 511 West 25th Street, NYC 10001 - www.deanproject.com