FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Dam, Stuhltrager Gallery, in conjunction with CTS, is proud to present artist Ward Yoshimoto and Angelica Bergamini in 'Elemental Ends’, curated by Lynn del Sol, in the inaugural opening of the gallery’s sculptural garden.

'Elementals Ends’ is a fable of sorts, set in a garden where trees don't necessarily grow. Spring is late in its arrival this year and in lieu of blooming flowers, seedling, and soft green grass, sliver metal structures protrude up from the cold ground, clear plastic clouds dangle from an imaginary sky, and blood red string ties reminders from wire tombs to create an intersection of hope and fear where reality deserts the dream.

Set against the backdrop of towering buildings and somewhat bleak adjacent lots, artists Ward Yoshimoto and Angelica Bergamini continue a conversation that echoes the loss of optimism in human relations.

Replacing, much like modern man, the natural with the unnatural, they return us to the basics, to the bare minimum. Through the investigation of material, both provincial and utilitarian, the artists are able to create a landscape of the soul; one that wonders if destruction is to be our final assault and apathy our heirloom, to whom do we owe our existence to?

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about the artist: Ward Yoshimoto commingles American and Japanese traditions and craftsmanship in his deft assemblages of found objects. Referencing Dada, Surrealism, and Pop, as well as the turbulent social and political landscape of his youth, Yoshimoto’s wry constructions address an ongoing history of cultural displacement with equal parts iconoclastic brio and meditative, almost obsessive rigor. In this singular brand of contemporary suburban folk art, cocktail stirrers, crucifixes, clocks, and pool balls assume formations as whimsical as they are poignant—the detritus of the American Dream washed ashore, picked over, and reassembled in an attempt to piece together a sense of identity amid the constant flux of contemporary life.

about the artist: Angelica Bergamini was born in 1973 in a provincial seaside town called Viareggio (Tuscany, Italy). She studied at the College of Art in Lucca from 1987 to1992 and took up residency at the esteemed Academy of Fine Arts in Florence. Angelica stills calls her work paintings although she is a multi disciplinary artisan working with stone, wood, metals and wire. Abstract landscapes of skies and seas can be imagined through layers of colors and texture, a three dimensional sculpture which evokes an “other worldliness.” Possessing a passion for material, metallic, flexible, and organic, she insists on the least amount of intervention, her mark, absolutely minimum.

about the curator: Lynn del Sol was born and raised in New York. She is the director and founder of {CTS} creative thriftshop, a young art company that represents international emerging and under-represented artists. Actively organizing over twenty nomadic exhibitions and events a year, you can find her constantly on the go from Istanbul to Buenos Aires, Basel to Berlin, New York to Miami Lynn was co-curator of the Lebanese Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2005 and has volunteered in the education department at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA). She held directorship at Jack the Pelican Presents (Brooklyn, NY.) and at Xanadu* (New York, NY). She was recently invited to become a board member of the Williamsburg Gallery Association (WGA).