Dates
- On View: January 12 – February 17, 2024
- Reception: Friday, February 2, 5:00–8:00pm
- Artist Talk: February 19, 12:00–1:00pm, Osher Hall
About the Exhibition
Colorful, bulbous forms evoke a small grove of abstracted fruit trees with ripe, fallen fruit scattered below. The painted paper pulp sculptures in Pair, Pare, Pear encapsulate Brooklyn-based collaborative CHIAOZZA’s study of plant forms, reducing tree shapes to a combination of cylinders and spheres.
The sculptures in Pair, Pare, Pear originated from a time spent living on a Vermont apple orchard. There, CHIAOZZA witnessed the apple trees through the seasons: the stark, dark, barren forms of trunks and limbs against bright white snow in the winter; the tiny budding leaves and sweet flowers in the spring; the lush, green canopies of deep summer; and the weighted, bowed boughs laden with fruit in the fall. The artist collaborative also researched root-stocks and grafting practices, and in particular, the horticultural phenomena called “inosculation”: when two or more trees fuse to create a single tree. Colloquially, these hybrid plants are called “gemels”, a name derived from the Latin word gemellus which means "a pair" or "twin". Through these sculptures titled Gemels, CHIAOZZA explores themes around the dynamics of partnership and collaboration, the combining of disparate elements into one, and the celebration of these fused forms and the unexpected shapes they create.
The thump of a falling fruit
in late autumn
echoes through the orchard
and we are reminded
of time passing
lamenting the end of summer
while already considering
the hope of the next blossoming
still months away
still firmly rooted
within the abundance of the harvest
grateful for the fruits
that have been borne.
About Chiaozza
CHIAOZZA is the collaborative practice of Adam Frezza & Terri Chiao. The studio explores play and craft across a range of mediums, including sculpture, painting, works on paper, installation, design, and public art. CHIAOZZA has had solo exhibitions with Wave Hill Sunroom Project Space (The Bronx, NY), Hashimoto Contemporary (New York, NY), Heron Arts (San Francisco, CA), Owen James Gallery (NYC), Long Island University (Brooklyn, NY), Casa Romantica (San Clemente, CA), Westchester Community College (Valhalla, NY), Poketo (Los Angeles, CA), and Vox Populi (Philadelphia, PA), among others. They have installed public artworks in New York City Parks (Central Park and Tappen Park), Industry City (Brooklyn, NY), University of Florida (Gainesville, FL), Northeastern University (Boston, MA), Downtown Cleveland, OH, Downtown Houston, TX, and at Riverside Art Museum in Beijing, China. In 2017, they created an acre-spanning 32-sculpture installation at the Coachella Art & Music Festival in Indio, CA. The studio was founded in 2011, a few months after Terri and Adam met at a karaoke bar in Chinatown, New York. CHIAOZZA is based in Brooklyn, NY.
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