In Gallery 2, Goldfinch is pleased to present "Lovesick on the Floor," a group show curated by Iris Bernblum.
"Lovesick on the Floor is my second curatorial project. The first one, Simple Pleasures, I described as a love letter to artists that inspire me. This show is no exception. It’s another kind of love letter, one which explores psychological landscapes, interiors and exteriors. I was inspired by Heather Rowe, one of the artists in the show, who referred to her own sculptural practice as “[t]he negotiation with the materiality of sculpture: the realness of the built environment and how bodies must conform, resist or succumb to their surroundings.” Ryan M Pfeiffer + Rebecca Walz take deep dives into ideas around sex, death, myth and transformation. Lucy Wood Baird thinks about probing what can be found between two and three dimensions; her pieces become composite realities of object, space, and image. Elena Ailes is concerned with the encounters, intimacies, and discordances found between worlds and ways of being. The work weaves together like poetry, quiet and strong." --Iris Bernblum
Artist's Bios
Elena Ailes (b. Albuquerque, NM) is concerned with the encounters, intimacies and discordances found between human (actions, bodies, histories) and nonhuman (thing, being, astral) worlds. She has presented her texts, videos and installations widely, including at Apparatus Projects (Chicago), the SculptureCenter (NYC), Randy Alexander Gallery (Chicago), Sector2337 (Chicago), the Harvard Graduate School of Design (Cambridge), and 4th Ward Project Space (Chicago.) She received her MFA in Sculpture and MA in Visual and Critical Studies from School of the Art Institute.
She is interested in that which makes her a better person and a worse person, especially in theory. In reality, she is an artist and writer living and working in Chicago, and currently teaches at SAIC.
Lucy Wood Baird was born and raised in Chicago. Though trained in photography, Baird’s work manifests itself as image, sculpture, and installation. Probing what can be found between two and three dimensions, her pieces become composite realities of object, space, and image. Her work has been included in shows across the country, including Filter, Chicago, IL (2015); Aperture Foundation, New York, NY (2016); and Aviary Gallery, Boston, MA (2016). In 2016 she was profiled in The Boston Globe. She has been resident at Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, VT, and a visiting artist at Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass, CO. She lives and works in Chicago.
Heather Rowe is a New York-based artist who received her MFA from Columbia University. She has exhibited in numerous museums and galleries including PS1/MoMA; the Indianapolis Museum of Art; UMMA/University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, Michigan; D'Amelio Terras, New York; Galerie Zink, Berlin, Germany; Ballroom Marfa, Texas; White Columns, New York; Artists Space, New York, and James Cohan Gallery, New York. In 2008, her work was featured in the Whitney Biennial. Installations include Socrates Sculpture Park, NY (2013), “Only in Your Way” at DiverseWorks and “Construction House”, at the Providence College Galleries (2020). In 2022, she presented work in conversation with Christina Ramberg at Heroes Gallery, New York. Rowe will be included in the MassArt Museum’s exhibition The Myth of Normal: A Celebration of Authentic Expression in October 2023. Her work has been featured and/or reviewed in numerous publications such as: Artforum, Modern Painters, the New York Times, Art in America, The New Yorker, Flash Art, and Art Review. She is currently Associate Professor in the Sculpture Department at the Rhode Island School of Design.
Ryan M. Pfeiffer is an interdisciplinary artist, writer and curator. Rebecca Walz is a visual artist, curator, and professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Together, they are collaborators who live and work in Chicago. Drawing from their research into prehistoric and ancient art, historical erotica, and archeo-anthropology, their works synthesize concerns about sex, death, myth and transformation. They view their act of collaboration as the dissolution of their individual identities and union of oppositions as a new third-mind.
Ryan M Pfeiffer lives and works in Chicago, IL. He holds a BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Working in the medium of drawing, he sustains a collaborative practice with his partner Rebecca Walz. His works have been exhibited at The Institute of Contemporary Art (Singapore), and Breese Little (London), Abbaye Saint–Magloire (France), LAXART, 80 WSE Gallery (New York), The International Museum of Surgical Science (Chicago), Western Exhibitions, Andrew Rafacz Gallery, The Suburban and more. His works and exhibitions have been published and reviewed in The New City, The New York Times, Art Forum, the Huffington Post, Hyperallergic, The center for Extreme Anthropologie and Religeious Studies Review Journal. Additionally, he has been awarded artists residency fellowships at the following: The Alfred and Trafford Klots International Program Brittany, France, The International Museum of Surgical Science, Yaddo, Vermont Studio Center, Pyramid Atlantic Art Center and at Oxbow School of Art. He has been a visiting artist at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, International Museum of Surgical Science, Hobart William and Smith Colleges and more. In addition, he has been an editor and contributing writer to the following publications and zines such as: Delineatas Magicae Mysticum Cacas, Vol. I-IV; Ape Piss Press, 2013; Metal & Meat: A Glimpse into the Chicago Underground, Dead Publications, 2012; and Goat Fucker Comix, Co-Founder, Co-Editor & Contributor, Vol I-III, 2010-2013.
Rebecca Walz lives and works in Chicago. She holds an MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BFA from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Working in the medium of drawing, she sustains a collaborative practice with her partner Ryan M Pfeiffer. Her works have been exhibited at The Carnegie Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago), The Institute of Contemporary Art (Singapore), and Breese Little (London), Abbaye Saint–Magloire (France), The International Museum of Surgical Science (Chicago), LAXART, 80 WSE Gallery (New York), Western Exhibitions, Andrew Rafacz Gallery, The Suburban and more. Her work is included in the following public collections at the Museum of Modern Art (NYC), the Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago), the Joan Flasch Artists' Book Collection Hobart & William Smith Colleges, Microsoft Collection of Art and Kinsey Institute. Her projects have been generously supported by grants from the Illinois Art Council and Chicago Cultural Center. Additionally, she has been awarded artists residency fellowships at the following: The Alfred and Trafford Klots International Program Brittany, France, The International Museum of Surgical Science, Yaddo, Vermont Studio Center, Ragdale Foundation, Pyramid Atlantic Art Center and at Oxbow School of Art. The International Museum of Surgical Science. Walz has served as curatorial board member at Iceberg Projects from 2016-2022, and has been a professor at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago since 2002.
