Matteo Callegari, Untitled (Panthera tigris IV), 2020, Oil on Indian linen, 30 × 36 in

Animal People

Group Show
Curated by Jackie Shatz, Celeste Morton, and Tappeto Volante
Opening on March 23rd, from 6 to 9 PM
On view until April 30th, 2023

With Bill Adams, Matteo Callegari, Jennifer Coates, Rachel Frank, Frankie Gardiner, Elizabeth Insogna, Jeffrey Morabito, Celeste Morton, Jackie Shatz, Kyle Staver, and Clintel Steed.

Tappeto Volante proudly announces Animal People, a group show featuring works on paper by Kyle Staver, Clintel Steed, paintings by Matteo Callegari, Jennifer Coates, Frankie Gardiner, Jeffrey Morabito, Celeste Morton, and sculptures by Bill Adams, Rachel Frank, Elizabeth Insogna, and Jackie Shatz.

The group exhibition, Animal People, aims to reflect the symbolic representation of the interrelationship between animals and humans through mythology, spirituality, wilderness, and domesticity in contemporary society, exploring the paradigm of co-inhabitants in their shared environment.

Acting as symbols, shown as both friend and antagonist, often embodying human characteristics or telling stories of mutual dependence, the interaction of humans and animals reveals a transformative relationship.

In art history and mysticism, the hybridization of humans and animals confers divine status on the animals themselves – Kurma the tortoise, Matsya the fish, Garuda the eagle, Jambavan the bear, and Kamadhenu, the cow.  In Christian iconography, the devil is depicted with a human body, horns of a goat and a ram. The Greek centaur, and his predecessor, the Ipotane, have a mystical, ancient energy representing the animalistic side of humanity. Egyptians thought of cats as protectors while at the same time respecting their ferocity. Often depicted sitting under women's chairs were also seen as fertility figures. According to the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, Egyptians shaved their eyebrows as a mark of respect when mourning the loss of a family cat. The serpent is the most ancient symbol of female power, eternity, and continual renewal of life.

The relationship between animals and people can often be symbiotic to the extent of codependency, blurring the boundaries between person and animal into a contemporary form of secular animism.  Acting as guides, companions, emotional supporters, and alter egos. Animals can offer solace, visual contemplation, identification, reciprocal affection, and a sense of wonder at the "other." Animals wait behind the scenes as some of the truest communicators, supporters, harvesters, and adversaries. Humans' relationships with pets and domesticated animals contain a component of anxiety concerning their survival and human survival. Animal rights and extinction issues are mirrors for the awareness of the fragility of humans themself.

Artists throughout time and across cultures have used animals as provocative and seductive subjects in art. Through their individual sensibilities and mediums, the artists presented in Animal People explore the intrinsic, spiritual, cognitive, and metaphysic link between animals, humans, and our shared environment.

Bill Adams was born in New York City. He divides his time between Orient, NY, and NYC. He has had ten solo exhibitions; and will have an eleventh in May 2023 at Shrine in TriBeCa.

Adams showed, among others, at Marvin Gardens Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, Kerry Schuss Gallery, the University of Kentucky Art Museum, Lexington, KY, Jeff Baily Gallery, Hudson, NY, MRS. Gallery, Brooklyn, Harpers Gallery, East Hampton, Sarasota Art Museum, Ringling College of Art + Design, Sarasota, 56 Henry Gallery, NYC, Fisher Parrish Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, White Columns Gallery, NYC.

The three Ducks in “Animal People” are part of a long-running series of pacifist birds and animals, which are intended as a means for quiet contemplation/ A thing which, for the artist, is essential to clearing a path to protest with the aim of some kind of coexistence and generosity, which he sees crumbling all around. He says: There is redemption in the sculptures. In their making. And in their growing number.

Matteo Callegari (b. 1979 Latisana, Italy) lives and works in New York, where he moved after receiving a Bachelor of Economics from Università Ca’ Foscari, Venezia, in 2003. Subsequently, in New York, he received a Master's in Fine Arts from Hunter College in 2011.

From 2009 to 2016, Callegari focused his practice on how energy in painting can be channeled through different modalities of abstraction. This produced a cohesive yet multifaceted body of work in which different modalities of abstraction coexisted and complemented each other. This body of work is based on the multiple languages of abstraction. “Painting is a space for the mind,” Callegari explains. “It starts with your understanding of reality and develops as a proposition. Painting is about generosity.”Subsequently, Callegari introduced two new elements into his practice, figuration, and text, developing a complex body of work that combined them with painterly abstract gestures to expand on the idea of energy shifting through different modalities and languages. These paintings were shown in the solo exhibition Drop Outs and Fluids at Downs and Ross in New York (2018). After exploring the possibilities of maximum complexity in painting, Callegari started a process of research aimed at understanding the very nature of the energy that has been the focus of his practice and developing a more direct language for conveying it. This brought the artist to the Amazonian rainforest in Perú; spending time in nature and working with traditional Curanderos offered the possibility to re-evaluate the scope of the artistic practice and its potential to bring forth metaphysical considerations.

The subsequent body of work has seen energy channeled through a figurative language focused on nature; Callegari reflects on the relationship between spirit and nature as a complex and interdependent network, composed by an incredible variety of organisms. He had solo exhibitions in Dallas, London New York and Milan. He also participated in group exhibitions in London, Paris, Oslo, San Juan, São Paulo, Tel Aviv, Zurich. His work has been published on Artforum, Flash Art, Kaleidoscope. Flash Art Publishing printed his first monograph in 2016. He has organized several exhibitions with the goal of creating a dialogue around central issues of his practice, working closely with artists of different generations. He started the nonprofit Light For the Amazon with the goal to conduct beneficial activities for the community of Santa Maria de Ojeal in Perú.

Elizabeth Insogna is an artist and CUNY educator based in NYC. Her work is ceramic based and focused on the realm of the divine feminine through queer and feminist space as well as occult practices. Past solo exhibitions include Tracing the Spirit at RAR gallery in Berlin and Psyche’s Reason in NYC. Two and three person exhibitions include, Doesn’t Hold Water at Underdonk and Hekate’s Grove at FiveMyles Gallery. She has participated in group exhibitions at The Abrons Art Center, The Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, and The National Arts Club. Her work has been featured in Artsy, Magic Praxis, Huffington Post, Abraxas Journal, Hyperallergic and The Brooklyn Rail.

Celeste Morton (b. 1990) lives in Brooklyn, NY. She received her BA in film theory from the University of Vermont and her MFA in painting from the University of Delaware in 2018. Her work has been shown in Philadelphia at Automat, Galleri Urbane, and Martha’s Contemporary in Texas, and throughout Chicago, Brooklyn, and NYC. In 2020, she participated in Azule Residency in North Carolina. Her paintings investigate the emotional resonance in images. Jackie Shatz currently resides in Rockland County, N.Y. She is a sculptor who thinks she is a painter. She has exhibited in venues in New York City and the surrounding area. She is a teacher and a curator. She is the recipient of an NEA Artist Fellowship, a Tree of Life Grant, and a Gottlieb Foundation Grant. My wall sculptures involve suspended states of being and the permeable nature of time; images of swimming, floating, and "about to" gestures imply anticipation, anxiety, or relief from anxiety. I do not set out to express specific emotions - they emerge from the selection of the figures and the creation of the pieces themselves. The meanings are hidden like the meanings in dreams. I draw a figure I have extracted from a painting and use that drawing to guide my sculpture. The selection is guided by an unconscious but connected train of thought.

Kyle Staver (b. Virginia, MN, lives and works in New York) earned her BFA from Minneapolis College of Art and Design and her MFA from Yale University. In 2015, she was awarded the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Purchase Prize. She has had solo exhibitions at Half Gallery, New York; Zürcher Gallery, New York; Galerie RX, Paris; Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects, New York; among many others. Her work is in the collections of the National Academy of Design (New York), The American Academy of Arts and Letters (New York), The National Arts Club (New York), The McEvoy Foundation (San Francisco), and Portland Community College (Portland, Oregon). Staver is also recognized as a distinguished member of the National Academy of New York.

Born and raised in Kentucky, Rachel Frank uses sculpture, video, and performance to explore our relationships and shifting perspectives towards natural history, climate change, and non- human species. She received her BFA from The Kansas City Art Institute and her MFA from TheUniversity of Pennsylvania. She is the recipient of grants from The Pollock-Krasner Foundation, The Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation, The Puffin Foundation, and Franklin Furnace Archive. Residencies include Yaddo, Marie Walsh Sharpe, The Museum of Arts and Design, Skowhegan, the Innoko National Wildlife Refuge (Alaska), Franconia Sculpture Park, Socrates Sculpture Park, and MOCA, Tucson (AZ). Her performance pieces have been shown at HERE, Socrates Sculpture Park, The Select Fair, and The Bushwick Starr in New York City, The Marran Theater at Lesley University, and at The Watermill Center in collaboration with Robert Wilson. Recent solo and two-person exhibitions include MOCA Tucson (AZ), the SPRING/BREAK Art Show (NYC), Thomas Hunter Projects at Hunter College (NYC), Standard Space (Sharon, CT), and Geary Contemporary (NYC). She works in wildlife rehabilitation at the Wild Bird Fund and is based in Brooklyn, NY.

More information can be found at: www.rachelfrank.com

Jennifer Coates is an artist working in Brooklyn, NY and Lakewood, PA. She will have a solo presentation at the Untitled Art Fair in Miami with High Noon Gallery in December 2022. Her work will be featured in “And So Did Pleasure Take the Hand of Sorrow and They Wandered Through the Land of Joy” a group show centered around the drawings of Marsden Hartley, opening October 2022 at the Bates College Museum of Art in Lewiston, ME. Recent solo shows include Para Pastoral at Pamela Salisbury Gallery, Hudson, NY; Lesser Gods of Lakewood PA at High Noon Gallery, NYC; and Pagan Forest, West Chester University. Recent group shows include Psychedelic Landscape at Eric Firestone Gallery, NYC, Post Pop Landscapes at Acquavella Galleries in NYC and Palm Beach, FL, curated by Todd Bradway. She is the 2021 recipient of the John Koch Art Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a 2021 NYFA Award in painting, a 2019 Fellowship at the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, and a Sharpe Walentas Studio residency (2018-2019). Her work has been written about in Hyperallergic, BOMB Magazine, the Brooklyn Rail, Art Critical, the Huffington Post, Smithsonian Journeys, and Two Coats of Paint, among other publications.

Jacquelin Shatz’s wall sculptures involve suspended states of being and the permeable nature of time. The images of swimming, floating and "about to" gestures imply anticipation, hesitancy, anxiety or relief from anxiety. She is a sculptor who works in ceramic, paper, bronze and collage materials and is the recipient of a Gottlieb Foundation Grant, a National Endowment for the Arts Grant, and a Tree of Life Grant and had a residency at the Kohler Arts/Industry Program. She is also an independent curator. Selected exhibits include: The Art Center in St. Petersburg, Hampden Gallery, U. Mass., Freedman Gallery, Albright College, and Henry St. Settlement, Governors Island, and The Green Door Gallery in Brooklyn. She has collaborated on installations at Glyndor Gallery, Wave Hill, the Morris Museum, Morristown, N.J., and Governors Island. Her large-scale outdoor sculpture was installed as part of a curated group exhibit on the traffic islands at Columbus Circle, NYC, and in front of Henry Street Settlement, NYC. Solo shows include Jerry Josefs Gallery, Razor Gallery, Garrison Art Center, and Carter Burden Gallery. Selected group exhibits include a three-person show, Harbinger, at LaiSun Keane Gallery, Boston, Mass., 11 Women of Spirit at Zurcher Gallery, NYC. Recent and current shows 2022 - 2023: “Flurry and Fire” - Susan Eley Gallery, Orchard St. NYC (2 person show) “Kiln Gods” - Space 776, NYC “Tell Me a Story” - 1GapGallery Brooklyn TVP Projects - Brooklyn 2022 Spring Break, NYC. Todd Kelly, curator (3-person show) “Ladies of the Canyon”, Garageland Gallery, Ridgewood, NY “Somebody, Nobody, Anybody”, Marquee Projects, Bellport, NY “Earthen Energies, Ancient Roots”, Susan Eley Gallery, Hudson, NY (2 people show)

Clintel Steed (b. 1977, Salt Lake City, UT) received his BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and his MFA from Indiana University and completed Advanced Studies at the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting, and Sculpture. His work has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions, most recently Clintel Steel: Endymion at Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects, New York; Emoji Show at Klaus von Nichtsagend, New York, and So Much, So Little, All At Once at Regina Rex, New York, among others. He is the recipient of the John Koch Award from the National Academy of Arts and Letters, and recent press includes Hyperallergic, Artcritical, and The New York Sun.

Born in Beverly, Massachusetts, in 1949, Frankie Gardiner received a BA from Boston University in 1982 and an MFA from The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in 1996. She has been living in Vermont now for twenty-five years. Her work has been shown in the United States and Canada, with the current show Visions through March 18 at Galerie LarocheJoncas in Montreal, Qc. Her work is in collections in the United States, Canada, the UK, France, and Portugal. Often starting with photographs she has taken or seen somewhere, she investigates color and the tactile sense of imagery and what can happen as materials are used to make things. Imagination is of course, the key element to that transformative process.

Born in Bronxville, half Hong Kong-ese and half Italian, Jeffrey Morabito spent his early years traveling between New York and Hong Kong. Much of Morabito’s work plays with the legibility of objects in the painting. Recognizable figures are put in unrecognizable picture planes or the reverse. A recipient of the Art Cake Studio Program, he has exhibited nationally and internationally at galleries like Matthius Kupper Gallery, Beijing, China; N-Space and Jay Gallery, Seoul, South Korea; Rosenfeld Gallery Philadelphia; Projektraum Knut Osper, Cologne, Germany; and in Eric Firestone Loft, SFA Projects and M.David & Co., New York. In 2019, a retrospective of his work, entitled “Glossolalia” and curated by Karen Wilkin at 1 GAP Gallery. Morabito’s work has been reviewed by the New York Times, Hyperallergic, White Hot Magazine, Art Spiel, Youngspace, Deliciousline, and China Daily.