Various/Artists is pleased to present Ripe Like a Stranger, an exhibition of sculptural and video works by New York-based artist Deric Carner. Central to the exhibition is the premiere of Meet Me in Trieste, a 17-minute film that mixes found footage and slow pan travel footage with the artist's stories of his days as an itinerant artist. 

 

In the front room of the gallery is a group of sculptures made of fiber, resin, and composite stone materials. A second film, entitled I dreamed you dreamed of me, serves as a poetic reflection on the works in the show. Eschewing direct explanations, the artist invites the viewer to listen to a story about stories while viewing found footage and considering the works in the space.

 

A selection of home films by John B. Schmidt will be screened on March 25th at 7:00 pm as part of the exhibition program. These unedited reels were shot on 16mm in the late 1970s and early 1980s in California and on Schmidt's travels. Acquired at an estate sale, the films present nature and travel imagery with fleeting glimpses of gay domesticity. The silent films will be accompanied by a selection of records chosen by Deric Carner.

 

Working primarily in sculpture and installation, Deric Carner has built a body of work that addresses queer identity, embodiment, and the boundaries between interior and exterior life. Through additive processes and found objects, he creates ambiguous forms that exist between cute and unsettling, documenting states of affective displacement.

Deric Carner (b. 1975, US/ES) has presented work in solo exhibitions at the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, Romer Young Gallery, Trestle Projects, Artists' Television Access, and Tent. Rotterdam. Selected group exhibitions have included venues such as SPRING/BREAK Art Show, Goshen Green Farms, Fierman, Present Company, Participant Inc., Artists Space, NurtureArt, Queen's Nails Projects, Southern Exposure, Centre Pompidou, and the Contemporary Art Centre in Vilnius. Carner has completed residencies at the Constance Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts and the MacDowell Colony. He holds an MFA from the Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam, Netherlands, and a BFA from the University of California, Santa Cruz.