Clockwise: TOTAH, New York, NY

Clockwise David Austen, Wallace Berman, Mel Bochner, Mara De Luca, Aleksandar Duravcevic, TR Ericsson, Melissa McGill, Lun*na Menoh, Luca Pancrazzi, Kenny Scharf, Alex Sewell, Lauretta Vinciarelli February 8, 2024 – April 20, 2024 TOTAH presents Clockwise, a group exhibition comprising 12 artists. Clockwise opens February 8th, 2024 and runs through April 20th, 2024. All of the artists included are currently represented by the gallery. Clockwise does more than highlight commonalities among the 12 artists affiliated with TOTAH. Embodying a curatorial strategy where each artist chooses a favorite work by another, what results is a symposium of overlapping admirations, a laboratory of democratized influences distilled across numerous points of esteem. The avenues of communication established between the works on view speak to the essential qualities each artist is known for, yet also reveal lesser known aspects of their sensibilities. Placing the gallery’s artists on a wheel, and, moving from left to right, entrusting the selection to each artist’s intuition, the curatorial process can’t help but comment on their own individual perspectives and inclinations. The energetic focus here lies in how an artist’s personal mode of expression might resonate with another, seemingly disparate, body of work. The artists’ selections speak to the intricacies of the gallery's programming; and the spontaneity of their curatorial decisions, which discover new correspondences between the works, draws out expansive and harmonious reverberations. Kenny Scharf's attraction to Lauretta Vinciarelli’s Suspended in Red II not only reflects his interest in the ethereal depth of the work, but highlights the unfathomable joy in surfaces which permeate Vinciarelli's watercolors. Similarly, Aleksandar Duravcevic's choice of a particularly disorienting and multifaceted painting by Alex Sewell draws the viewer’s line of sight to the hard-edged, almost sculptural qualities of the painting as much as the objects it depicts. And Mel Bochner makes known his long-standing appreciation for the works of Wallace Berman, selecting a devotional piece tethered to a grid of measured repetitions. The radial arrangement of the exhibited works forms a zodiac-like pattern, with each piece containing and refracting the others. Simultaneously collaborative and independent, the alchemy at play here involves artist and gallery working in tandem. Viewing the gallery as an ecosystem with nuanced connections across its programming, the exhibition fosters a contemplative surrender to the idea that spontaneity and wonder, as much as caritas, can body forth a vibrant, living environment. For further information please contact info@davidtotah.com