dm contemporary

dm contemporary NYC is pleased to present two simultaneous exhibitions featuring the work and environments created by multidisciplinary artists Elizabeth Duffy and Cheryl Yun, entitled Apartment 2B and The Cheryl Yun Collection/ Storefront respectively. The exhibitions which open at dm contemporary NYC on Friday, February 7th, with a reception for the artists from 6 - 8 pm, will run through March 15th, 2014.

Apartment 2B is an installation in which Elizabeth Duffy transforms the main gallery space into a domestic environment that is realistic and almost credible, until one takes a closer look only to realize that the patterns throughout the space seem strangely familiar - they are the same patterns found lining security envelopes that bills get mailed in to keep sensitive information protected and private. Finding inspiration in a disposable material, that is quickly becoming a relic of the past thanks to email, Duffy collects, draws, scans, prints, and embroiders, to reproduce a variety of data protection patterns on a vast range of materials and objects. Using these meticulously crafted and highly patterned creations, in an amplified fashion to cover the walls, the furniture, and every object in this otherwise charming modernist apartment, Duffy manages to create a feeling of unease, and puzzlement. In an evasive and subtle manner, Duffy's apartment 2B - playfully titled as a reference to the fact that dm contemporary gallery actually occupies flat 2B on the second floor of a residential building - blurs the boundaries between real and unreal, private and public, and surrounds us with hints that raise questions 'enveloping' every aspect of contemporary life, including concepts of domestic comforts and stability at a time of exponential change, and concepts of security and privacy in a digital age - especially as details of electronic surveillance dominate today's news,

In the project room of the gallery, is another thought provoking installation, The Cheryl Yun Collection / Storefront, in which Cheryl Yun sets up a high-end boutique that displays one-of-a-kind, meticulously handcrafted lingerie, and handbags as well as her recent line of string bikinis. Luxurious, delicate and enticing, her faux fashion lines are shocking to anyone taking a more careful look, as the stunning patterns and colors that make these items so attractive and unique turn out to be abstracted images of war, and natural disasters. Photographs of tragedies and catastrophes appropriated by the artist from newspapers and on-line media sites, are scanned, mirrored, inverted and repeated to create, what Yun calls, a complex visual fabric. The underwear is influenced by images of suicide vests and international crises, the form of the handbags references the latest fashion trends while the imagery reflects headline news, and the recent string bikinis focus on guns, violence and more specifically the tragic events in Newtown, CT. Each garment or item comes with a label showing the source image and the newspaper caption, the first date indicates when it was published, the second date when the item was completed. Yun's Collection/ Storefront, juxtaposes conflicting extremes, and exposes excesses, forcing provocative connections and pressing for a closer re-examination of values.

Elizabeth Duffy lives and works in Providence, RI, Acworth, NH and Brooklyn, NY. She received her MFA from CUNY Brooklyn College and studied art at the New York Studio School, Hunter College and Rutgers College. Her work has been widely exhibited at venues such as the Drawing Center, the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, White Columns, and The Islip Museum. Residencies include: the Bogliasco Foundation/Liguria Center for the Arts and Humanities (Italy), the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, the Vermont Studio Center, and Ragdale. She received awards from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Pollock Krasner Foundation, and the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, and in 2013, she was awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities grant. Duffy's work is in the collections in numerous public and private collections. Her work has been reviewed in The New York Times, Art News, Art on Paper, the Boston Globe, the Village Voice, and many other publications. She currently teaches Art at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island.

Cheryl Yun received her MFA in Photography and Related Media from the School of Visual Arts, New York, NY, and her BFA in Fine Arts and BA in History from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. Her work has been exhibited internationally, in venues as wide ranging as White Columns (NY), Roebling Hall (NY), the New Benaki Museum (Greece), and Galerie Stihl Waiblingen (Germany). She has been the recipient of grants from the Puffin Foundation and the Indiana Arts Commission. Residencies include, the Art Omi Residency Program (NY) and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (Maine). Yun's work has been reviewed and featured in The New York Times and the Village Voice, as well as in various major art publications including Art in America and Flash Art. She lives in Connecticut, and is currently an instructor in the department of Photography at NYU's Tisch School of Art.