Eyes Open
Corey Mason
May 13 - 30, 2021
LIPS 25210315, 2021
HP Gacink inkjet print and screenprint on linen
30 x 39 1/2 x 1 3/4 in (76.2 x 100.3 x 4.4 cm)
COUNTY is pleased to present EYES OPEN by Corey Mason.
Corey Mason is an artist whose improvisational approach to painting has been likened to Twombly and Picasso. In his new exhibition, Eyes Open, he combines his distinctive painting style with photographic and printmaking techniques as a way of considering the possibilities and limits of portraiture. Beginning with appropriated images of female models from fashion magazines, Mason crops out everything except for the models’ noses and mouths. The visual similarity of the facial features across multiple works in the series, and the consistency of the camera angle, may mislead us into thinking we are seeing multiple images of the same subject. In fact, the noses and mouths belong to several different models. But the illusion of consistency is so strong that the series, when viewed together, almost reads as sequential frames from a single film strip. Mason uses screen printing techniques to layer beautiful gestural abstractions of leaves and flowers over the images, which further camouflages the identities of the models. These floral abstractions also contribute to the series’ cinematic associations by suggesting the rhythmic qualities of abstract animation as seen in experimental films.
The exhibition title, Eyes Open, begs the question: whose eyes? We do not know whether the models’ eyes are open or shut, since they have been cropped out of the frame, but as viewers, by definition, our eyes must be open to see them. So, Mason directs our attention to our own gaze while depriving us of a reciprocal gaze. We must attempt to understand the facial expressions of the portrait subjects in front of us without the benefit of the “windows of the soul.” And Mason deliberately chooses faces that are difficult to read. Whatever expression is contained in their mouths is so subtle as to be almost affectless, allowing different viewers to perceive them differently. Filmmakers have long known that audiences will project their own imaginative thoughts and feelings onto an expressionless face, and this phenomenon, known as the Kuleshov effect, has been used by everyone from Alfred Hitchcock in his montage sequences to Andy Warhol in his Screen Tests. Although Mason is working with still images, he employs the language of filmmaking—both narrative and abstract—to create intriguing compositions that prompt us to question how much we can really discover about a portrait subject just by looking at what lies on the surface, as well as to consider what our individual interpretations reveal about ourselves.
Corey Mason is an important emerging artist from Raleigh, North Carolina. Recent solo exhibitions include The Journal Gallery, New York (upcoming); Achenbach Hagemeier, Berlin; and A+B Gallery, Brescia, Italy. He has been featured in major art fairs, including the Marfa Invitational and Art Cologne, and his works are included in significant private collections worldwide. Eyes Open is Mason’s second solo exhibition at COUNTY.
Logan R. Beitmen