AdianStabler

Howard’s is proud to present All Points in Between, a two-person exhibition by Athens based artist Samuel Stabler and New York based Justin Adian. It will open Friday July 19th, from 6-8 pm, and run through August 24th. The show will consist of individual works by both artists as well as collaborative pieces.

The title All Points in Between comes from the ZZ Top song Jesus Left Chicago, and perhaps captures the spirit of Justin and Sam’s ongoing friendship and artistic dialogue. The two met while art handling at a gallery in NYC in 2009. They quickly became friends and had much in common as recent Southern transplants to New York, Justin originally from Texas and Sam from Atlanta. This kinship is reflected in wide-ranging creative interests, like classic country music, historical heroes, zines, 70’s movies, sports, and epic narratives of the road and landscape.

The only clear formal overlap is a shared focus on color. Bright neons and painted edges activate both artists’ work in the space of the gallery. They play with ideas of painting and framed pictures as objects- presence on the wall as vital as surface, narrative, or image. Stabler’s pieces often result from a reclamation of inspiring images. Pop icons, movie stills, influential paintings are layered and meticulously cut in paper, or redrawn in pen and painted in vibrant hues. Graphic images dissolve into an optical buzz, which is enhanced with colored frames and backlit cutouts. Adian’s 3D wall pieces hover and slowly morph in space. Typically made of canvas stretched over foam and plywood, they have a raucous and humorously irreverent tone. Painted with enamel and spray paint, they are like the Texan punk grandchild of Blinky Palermo, Lynda Benglis, Jean Arp, and Ellsworth Kelly.

Justin Adian was born in Fort Worth, Texas in 1976, and is now based in New York. He graduated with a BFA from the University of North Texas in 2000, and an MFA from Rutgers University, Mason Gross School of Art in 2003. Recent exhibitions include Horton Gallery, Dallas, 2019; Almine Rech Gallery, Brussels, 2018; Almine Rech Gallery, Paris, 2016; Skarstedt, NYC, 2015; Skarstedt, London, 2014; Luxembourg & Dayan, NYC, 2014; Blackston, NYC, 2012; Martos Gallery, NYC, 2012; Bryant Park, NYC, 2010-11: Blackston, NYC, 2010; Rachel Uffner Gallery, NYC, 2010; among others.
 

Samuel Stabler was born in Atlanta, GA in 1984. He is now based in Athens, GA after relocating from NYC in 2015. Sam received an MFA from Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design in London in 2009, and BFA from the University of Georgia, Athens, in 2007. Selected exhibitions include Victor+Mo, NYC; Garis & Hahn, NYC; Dorfman Projects, NYC; Gallery 151, NYC; National Arts Club, NYC; Christie’s, NYC; Degree Art Gallery, London; The Conningsby Gallery, London; The Window Gallery, London; Gallery 60Six, San Francisco; Subliminal Projects Gallery, Los Angeles; Tumuboko Gallery, Kobe, Japan; the Chinese Characters Gal- lery, Budapest; and The Coffee Shop Gallery, Brussels.