Julia Dzwonkoski and Kye Potter: Object Paintings

opening reception: Thursday, March 20, 6pm–8pm

The Object Paintings of Julia Dzwonkoski and Kye Potter depict a range of household ornaments and figurines that were photographed and then painted in a photorealistic manner. The objects are unified by their lifelikeness—each resembles a person (in body or spirit), animal, or home. All are painted large and floating within an expanse of out-of-the-can chroma-key blue. This color, used in special effects filmmaking, shares a vibrancy with cobalt, which Van Gogh called “a divine colour … for putting space around things.” 

The things themselves are difficult to name. Some were given long titles, like Broken Nose Long Hat Ornament or Green Plastic Bear Mother and Child Coin Bank. TV Napkin Holder/Vermont TV Guide Holder offers two titles. Coil Pot Tower and Seashell Owl are named after art forms assigned in schools or pursued as hobbies. Drawing on the varied history of the found object in modern visual art, from Duchamp to Haim Steinbach, and inspired by Henry Flynt’s notion of Veramusement, the artists selected “just-likings” and sought to dignify them through representation in a classical mode. 

The paintings strike a series of unfamiliar balances between portraiture and still-life, the programmatic and the uncanny, the vernacular and the optical. They document familiar, underreported, and largely immutable forms. As Norman Bryson wrote about still-life painting, “Though humble, the forms represented are virtually indestructible. Either because they come from nature, or because they are intended for purposes that do not vary, they are forms that do not change much over long periods of time.” Similarly, the shell art, high school woodshop projects, cast and painted plaster, and hand-built ceramics that the artists chose to paint appear indifferent to a backdrop of continual change. The series was originally completed in 2006. 


Julia Dzwonkoski (b. 1972, Andover, MA) studied art at SUNY Buffalo and UC San Diego. Living in Los Angeles for many years, she collaborated with Kye Potter on paintings, books, ceramics and the record label Orion Read. Her recent drawings have been shown at Rivalry Projects (Buffalo), Gattopardo (LA), Harkawik (NY), and the Flow Chart Foundation (Hudson), and are collected in the book Two Eyes in an Environment (Model City Books, 2023). She lives and works in Buffalo, NY. 

Kye Potter (b. 1975, Ann Arbor, MI), BA, Film/Video at Antioch College, is an artist working in painting, handbuilt ceramics and books. He’s a collector and curator with an interest in the post-Cage avant garde and its continued imprint on contemporary culture. He’s published dozens of books and records and organized exhibitions and concerts. Recent projects include Naive Poems (AWRY, 2023), co-edited with Michael Klausman, an anthology of poetry by children and Jazz Protein (Pre-Echo, 2023), a cassette compilation of jazz / electronic music from the 80s. He lives and works in Los Angeles.