On View
Joey Cocciardi Reanimates the Nature Print With Condoms, Combs, and Plastic Bags—See It Here
Show of the Day: "1-800 Flowers" is on view at Gildar Gallery in Denver.
Hannah Pikaart
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Joey Cocciardi
“1-800 Flowers”
Gildar Gallery, Denver
November 17-December 24
What the Gallery Says: “In his ongoing excavation of the Romantic past associated with conquest and natural discovery as seen through the lens of the present, Cocciardi continues to find a side-eyed kind of beauty. In his latest series, the artist updates the nature print for the contemporary moment. Like botanists and illustrators of the Enlightenment plucking foliage in order to stamp impressions in history, Cocciardi forages through dollar stores and neighborhood bodegas collecting specimens. Artificial flowers, condoms, hair brushes, grocery bags, Mardi Gras beads and novelty masks all make the cut. Pressed in rubber and resin, this uniformly plastic flora of the excess-driven urban landscape is reproduced and preserved not for posterity, but in the service of an uneasy material pleasure.”
Why It’s Worth a Look: The polluted beauty of the Cranbrook-trained artist’s prints capture the sense of a post-natural world that has already been turned into a kind of mixed-media collage all by itself.
What It Looks Like:
Joey Cocciardi, Dollar-$pa-&-Grill (2017). Courtesy of the artist and Gildar Gallery. Photo by Wes Magyar.
Joey Cocciardi, Bargain-The-Bunch (2017). Courtesy of the artist and Gildar Gallery. Photo by Wes Magyar.
Joey Cocciardi, Family-Cash-Tree (2017). Courtesy of the artist and Gildar Gallery. Photo by Wes Magyar.
Joey Cocciardi, Corner-Stop-Paradise (2017). Courtesy of the artist and Gildar Gallery. Photo by Wes Magyar.
Joey Cocciardi, Corner-Stop-Paradise (detail) (2017). Courtesy of the artist and Gildar Gallery. Photo by Wes Magyar.
Joey Cocciardi, Bloom-A-Round (2017). Courtesy of the artist and Gildar Gallery. Photo by Wes Magyar.
Joey Cocciardi, Fresh Cut (4) (2017). Courtesy of the artist and Gildar Gallery. Photo by Wes Magyar.
Joey Cocciardi, IT$-A-Dollar (2017). Courtesy of the artist and Gildar Gallery. Photo by Wes Magyar.
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