O P E N I N G R E C E P T I O N

Contours Daniel Rozin June 6–August 3, 2024 131 Allen Street New York, NY 10002

Opening reception: Thursday, June 6, 6–8 PM Gallery hours: Tuesday–Saturday: 11 AM–6 PM

Link to Partiful: https://partiful.com/e/SlGTJZu4xifaCwCf6Tao

For over three decades Daniel Rozin has been exploring the mechanisms of reflection. The artist utilizes custom software and mechanical engineering to examine a range of materials that reflect the viewer’s image in real-time. For his tenth exhibition at the gallery, "Contours," the artist turns his focus to the outline of the human form.

Rozin’s works often invite true-to-image reflection. Exhibited works in "Contours" shift away from rich appearance and towards the tension of delineated borders. Modern masters such as Pablo Picasso and Keith Haring celebrated the tension between line and area, inside and out, by implementing silhouettes and abstraction. Rozin presents four new pieces that approach the minimal side of reflection through the diverse materials of lenses, straps, carbon fiber tubing, and light.

"One Candle Mirror" is a monumental installation situated in total darkness. The sculpture’s single light is diffused by 276 lenses positioned in front of the single candle. Each lens is articulated by a motor that rotates its focal direction “bending” the light to depict the viewer’s likeness while they move around the space. Rozin references the effect to that of a solar eclipse, citing the 1919 eclipse as a notable event that historically verified Albert Einstein’s theory of gravity bending light. Einstein’s theory was proven to be true by measures taken by Arthur Stanley Eddington during a total solar eclipse. In front of Rozin’s sculpture the viewer’s reflection is expressed as a silhouette made by the absence of light. In a nod to Keith Haring's famously defined figures, Rozin plays with art historical archetypes through physical means.

"RGB Lights Mirror" employs color reflection and is the 25th piece in the artist’s "Mechanical Mirrors" series that began in 1999 with "Wooden Mirror." "RGB Lights Mirror" returns to the idea of turning tiles towards a bright light to activate them as pixels in a physical image. The work is made from aluminum knobs that rotate to face red, green, or blue lights and become color pixels. The vivid lights, coupled with the glow of the aluminum knobs, result in a saturated display that looks deceptively like an LED screen or a projected image. Viewers standing in front of the piece see themselves in saturated color and full motion.

Rozin’s latest works, "Contour Mirror" and "Straps Mirror," exemplify the artist’s analysis of form and outline. "Contour Mirror" is equipped with two columns of carbon fiber tubes. Contrasting yellow caps highlight the ends of each tube. When a viewer stands in front of the sculpture, all tubes respond in a choreography that aligns their yellow ends to portray the viewer’s outline. "Straps Mirror" continues Rozin’s investigation of constructing images by means of straight line objects. His exploration began in 2010 using wooden slats in the artwork "X by Y" and "Twisted Strips" (2012). This latest piece approaches straight lines through ribbons consisting of half white and half black straps that roll using custom mechanics. The work creates a high contrast image that investigates the contrast between monochromatic two dimensional areas and one dimensional lines.