NED VENA
Born 1982, Boston, MA
Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY
Education
2005 BFA Tufts University/School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
2004 AICAD New York Studio Program
Solo Exhibitions
2012
Clifton Benevento, New York, NY
White Flag Projects, St. Louis, MO
2011
Société, Berlin, Germany
Michael Benevento, Los Angeles, CA
2010
Clifton Benevento, New York, NY
Max Hans Daniel, Berlin, Germany
2009
800 Numbers, Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis, MN
Michael Benevento, Los Angeles, CA
2008
Galerie Gebr. Lehmann, Berlin
Cohan and Leslie Gallery, New York, NY
Group Exhibitions
2012
SIXTH SAX, Halsey McKay, East Hampton, NY
Trojan Horses, Bugada & Cargnel, Paris, France
Home Again, Again, The Journal Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
The Space in Between, Steven Zevitas Gallery, Boston, MA
Minimal Myth, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Josh Kolbo & Ned Vena, Société Berlin, Germany
Into the surface, Brand New Gallery, Milan, Italy
Soft OP, Modern Collections, London, UK
2011
Sentimental Education, Gavlak Gallery, Palm Beach, FL
Les Affranchis, Frac Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, France
I don’t know if it makes any sense – I feel quite dizzy and a little drunk due to the blow. I will return with more info shortly…, IMO, Copenhagen, Denmark
Summer Whites, Rachel Uffner Gallery, New York, NY
Everything You Can Imagine Is Real…, Xavier Hufkens, Brussels, Belgium
One Dozen Paintings, The Journal, New York, NY
Gruppenausstellung 2, Max Hans Daniel, Berlin
Curating the Contemporary (with Joseph Montgomery), Basel, Switzerland
2010
The Power of Selection, Western Exhibitions, Chicago, IL
Skins, curated by Alex Gartenfeld, OHWOW, Miami, FL
The Mass Ornament, Barbara Gladstone, New York, NY
Shape Language, Nicole Klagsbrun, New York, NY
Substance Abuse, Leo’s Projekte, New York, NY
Metallika, Monya Rowe Gallery, New York, NY
The Blood of a Poet, Thierry Goldberg Projects, New York, NY
Célébration, Frac Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, France
All the Splendors of the Earth (Part 2), Cave, Detroit, MI
Home Grown, The Art Complex Museum, Duxbury, MA
2009
Gruppenausstellung, Autocenter, Berlin
Nothing I to say and I am Saying it, Kunstverein Freiburg, Germany
If the Dogs are Barking, Artist’s Space, New York, NY
Maximal Minimal, Primo Piano, Lugano, Switzerland
From the collection of White Columns, New York, NY
Group Show, Cave, Detroit, MI
This is not the Striezelmarkt, Galerie Gebr. Lehmann, Dresden, Germany
2008
Blue Sky, Galerie Gebr. Lehmann, Dresden, Germany
B Seite, Galerie Gebr. Lehmann, Berlin, Germany
Psych, Galerie Dennis Kimmerich, Dusseldorf, Germany
Back to Black, Schwarz in der aktuellen malerei, Kestnergesellschaft, Hannover, Germany
Friends and Family, Anton Kern, New York, NY
Cube Passerby, organized by Michael Caputo and Gavin Brown, Passerby, New York, NY
2007
Ilya Lipkin, Sean Raspet, Ned Vena, Cohan and Leslie, New York, NY
Selections from the Permanent Collection, BC Project Room, Brooklyn, NY
Untitled (Perfect Lovers), BC Project Room, Brooklyn, NY
2006
Attic, Anton Kern Gallery, New York, NY
Bibliography
2012
Claire Barliant, “Ned Vena at Clifton Benevento,” The New Yorker, May
Brienne Walsch, “Double Painting with Ned Vena,” Art in America online, May 3
Tim Saltarelli, “Ned Vena, Abstract Labor,” Zero Deux, Numero 61, March
Laura E. Barone, “Ned Vena at White Flag Projects,” Temporary Art Review, March 15
2011
Michael Shaw, “Ned Vena at Clifton Benevento,” ArtScene, May
Antonio Scoccimarro, “Ned Vena at Michael Benevento, Los Angeles,” Mousse Magazine, April-May, p.123
“Ned Vena at Michael Benevento, Los Angeles,” Mousse (online), April
Geoff Tuck, “Ned Vena at Clifton Benevento,” Notes on Looking, April
2010
“Shape Language,” The New Yorker, July 20, p. 4
Russeth, Andrew, “The Mass Ornament,” Modern Painters (online), 29 July
April 22 – June 5, 2010
Opening Reception, Sunday, April 25 from 12 – 5pm
Clifton Benevento is pleased to present the solo exhibition of New York-based artist Ned Vena. In an exhibition comprised of vinyl, acid-etched mirrors and sprayed rubber-on-linen paintings, Vena’s work reveals a practice traversing painting, sculpture and site-specific installation to question the alchemy of material processes.
This exhibition illustrates Vena’s stake in direct, painterly actions. The use of vinyl wall-reliefs, which are posited as both pieces and as backgrounds – literally wallpaper – for works hung on the wall, articulates an interest in elements of commercial signage and an abstraction of language. The horizontal lines forming Vena’s paintings and embedded in his vinyl stenciling are informed by a minimalist discourse, further exploring the work’s relation with Frank Stella’s Black Paintings.
Positioned atop Vena’s vinyl are two pieces composed of acid-etched mirrors. While referencing graffiti, Vena’s acid-etchings are indicative of stratified painterly gestures. Vena marks his mirrors, those looking upon the work, and the environment where the work placed, thus implicating the work, the viewer and the gallery with issues of violence.
Vena’s three rubber-on-linen paintings approach a similar interest in the potential for action in chemical reactions. While utilizing stencils, Vena’s paintings prioritize the ghosting left underneath the horizontal lines at the base of his paintings. This gesture, what Vena dubs “bruising,” moderates a discussion of the artist’s hand incised by mechanized processes.
Inflecting an interest in the reflective, Vena’s acid-mirror-etchings, rather than being looked into, and in accord with his aerosol rubber paintings and vinyl wall reliefs, reflect the gallery space in which they are housed, thereby reinvigorating discourses of critiques on viewership.
Over the past year, Ned Vena has had solo exhibitions at Midway Contemporary Art (Minneapolis), Max Hans Daniel (Berlin) and Michael Benevento (Los Angeles). In addition, he has participated in several group exhibitions at galleries and museums that include ‘Nothing to say and I am Saying It’ at Kunstverein Freiburg and ‘Black to Black’ at Kestnergesellschaft, Hannover, Germany. Ned Vena (b.1982) lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.