Building Blocks OHWOW Gallery, Miami, FL 2010

In 2010, FriendsWithYou presented Building Blocks – a collection of paintings, over a decade in the making. Known for their reductive approach to geometric abstraction and playful imagery, Building Blocks introduces a series of paintings, executed in the artists’ customary style. Rather than merely flat wall pieces, these paintings act as two- dimensional extensions of their prolific sculptural, graphical and experiential installation works. They are quasi portraits; the abstraction of human visage allows viewers to project their own emotions. In this manner, the portraits become vacillating reflections, reliant and transformed via audience interaction. This exchange, echoed by the artists’ experiential sculptural installations, delivers these paintings from flat to dimensional, aesthetics to conceptual. Presented alongside this series of paintings, the artist exhibited select sculptural pieces, meant to illustrate the progression between their installation and the “portraiture.” Continuing on the trajectory of interactive focus, the air inflated sculptures experiment with the experience and result of relational artwork. This relational approach is at the heart of the artists’ core philosophy and forms the building blocks of their creative output.

On exhibition at FWY’s previous Miami studio with OH WOW Gallery, December 2nd 2010 to January 8th 2011