ABRI MARS is thrilled to present Best of Seven, a group exhibition curated by Rhys Cowan featuring works by Kellen Hatanaka, Martín “Gordopelota” Kazanietz, Lauren Krasnoff, and Henry David Rosenberg. Expressed through distinct approaches to painting, these four artists investigate the observed and unobserved rituals that contribute to the spectacle of sport.
Drawing on Guy Debord's The Society of the Spectacle, Best of Seven examines the relationship between the spectacle of sport and the individuals who both shape and are shaped by it. The broadcast decides what is seen. The bodies, crowds, and histories around it hold what is not.
Kellen Hatanaka’s paintings bring attention to an underserved staple of Asian-American identity within Canada, the Vancouver Asahi. His figure in Nomo is in motion, contorted against a background that is caught between stability and motion. Similar to the struggles of Japanese citizens during World War II, which led to the dismantling of the Japanese Vancouver professional baseball team.
In Martín Kazanietz’s work, the unknown stars of the Argentine barrios in Un Arquero Sin Guantes and Un Arquero Revolcado. Where football is connectivity, and the need extends beyond age and physical ability. His characters flail haphazardly, almost comically, with no ball in sight. Their effort within their aging frames and dirtied uniforms draws the eye.
The crowds of Lauren Krasnoff’s work collide and mold, where the individual is seen but sometimes lost in the swirl of action and colors, creating feverish and lively landscapes that create the noise of excitement, but also the enraptured observance. Where someone ends and the crowd begins becomes hard to tell.
Henry David Rosenberg depicts textured, dreamlike compositions reimagining the figure of the athlete. They occupy space in the everyday, operating through seemingly mundane tasks, carrying an unspoken importance. Their presence and attention saying more than the uniforms they’re wearing.
Curatorial text by Rhys Cowan
