Grant Yarolin: definitely maybe, probably no

SHAHEEN is excited to begin the spring with definitely maybe, probably no, a special pop-up exhibition featuring recent photographs and sculptures by artist Grant Yarolin.  There will be an opening reception for the artist on Saturday, April 2^nd from 6-9pm.  The exhibition will run through April 9th. 

Fascinated by the relationship of image to surface, Yarolin creates richly textured, monochromatic pictures through a recursive method that relies on both painting and photography.  Starting with raw canvas, spray paint, enamel, and latex house paint, he fashions expansive, gestural paintings which become the “base” of his completed works.  These paintings are photographed from various perspectives, printed, painted, and photographed again.  This iterative process conflates what would otherwise be distinct modes of production.

The sculptural works also rely upon a strategy of mixing media.  Constructed from laser cut sheet metal and spray-paint, they consist of interconnected geometric shapes that borrow aspects of the formal language of photography.  Simple circles and sweeping curves are bent to hard angles and enact their dimensionality despite their thinness and seeming relegation to the world of the flat.

In these ways, definitely maybe, probably no readily combines oppositional registers of representation. At its best, the accumulative effect is the sense of being caught in-between, where mesmerizing ambiguity transcends photography’s penchant for the discrete. 

Grant Yarolin is a visual artist based in Cleveland, Ohio.  After receiving his Bachelor of Arts in English from Reed College, he went on to study photography and sculpture at Duke University, receiving his Master of Fine Arts degree in 2015.