Don't Sweat The Technique
Michael Berryhill, Matt Klegberg,
& JJ Manford
April 30 – June 4, 2023
Opening Reception:
Sunday, April 30th, 2-5 PM
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
KDR305 is pleased to present Don't Sweat The Technique a three-person exhibition of new works by Michael Berryhill, Matt Kleberg, and JJ Manford. The ensemble examines imagined objects and spaces to conjure unexpected possibilities structurally through materiality and tactility.
JJ Manford highlights three locations in Miami in a cinematic overtone. Compositionally each arrangement of the paintings creates an equilibrium between space and color. The substances accumulate within the toothy interlacing fibers, forming rich pockets of chroma that complement the earthy tones of the linen substrate. Manford often distorts perspective to give his virtual spaces a feeling of fullness within the picture plane, creating surreal atmospheres anchored by a special animal guest.
Michael Berryhill’s layered dry brush technique and a harmonious day-glo palette carve forms on a grainy surface, revealing its subject. Improvisations dictate representational image, cultivating gradual impulses until they amount to a description, loose but legible, where color, solidity, and brush stroke movement reach a crescendo. Working in addition and subtraction enables Berryhill to work everything out on the painting's cloth.
Matt Kleberg creates three-dimensional paintings that often blur the boundaries between painting and sculpture. A bust referencing Byzantine statuary holds a conversation with two triangular-shaped gem-toned paintings resembling protruding architectural accents. Playing with shapes and tones that either recede or rise, all while using an oil stick that he glides over surfaces, bending to the will of its stickiness and the traces of pigment it leaves behind.
The combination of these artists explores palettes and textures that stylistically transparently glow, vibrate and transform space through their respective distinct handling of paint.
JJ Manford ( b. 1983, Boston, Massachusetts )
Manford received a BFA from Cornell University in 2006, a post-Baccalaureate certificate from School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2009, and an MFA from Hunter College in 2013. Most recently, his work has been featured in solo presentations at Berggruen Gallery, San Fransisco, CA (2023); Harper’s, East Hampton (2021); Derek Eller Gallery, New York (2021 and 2019); and John Davis Gallery, Hudson, NY (2016 and 2012). A catalog, Greenport Magic, accompanied an exhibition of the same title at Arts + Leisure Gallery, New York, in 2017. Manford has participated in group exhibitions at Harper’s, Los Angeles (2021); The Pit, Palm Springs (2021); 1969 Gallery, New York (2020); Alexander Berggruen, New York (2020); and Freight + Volume, New York (2018 and 2015), among other venues. Reviews of his work have appeared in numerous publications including New Yorker, Artnet News, and White Hot Magazine. Manford currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY where he is a co-founder of the artist collective Underdonk.
Michael Berryhill ( b. 1972, El Paso, Texas )
Berryhill received his BFA at the University of Texas (Austin, TX) and his MFA from Columbia University (New York, NY). He has held solo exhibitions at Derek Eller Gallery, New York, NY; La Maison des Rendezvous (Brussels, Belgium); Kate Werble Gallery (New York, NY); Galería Marta Cervera (Madrid, Spain); KANSAS (New York, NY); Jef Bailey Gallery (Hudson, NY); and Okay Mountain (Austin, TX). His work has been included in numerous group exhibitions, including at Galerie nächst St. Stephan Rosemarie Schwarzwälder (Vienna, Austria) and Lulu (Mexico City, Mexico), among others. Writing on his work has appeared in The New York Times, Art in America, and The Brooklyn Rail, among other publications. Berryhill lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
Matt Kleberg ( b. 1985, Texas )
Kleberg received his BA from the University of Virginia in 2008 and his MFA from Pratt Institute in 2015. His work is in the permanent collections of Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; National Gallery of Art, DC; Williams College Museum of Art; AD&A Museum, UC Santa Barbara; Old Jail Art Center; Addison Gallery of American Art; and OZ Art Collection. Recent exhibitions include those with Pazda Butler Gallery (TX); Berggruen Gallery (CA); Sorry We’re Closed (Brussels); Barry Whistler Gallery (TX); Studio Cromie (Italy); Albada Jelgersma Gallery (Amsterdam); Louis Buhl & Co. (Detroit). Kleberg’s work has been reviewed in The New York Times, The Brooklyn Rail, Painting is Dead, Artsy, Vice, Maake Magazine, ArtDaily, New American Paintings, Blouin Artinfo, ArtMaze Magazine, Juxtapoz Magazine, Artillery Magazine, and Hyperallergic.
KDR305 is a contemporary exhibition space housed in a 103 yr old cottage in the heart of Little Havana, Miami, FL. The exhibition opens Sunday, March 19th, 2-5 PM. Rideshare is encouraged as there is limited public street parking.
For images, information and appointments, please contact katia@kdr305.com.
