Frank Wick "Easy Ruins" Opening Reception: Saturday February 28th From 7:00 9:00 P.M.

SOFA Gallery (Austin, Texas) is pleased to present Frank Wick’s recent project Easy Ruins. In this body of work, figures, still lifes and ambiguous objects float in a space of abject disillusionment. The works are comprised of acrylic paint on magazine pages in which the interactions of overlaid elements resonate in strangely unsatisfying feedback loops. Easy Ruins also engages with changing dynamics in visual culture: the printed magazine has become marginalized in relation to the use of web-based imagery. Much of the imagery reacts to states of a disquieting eroticism, a dehumanizing gaze from various tropes of image references in "artful" magazines: a designer at his desk from multiple vantage points, an Erwin Wurm action, the shrewd visual exploitation of Juergen Teller. The image – as mass produced "original" – fails to fully address the state of gaze that is acknowledged with Wick's captivating gestures and ultimate catharsis. The work makes plain the culpability of an unstated, contractual scopophilia necessary to produce and view not only the artist's interventions, but also photographic works in general. Opening reception: Saturday February 28th from 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. On view February 28th through March 29th. Hours Sunday 4:00-6:00 or by appointment.