Upcoming Events:
Closing Performance - Meetinghouse
Friday, May 25th, 6 - 7pm

The exhibition will conclude with a performance choreographed by Winnie Berger, Mook Dance Company. Four women respond to Cunat’s installation through rhythmic movements akin to Shaker worship, synchronized swimming and 70s popular dancing. Each dancer enters the space wearing the artist’s handmade bonnet and ‘bertha’, which are promptly hung on the peg rail system in reverence for the congregation hall. Although the performers work together, they each display moments of independent bodily gestures that imply the significance of individuation within the collective.

For immediate release:

Meetinghouse by Amie Cunat
APRIL 13 – MAY 27, 2018
OPENING RECEPTION: FRIDAY, APRIL 13TH, 6-9PM

VICTORI + MO is pleased to present Meetinghouse, a solo exhibition of new works by Amie Cunat, on view April 13 – May 27, 2018. A continuation of an ongoing series, Meetinghouse combines painting, sculpture and drawing in a multi-room installation that explores the liminality of the “meeting house” as a simultaneously public and private sphere.

Meetinghouse presents a collection of objects that reimagines historical artifacts created by the Shakers, a sect of religious radicals who promoted equality for all of its members in colonial America. Coined “shakers” due to their particularly fervent style of dancing, followers congregated in spaces that were sparsely furnished, though each simple chair, stool, or pew was immaculately constructed. Impeccable craftsmanship was a hallmark of the movement’s ethos; work done by hand was felt to have been imbued with God. Cunat’s hand-cut paper sculptures directly reference this process and subvert it: her work purposefully lacks the utility and structure of Shaker design but maintains the same commitment to craft within her unmistakable hand. On a one-to-one scale, Cunat’s rocking chairs, baseboards, and ceiling beams–the quotidian components of Meetinghouse–offer novel ways of turning attention toward the inherent affectation and pretense within organized social space.

As the viewer traverses both the Foyer and Congregation Room, one will be confronted with broad swathes of color, dynamic contours and biomorphic shapes that blanket the surroundings. The texture of Cunat’s work will be pitted against the flatness of the background–creating an environment ripe for visual surprise within this site-specific installation.

About Amie Cunat
Amie Cunat (b. 1986, McHenry, IL) lives and works in New York, NY. She received her MFA from Cornell University in 2012, a Post-Baccalaureate in Painting and Drawing from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2010, and her BA in Visual Arts and Art History from Fordham University in 2008. Cunat has had solo exhibitions in New York and abroad at the Knockdown Center, Sunroom Project Space at Wave Hill, The Cooper Union, AIRY Gallery, among others. Recent group exhibitions include C+C: Kat Chamberlin and Amie Cunat at Spring Break Art Show in New York, NY,  Western Decoy at No Place Gallery in Columbus, OH and Sine Gallery: Berlin at tête, Berlin, Germany.