Smack Mellon presents Luba Drozd’s first large scale solo exhibition in New York City in conjunction with the launch of the Close Readings exhibition series. This exhibition is curated in conjunction with the concurrent group exhibition The Dissolution caus’d by Fire is in all Bodies, featuring works by Leah Beeferman, Mimi Park, and Charisse Pearlina Weston, in addition to a photographic print by Paul Strand. 

In a sprawling installation comprising construction materials–drywall, steel beams, and sheet metal–and motors attached to piano strings and tuned to various frequencies, Drozd uses the tension between these materials to produce a complex sonic landscape that unfolds across the main gallery space. The installation combines natural light with projected animation of false shadows to illuminate various corners while abstracting the building’s unique architecture. Several mimosa pudica plants, commonly known as “sensitive plants,” which respond to physical contact, are also incorporated into the installation, underscoring the tactile nature of the sound produced exclusively through vibrating materials without translation or amplification. 

The installation explores links between empathy, humanity, and the primordial composition of the universe through the artist’s deep investigation of matter. It centers sensory experience to consider how humans are flexibly and intuitively connected on a molecular level through the reliance on elements linking terrestrial life to the Moon, planets in the solar system, and, most importantly, each other. 

The title of this exhibition refers to the first written account of a volcano’s eruption, documented by Francesco Serao, in which he coined the term “lava.” In this text, Serao probed the properties of molten rock, including its reverberation, density, thermal resistance, and color, to understand the limits of its materiality. Similarly, Drozd’s installation practice has developed over years through deep observation, listening, and coaxing sonic information out of her materials. 

This exhibition represents the first iteration of the Close Readings series. Once per year, Smack Mellon will present a new commission by one under-recognized, early to mid-career artist in Gallery One along with an accompanying exhibition in Gallery Two that uses the central commission as a curatorial framework. This program extends our support for interdisciplinary artists by building conversations around their practices in addition to facilitating the realization of ambitious, site-specific projects.

Image: Installation view, Luba Drozd, The Tenacity of a Fluid Trace, 2022. Site specific sound and animation installation, dimensions variable. Courtesy of Smack Mellon. Photo by Etienne Frossard.

Bio:

Luba Drozd (born Lviv, Ukraine, 1982) is an installation artist working with site-specific sound, 3D animation, and sculpture. She is the recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship, NYSCA/NYFA Fellowship in Digital and Electronic Arts, MacDowell Fellowship, Yaddo Residency, Millay Colony Residency, Pioneer Works Technology Residency, BRIC Media Arts Fellowship, New Work Grant from Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site. Her installations are commissioned and exhibited at such institutions as Dat Bolwerck, Zutphen, Netherlands, the Hessel Museum of Art, Hudson, NY; Knockdown Center, Queens, NY and Bronx Museum of Art. She will be a recipient of the 2023 Sound Art + Experimental Music residency at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art. She received a BFA from Pratt Institute and an MFA from Bard College.