The November exhibition surrounding the 2020 Presidential election showcases traditional textile works that address the images, symbols and craft that exemplify the double-standards of American patriotism versus state-sanctioned violence.

CATALOGUE by Johannah Herr & Cara Marsh Sheffler link to buy here.

Curatorial Statement // Press Release

Elijah Wheat Showroom is fired up about our next exhibition: Spread-Eagleism. In collaboration with Intersect Chicago (formerly SOFA), Natalie Baxter and Johannah Herr’s textile-based work will be displayed both online and in a pop-up location in Newburgh, NY, to spur conversation about American symbolism, patriotism and state-sanctioned violence. Both of these artists debuted in NYC with solo exhibitions at EWS. Now, their bold work will be presented in a dual solo show, opening at a socially-distanced and masked reception on November 7, noon-6PM EST, at 195 Front St, Newburgh, NY. And how fitting that Newburgh, the site of Washington’s headquarters at the climax of the Revolutionary War, should be the setting for this consideration of iconography concerning the First and Second amendments.

A defiant bravery shapes the high-spirited yet limp soft sculptures of guns by Natalie Baxter. It is there, too, in her coltish take on the flag or a quarantined-approved house coat, both dangling from the ceiling. The works convey a message of impartiality whilst seeming to speak for both gun rights advocates and those opposed to arms reform. Baxter’s Warm Gun examines American issues of gun violence and masculinity through a collection of colorfully-quilted, droopy caricatures of assault weapons, bringing ‘macho’ objects into a traditionally feminine sphere and questioning their potency. The ostentatious pieces keep a keen eye on opulent capitalism and nod towards the fanatic, overzealous stance - dubbed Spread-Eagleism - that (infected) patriots adopt today.

Herr’s series Domestic Terrorism: War Rugs from America is a devastating portrait of the trauma inflicted by federal policies which creates a unique symbolism to address and identify loci of domestic terrorism. These objects, tufted by hand-held machines, employ material and visual narrative strategies found in Afghan war rugs to interrogate state-sanctioned violence in America. [War rugs are traditional Afghan rugs that began to incorporate military weaponry into their design motifs during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, and continue to do so to this day, now including drone portrayals.] The works implore viewers to intimately consider the violences: immigrant detention, mass incarceration, wars abroad, gun violence, police brutality, inadequate healthcare, environmental injustices and income inequality. These are barbaric desecrations that comprise our democracy. An exhibition catalogue collaboration with Cara Marsh Sheffler, will present continued research on the human rights infractions by the United States. It cheekily exemplifies the commercialization of hate symbols and weaponry that infiltrate venues of consumptive capitalism. It’s more than a catalogue, it’s an intricately internet scoured art-book based on real-life promotion of aggressive bigotry.

Together, Herr and Baxter enact a profound visual query about national symbolism and patriotism, as well as exhibiting a heroic dedication to craft.

Spread-Eagleism, a word that has been used in American English for over 150 years, acknowledges a cultish and overzealous type of U.S. patriotism.

These artists, as well as the gallery in which they will show their work, are wide open, taking the risk of vulnerability, of being critical, of assembling peaceably to protest injustices. Their work plays with the Bill of Rights, but it neither underestimates nor mocks the severity of past and current US violation of human rights. Baxter and Herr invoke conversation about a spreading threat of Nationalistic violence; violences that grow from and are legitimized by state-sanctioned institutional and individual Spread-Eagleism.

Natalie Baxter (b. 1985, Kentucky) explores concepts of place-identity, nostalgic americana, and gender stereotypes through plush textile sculptures. Baxter received an MFA from the University of Kentucky, and a BA in Fine Art from the University of the South in Sewanee, TN. Her prolific and uniquely recognizable work has been exhibited in galleries and museums in Mexico City, Mexico; Amsterdam, Netherlands; London, UK, Mullumbimby, Australia; Munich, Germany; Vienna, Austria; Berlin, & Cologne, Germany; and more. She’s presented solo exhibitions at Elijah Wheat Showroom (Brooklyn, NY), Next to Nothing Gallery (New York, NY), Cunsthaus (Tampa, FL), and Institute 193 (Lexington, KY)as well as numerous group exhibitions in both urban and rural areas domestically like: New York, NY, Lexington & Whitesburg, KY, Kent & Sharon, CT, Atlanta, GA, San Jose, La Verne, Santa Clarita, San Monica, Torrence, CA, Mobile, AL, Pittsburg, Philadelphia, State College, Carlisle, PA, Los Angeles, CA, Mobile, AL, Savannah, GA, Nashville, TN, Santa Monica, CA, Helena, MT, Reno NV, New Haven, CT, Minneapolis, MN, Portland, ME, Carlisle, & Meadville, PA, Indianapolis, IN, among many others. Baxter’s work has been reviewed substantially in: The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Hyperallergic, Huffington Post, The Guardian, and Bomb Magazine. She currently lives and works in Wassaic, NY.

Johannah Herr holds an MFA in Sculpture from Cranbrook Academy of Art (2016) and a BFA in Fine Arts from Parsons School of Design (2009). She has had solo shows at Geary Contemporary, Untitled San Francisco, BRIC, Elijah Wheat Showroom and Envoy Enterprises (all New York City), Red Ger Gallery (Ulaabaatar, Mongolia) and Galeri Metropol (Tallinn, Estonia) and been featured in group shows at Pioneer Works (Brooklyn, NY), Visual Arts Center of New Jersey (Summit, NJ), Center for Contemporary Art (Warsaw, Poland) and DADAPost (Berlin). She is a Fulbright Scholar (Mongolia) and has attended residencies at SIM (Reykjavik, Iceland), Wassaic Project (Wassaic, NY), IEA’s Experimental Projects Residency (Alfred, NY), Oxbow Artists Residency (Saugatuk, MI), and Museum of Arts and Design (New York, NY) and Vermont Studio Center (Johnson, VT). She is an upcoming resident at the Arctic Circle Residency (Svalbard, International Territory). She currently teaches at Parsons School of Design, Pratt Institute, and New York University. Additionally, she is the Co-Founder of Daughters Rising, an anti-human trafficking, indigenous women’s empowerment NGO based in Mae Wang, Thailand. She lives and works between Brooklyn and Mae Wang.

Elijah Wheat Showroom is an artist-run space founded in Brooklyn, NY, 2015. It also serves as a nomadic curatorial experience. Based in Brooklyn, NY and comprised of Carolina Wheat-Nielsen & Liz Nielsen, two artists and curators that previously ran the Swimming Pool Project Space in Chicago 2008-2011. The gallery is named after their late son, Elijah, who passed away tragically at the age of 16. His creative insight, righteous vision and stylistic voice for trendsetting compose the spirit that the gallery honors. As a commercial Gallery, they’ve been curating monthly exhibits presenting artists that are underrepresented in the art world. Voices embodied at EWS are socially conscientious, politically engaged and reflective of a creative community striving to cultivate interactions and instigate critical conversations to promote visual art’s critical messages and its accessibility.