TANYA BRODSKY
RIVES GRANADE
NASIM HANTEHZADEH
LILIAN MARTINEZ
DANIEL MCKEE
ERIN MORRISON
CLAUDIA PARDUCCI
BEN SANDERS
JAMES SEWARD

OCTOBER 6 – 28, 2018
OPENING RECEPTION SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6, 6-8 PM

Ochi Projects is pleased to present Soft Pretzel, a group exhibition taking place during the month of October at Vacation Gallery, located at 24A Orchard Street, New York, NY 10002. The exhibition includes works by Tanya Brodsky, Rives Granade, Nasim Hantehzadeh, Lilian Martinez, Daniel McKee, Erin Morrison, Claudia Parducci, Ben Sanders and James Seward and will be on view from October 6 – 28 with an opening reception Saturday, October 6, 6-8pm.

Soft Pretzel features works that investigate sculptural forms and perceived tactility. Evaluating our ability to anticipate sensory experiences as they are conveyed through visual cues, each work explores implied softness, rigidity, dimension, weight and movement. 

VACATION is a gallery timeshare located in New York City’s Lower East Side that hosts contemporary spaces from around the world on a rotating monthly basis. The gallery fosters global dialogue and diverse programming from its network of international cultural producers, paving a new hybrid model for collaborative exhibition and exchange.

Tanya Brodsky (b. 1982, Kiev, Ukraine) is a Los Angeles-based artist working primarily in sculpture and installation. She received her MFA from UC San Diego, and her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, and attended the Mountain School of Arts. She has shown her work in solo and group exhibitions, including at Ochi Projects, Over the Influence, CES Gallery, Visitor Welcome Center, Vacancy, BBQ LA, Elevator Mondays, Commonwealth and Council, and the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. She will present an upcoming public art installation this fall, commissioned by the City of West Hollywood Art on the Outside commission.

Rives Granade is a Los Angeles-based artist who earned a BA in philosophy from Washington and Lee University, Lexington, VA (2002), and an MFA from The San Francisco Art Institute (2008). He has recently shown work at Gallery Lara, Tokyo, Japan, The Underground Museum, Marine Projects, Ochi Projects and Harmony Murphy Gallery.

Nasim Hantehzadah (b. 1988) lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. She grew up in Tehran, Iran where she started her art education at the Art and Architecture Tehran Center University in 2007. She moved back to the United States in 2011 and received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2013, and an MFA from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2018. She has participated in art residencies such as Vermont Studio Center (Jonson, VT, USA), and her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in galleries such as New Release (New York City, NY, USA), Human Resources, Driveway 327, Skibum McArthur (All Los Angeles, CA, USA), Lefebvre & Fils (Paris, FRA), ISA (Umbria, ITA), and Mana Contemporary (Chicago, IL, USA). Hantehzadeh is the recipient of Resnick Scholarship, D’Arsy Hayman scholarship, and the Art council award at UCLA.

Lilian Martinez (b. 1986, Chicago, IL) is a Los Angeles-based artist. She earned a BFA in Photography from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is the founder of BFGF, an art brand working with digitally printed and woven versions of her artwork. She has exhibited her work nationally and internationally, most recently with Ochi Projects, Los Angeles The Naughton Gallery, Belfast, Ireland and Commune, Tokyo, Japan. 

 Daniel McKee (b. 1985) lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. He originally studied photography at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Daniel now works primarily as a sculptor, focusing on stone as his medium. He has exhibited work in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and other cities across the US.

Erin Morrison (b. 1985) is a Los Angeles-based artist. She received her MFA from University of California, Los Angeles in 2014. Her relief paintings have been included in several recent group exhibitions including Ochi Projets, Los Angeles, Sonia Dutton, New York, The Pit, Los Angeles, C.E.S, Los Angeles, Chimento Contemporary, Los Angeles, Samuel Freeman, Los Angeles, UPFOR, Portland, and James Harris Gallery, Seattle.

Claudia Parducci Is a Los Angeles-based artist whose work concerns cycles of construction and collapse. Project based, it spans a multi-disciplinary practice that includes drawing, painting, and sculpture. In 2006 Parducci received her MFA from California Institute of the Arts and has since shown nationally and internationally, most recently at MAAAC Museum in Cisternino, Italy. Her next solo exhibition is slated for spring 2019 at Ochi Projects Los Angeles.

Ben Sanders (b.198)9 is a Los Angeles-based artist. He received his B.F.A. from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. His work has been exhibited throughout the country, most recently at Ochi Projects, Los Angeles, Gagosian Gallery in Los Angeles, Asya Geisberg in New York, Left Field in San Luis Obispo, Carl and Sloan in Portland, and LVL3 in Chicago. He has shown internationally in London and Vancouver.

James Seward aka PAJAMERZ was born in El paso, Texas. He currently lives and works in DUMBO, Brooklyn. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Savannah College of Art and Design. He has exhibited in many galleries throughout the United States. He was awarded the National Scholarship for Portraiture from the American Society of Portrait Artists as well as the People’s Choice Award in the Boochever Portrait Competition exhibition at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C.