Karma presents, “Good Place and No Place”, an exhibition of paintings by Brooklyn based artist Cole Sayer.

Each element of Sayer’s compositions pulls from the entirety of painterly language. From faux marble settings, and geometric waterfalls, to Globetrotter ephemera, and industrial materials – the works mediate forms of representation and abstraction to create ridiculous pastiches where anything is possible and everything makes sense.

Reminiscent of fashions of the 20th century that emerged during post-recession economic rebounds and their odd relationship with displays of power, the colors and figures of Sayer’s paintings are culled from moments in history when it was culturally prevalent to exhibit one’s superiority, or at least
the appearance of it.

Spaceship Earth is a notably powerful image appropriated in Sayer’s paintings; an icon of the conceptual utopian city designed by Disney. His Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, E.P.C.O.T. was a failed aspiration for ideal urban planning and instead became the mega amusement park known today. The monumental geodesic dome in its place is the only completely self sustaining structure of its kind in existence, evoking the utopic mastery of standing alone—not unlike balancing a basketball on one’s finger or the cultural command of an Eames chair. The work both utilizes this imagery and attempts to function in the same way, as autonomous utopian structures where contrasting philosophies can cohabitate.

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“Good Place” and “No Place” references the dual meaning of the etymology of utopia— evoking the impossible strive for perfection.