PlayFALL by Daniela Kostova

DANIELA KOSTOVA, "COSMONAUT" (2011), INKJET PRINT ON PAPER, 40” X 30”, EDITION OF 5 + 2 AP

Porter Advisory is pleased to present PlayFALL, an exhibition of works by Daniela Kostova with an opening reception with the artist on Friday, October 18 from 6:30 - 8:30 PM at The Yard: Gowanus, 157 13th Street, Brooklyn, New York.

PlayFALL brings together a group of artworks by Daniela Kostova constructing a dangerous but contained playground of images. As a parent, Kostova understands the balance she must make between fun and risk which she has amplified in this collection of work for every parent to relate. The perception of safety changes within different cultural and social contexts, especially for Kostova, originally from Bulgaria, who is now enmeshed in the safety obsessed culture of the United States as she lives, works and “plays” with her children in Brooklyn. Play Date (two part work included in the exhibition) in fact, critiques the American obsession with safety and shows a makeshift playground built inside the artist’s home. A group of kids are depicted playing with materials considered “dangerous”: mud, fire, raw wood, and rope.  The installation presents an absurd image of “free-play” at home. 

The exhibition is not all fun and games since Kostova often has a way of including political connotations through her work. For example, Cosmonaut 1001 is an ironic celebration of internationalism. A white dove has landed on the head of an infant child in a space suit, its sewn-on badges suggesting affiliation with countries previously on opposite sides of a divide, Capitalist and Communist. This image was incorporated as part of a public art project this summer on the Ringturm building in Vienna, Austria. What has now been a summer tradition since 2006, the Ringturm has been transformed into the most spectacular works of urban art. Kostova is the 12th artist to wrap the Ringturm. She is preceded most recently by Gottfried Helnwein. 

PlayFALL will be sure to make you laugh and then analyze why you did. The exhibition will be on view through January 24, 2020 along with additional works on view at The Yard Gowanus by: Jason Bryant, Nadia Kyung Chae, Andrea DeFelice, Natsuko Hattori, Jeff Huntington, Katarzyna Majak, Anne Marchand, and Carolina Baptista Rodriguez.