CAIT CAROUGE AND ALYSE RONAYNE
ANGEL IN THE HOUSE
JUNE 16-JULY 28
OPENING RECEPTION:
SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 6–9 PM
321 Gallery presents Angel in the House, a two-person exhibition of photographs and sculpture by Cait Carouge and Alyse Ronayne.
Hung on the left, right and rear walls of the gallery are three photographs measuring 51 x 33 inches in white frames. Rich blacks, luminous oranges, and hazy pinks flood angular planes. Carouge’s images of light and color appear filmic, and only through photographic fidelity describe their construction.
Placed on the floor, congruent with the walls, are five low, irregularly shaped sculptures of varying sizes. Each shape recalls floor patches assembled from scrap wood, embedded in the otherwise typical blonde-wood gallery floor. These eccentric anomalies fill gaps once occupied by walls–walls which formed closets and doorways in the space’s previous configuration. Ronayne’s architectural forms are constructed of 1/4 inch hot rolled steel plates, cut by waterjet, which are placed over corresponding shapes cut from 1/2 rebond carpet padding.
“Had I not killed her she would have killed me. She would have plucked the heart out of my writing. For, as I found, directly I put pen to paper, you cannot review even a novel without having a mind of your own, without expressing what you think to be the truth about human relations, morality, sex. And all these questions, according to the Angel of the House, cannot be dealt with freely and openly by women; they must charm, they must conciliate, they must–to put it bluntly–tell lies if they are to succeed. Thus, whenever I felt the shadow of her wing or the radiance of her halo upon my page, I took up the inkpot and flung it at her. She died hard. Her fictitious nature was of great assistance to her. It is far harder to kill a phantom than a reality.” – Virginia Woolf, “Professions for Women,” 1931
Cait Carouge (b. 1985, Baltimore, MD) is a photographer living and working in Brooklyn, New York. Her work has been shown both locally and nationally, including exhibitions at In Limbo and The Knockdown Center (Brooklyn, NY). She earned a BS in Communications at Boston University (Boston, MA); a Post-Baccalaureate degree at Maryland Institute College of Art (Baltimore, MD); and an MFA from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University (New Brunswick, NJ).
Alyse Ronayne (b. 1986, Detroit, MI) is an artist living and working in Brooklyn, NY. Ronayne received a BFA in printmaking from the Maryland Institute College of Art (Baltimore, MD) in 2008 and an MFA in painting from the Milton Avery School of the Arts at Bard College (Annandale-on-Hudson, NY) in 2015, where she was awarded the Elaine DeKooning Fellowship in Painting and a Teaching Fellowship in the Sculpture department. Her work has been exhibited nationally and is held in both public and private collections. Her work has recently been exhibited at Jeff Bailey Gallery (Hudson, NY), the Fosdick-Nelson Gallery at Alfred University (Alfred, NY), Soloway (Brooklyn, NY), and the Leslie Lohman Museum (New York, NY). In 2016 Ronayne founded the roving curatorial project IN LIMBO, and was awarded an Engagement Grant by the Rema Hort Mann Foundation for the project’s continuation in 2018.
Will Heinrich, "What to See in New York Art Galleries This Week," New York Times, June 27, 2018