"Junkie's Promises" at Paul Kasmin Gallery Explores Ivan Navarro's Light Addiction

The artistIvan Navarro conceived "Junkie's Promises," the current group show he curated at Paul Kasmin Gallery, as a way to explore how the artists who inspire him use light in their work, all exuding the same prodigous energy as William S. Burrough's antihero in his novel Junky. Through photographs, video, and installation, actual light and representations of it appear in the work of over 20 artists ranging from Dzine and Deborah Kass toJorge Pardo and Pipilotti Rist.

"What is important in this exhibition is the premise that light contaminates its surroundings and demands specific terms for its manifestation," Navarro writes in his artist's statement. "One intention of this project is to show how these pieces create a visual and conceptual tension between the volatile quality of light or electricity and the solid materials that convey it." 

That substance—light—takes on many colorful, electrifying, and quixotic forms in this exhibition, up through August 16. View works from the exhibition in the slideshow above.