Foreman

Blade Study is proud to present Foreman, Nick Fusaro's second solo exhibition with the gallery. Diligent and repeat visitors will notice a handful of references to his first show in 2024, Stretch Under Strain, where the conceptual artist explored the difficulty of ideation and historical baggage inherent to the creative process. In, Foreman, Fusaro has seemingly shed this anxiety while maintaining a sense of humor, this time proposing the process of making as a final product worthy of exhibition. Fusaro's wall panels, modeled houses, and floor sculptures make use of industrial and raw materials, which are presented in different states of finish. Here, he draws a comparison between the practices of artists, craftsmen, draftsmen, and of course, foremen, as comparable creators.

All of the artworks in Foreman are made using materials typically associated with building. The six nodules at the exhibition's center are made using epoxy and polyester resins, bonding agents used in construction, flooring, insulation, and repair. Aluminum is a recurring material in Fusaro's practice, appearing here in the form of roofing paint, where it is applied as a brushable material designed to seal and insulate the roofs of barns, homes, and garages. Wood is also used across artworks, appearing in varied states of finish and quality.

Both panel pieces, Foreman and, Whose Ghost?, are intentionally reminiscent of blueprints, strategic drawings traditionally used to lay out floor plans for homes and buildings. Blueprints shed the market value and maker’s hand associated with fine art prints, but still maintain a sense of mark-making and organization of space traditionally associated with composition. With this as his starting point, Fusaro layers collaged sheets of paper around his panels as an architect might lay out a bedroom, foyer, or hallway. The negative plywood spaces in the panels serve as interstices on an imagined plane, a site that is neither finished nor in progress. The same can be said of the sculptural houses that dot the walls and perch on a pedestal. They are not true structures. Cozy but inhospitable, offering no way in or out, they are proposals for impossibly modest buildings.

On the gallery's floor are six blue-gray nodules, inspired by a found object the artist has since misplaced, an antique metallic otorhinolaryngologist’s tool used for measuring ear canals. Fusaro has ballooned their scale, exalting the original object, a medical mold, to the level of fine art. The coloration of their surface is determined by batch mixes of polyester resin (clear, shiny), epoxy (dull, gray) and hardener (a deep blue tint). Each mixed batch has a short pot life, resulting in patch-work patterning after multiple applications overlapping layers. They are finely sanded, a practice that mimics how a carpenter might refine the surface of a chair, however their form hints at no clear or concise function given the change in scale and material.

Fusaro has made a habit of drafting new artworks behind a character or archetype when ideating. In this instance, as the exhibition's title suggests, he has poised himself as The Foreman. The Foreman is an overseer. He doesn't design or create plans, he simply executes them. He is the figure at the helm of process, navigating projects from renderings to realities. Imagined in the shape of a clown, the character of The Foreman is featured prominently in a panel at the gallery's back wall, overseeing the exhibition like a construction site. His authority is subtly undercut by his choice of dress, and the delicate safety pin that holds him to the wooden panel. His intention, ability, and capacity are in question, but nevertheless, for better or for worse, it's The Foreman who is in charge.

NICK FUSARO (b. 1989) is based in Brooklyn, NY. He received his MFA in Sculpture from Hunter College in 2022 and his BFA in Sculpture from Pratt Institute in 2012. His sculptural practice combines humble materials, collections, and iteration to emphasize the effects of memory on lived experience. Fusaro also studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in 2011 and is the founder of Three Four Three Four, an artist-run gallery in New York. He has shown at Gordon Robichaux (New York, NY), Parent Company Gallery (Brooklyn, NY), Marwan (Amsterdam, Netherlands), Jupiter Woods (London, UK), Fisher Parrish (Brooklyn, NY), Strobe Gallery (New York, NY) and Long Story Short (New York, NY).