Inaugural Exhibition at the Laundromat: Christopher Deo & Sarah McDougald Kohn

The Laundromat is pleased to announce a one-day exhibition of new work by Brooklyn-based artists Christopher Deo and Sarah McDougald Kohn. Although these two artists each studied painting, their individual practices have strayed from the two-dimensional image into sculpture and installation.

Christopher Deo 

Two Untitled Paintings. Oil on drafting film, 2008.

Christopher Deo 

Untitled Wall Piece. Ink on matte board, 2008.

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Sarah McDougald Kohn 

Untitled (Hang Tight). Acrylic paint, ink, wood, clay, nails and cotton jersey, 2008.

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Sarah McDougald Kohn

Valentine. Wood, clay, acrylic, ink and cotton jersey, 2008.

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Sarah McDougald Kohn

Everything Has a Name (Floor Piece) II. Wood, clay, acrylic medium, paint and screws. 2008.

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Sarah McDougald Kohn, Kevin Curran, and Christopher Deo.

This show happened in my space in Bushwick last weekend. I decided to invite Sarah and Chris to do a show together because I know they both studied painting, and I noticed that they are also both really into materials and process. The other reason is that they don't know each other. I wanted them to meet each other, and I wanted her people to meet his people.


I have known Sarah for a few years. I met her in school and so the lines were drawn, she was in Painting and I was in Sculpture. Her work has blurred the sculptural and the pictorial for the entire time I've known her and much of the conversation that happened around her work was with people who make two- dimensional images. Does this make a difference?

Sarah says:

"I believe the way in which something is made plays a vital role in what it ends up being. Although sculptural in nature, my work is primarily about drawing. I use constructed objects, often made from recognizable materials, as marks, gestures, and lines in wall based compositions that have a frontal vantage point."


Chris Deo moved to NYC from Minneapolis last Summer and we work together for an art service in the city. Everyone I work with is also an artist, which makes for good conversation as we all studied various things in various places; different axes to grind. I visited Chris's studio and was struck by the care with which he crafted the panels he painted on and how he used unexpected materials in their construction. But when I looked at the abstract ink blot image on the panel I wasn't sure which was more important, the panel or the image?

Chris says:

" I like the suggestion that we can distinguish between feeling and memory...that somehow a thing, a representation can become the residue of another, first. Current and recent projects have resulted in a developing polarity of materiality and imagery. The point that mediates and distinguishes the two as being opposed is the manipulation and use of expectation, specifically the expectation of an established hierarchy. Through suggestive layers of imagery and a seductive use of materiality, our resulting expectations and interpretations are challenged. Through this use, and specifically a manipulation of the various armatures upon which imagery is hung, these images and their potential for concrete resolve become mutable. It is precisely this characteristic that serves as both a catalyst for and the content of this work. These images are also the result of a cognitive investment in the notion of tedium that is driven both by and to sub-conscious and intuited layers of mark, imagery, and evaluation. These layers, often being of personal/idiosyncratic nature, in conjunction with the overt abundance of time invested, are intended to pre-establish a mode of belief or validation in viewing. It is through this guise of validity that I hope to further question the notion of meaning; this is not an attempt to abolish meaning, but rather an attempt to unravel the boundaries of critique. I see this as being very closely linked to ideas/ideals of presentation and materiality."


Many thanks to Sarah and Chris for their careful and thoughtful installation, and to Amy Lincoln for editing the exhibition materials and photographing the show.

Kevin A. Curran