Michael Ambron

“NO TIME” - A Solo Exhibition of paintings by Michael Ambron, curated by Zahar Vaks and Lauren Whearty, was

on view from February 17- March 17th, 2024 at:

Ortega y Gasset Projects

363 3rd Ave. Brooklyn, NY 11215    www.oygprojects.com 

Gallery Hours: Friday, Saturday and Sunday 1-6 pm or by appointment

Ortega y Gasset Projects is pleased to present  No Time, an exhibition of recent work by New York-based artist Michael Ambron in the gallery’s main  space and project space. The exhibition runs from February 17th - March 17th 2024, with a reception for the artist on Saturday, February 17th from 5-8pm. No Time, curated by OyG Co-Directors Zahar Vaks and Lauren Whearty, is the artist’s first solo show, including both recent works and paintings slowly developed over years. In conjunction with the exhibition, the artist will hold a paint-making workshop at OyG Projects (event details forthcoming).  

Ambron’s wildly experimental approaches to painting include working with found substrates, collaged fabrics and packaging materials, surprising additives to his handmade paints, and unconventional tools and applications of various media. Michael Ambron not only uses paint to achieve the mark of a color, but to investigate paint’s materiality and broad possibilities. Ambron describes his paintings as being, “dozens of layers deep and composed of hundreds of drawings. Their surfaces are compressed skins whose protruding contours reveal points of contact with once visible forms.” As a professional paint maker, Ambron is both an artist and a chemist, experimenting and playing within the confines of each material’s limits and properties. Colors bounce and vibrate off of one another on surfaces that vary from smooth matte paint to raw burlap, or paint thick with ground stone, soil, or diamond dust.  Ambron’s varied and layered paintings are rich with crags, crevices and scrapes, yet they maintain an openness and lightness even as we recognize these textured, heavy, and collaged materials. Ambron’s use of “erasure, removal, and blocking out of various elements creates a tension between that which is familiar and present and that which is absent or past.”

Ambron’s methods hone in on the overwhelming simultaneity of our time.  Rigorous investigations of and curiosity about his own perceptions, dreams, and worries are made visual through gestures, symbols, and blips of imagery that unfold in a kind of floating and timeless space. Ambron’s paintings immerse the viewer in a loop of wild visions, cartoon violence, lived experiences, and catastrophic world events. They create a vibrating feeling of absurdity and urgency, yet their vibrant colors, repetitious gestures, and familiar looking cartoon hands and eyeballs are reminiscent of watching the world’s chaos by flipping through TV channels or scrolling through digital media. The buzz of this content and the presence of constant disruptions is made digestible with his ease of gesture - and moments of humor and levity that emanate from layer to layer. 

Artist’s Bio

Michael Ambron (b.1984) is a visual artist based in New York. He received his BFA from Tyler School of Art and his MFA from The Ohio State University. His work has been exhibited at Jeffrey Deitch in NYC, Ortega y Gasset Projects in Brooklyn, The Ice Box in Philadelphia, The Wilber Mansion in Oneonta, NY, The Dublin Cultural Arts Council in Ohio, Work Gallery in Ann Arbor, MI, Memorial Hall Gallery at the Rhode Island School of Design, and has been featured in publications for Maake Magazine and ArtCritical. Michael has been a recipient of the The Dedalus Foundation MFA Fellowship, The Fergus Memorial Scholarship, The Greater Columbus Arts Council Grant, and most recently the 2022 Dedalus Foundation Materials Grant. Ambron is the owner and operator of Paint Makers Notes LLC, an organization that offers paint making services, educational workshops, and professional consultation to artists and art based institutions working with raw materials. He currently lives and works in Long Island City, NY.

A note on access: Ortega y Gasset Projects is accessible through two sets of stairs via 3rd Ave: The first set contains 7 steps to a landing, and the second 5 steps leading visitors into the gallery. Wheelchair access is available through an alternate entrance to the building - please contact us at oygprojects@gmail.com If you have questions or specific access requests and we will respond as soon as possible. 

OyG is an artist-run curatorial collective and exhibition space in Gowanus, Brooklyn. Comprised of artists currently living in Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, OyG operates as a collective and incubator for dialogue and artistic exchange. Ortega y Gasset Projects is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization.