Foxy Production announces 3D, the first solo exhibition by PAPER RAD. 3D explores dimensionality in terms of spatial structure, connectivity and essence. Each element in 3D inventively interrelates to produce a remarkable matrix of materials and ideas. Paper Rad remap the experience of dimension, producing phantasmal fields from wildly promiscuous ingredients. Acrylic paintings on quartz-shaped panels form a prismatic pyramid that boldly mixes geometric schemes, iconic faces and found images. A stack of six monitors forms an installation of revelatory animation. As a character-driven video construction, it wittily explores narrative within a looped structure. A set of iridescent spray paintings depicts totemic and mythical figures within enigmatic yet involving storylines.
Paper Rad is composed of Jacob Ciocci, Jessica Ciocci and Benjamin Jones. Their painting, music, performance, animation, web art and drawing interweave to generate an extraordinarily compelling body of work. They infuse the familiar and the comfortable with unexpected shifts of meaning. Their art has been described as “Blakean”, and like Blake they divine a cast of characters with a desire for transcendence. Using a vibrant palette, they explore transformation through the use of myth and playful, meta-ironic humor.
Paper Rad may be understood as a constellation rather than a group. Their proximity to one another generates a bold and hallucinatory creativity as well as a gravitational pull toward provocative reflection. Their individual contributions distill into a remarkably resonant system. Paper Rad sprang from the now legendary art scene of Providence, Rhode Island in 2000. They have collaborated in different formations with a number of other collectives, including Beige, Paper Rodeo and Forcefield.