The instance of reading is commonly understood as a route to communication, an action performed that, if all goes according to intent, binds text to meaning. A condition of legibility then, would appear basic to the undertaking, but as each of the artists in the exhibition deliberates, the allusion to reading is sufficiently muscular. Whether signified through obscured artifacts of language or the presence of textual structures, reading is slyly liberated from its role as translator — that always active intermediary poised between message and meaning — to instead hover at the juncture of engagement.

FRANCESCA VIVENZA
The Weight of Memory, 1988
two scales, letters, Canadian granite, wood
52 x 21 x 11 inches

ADAM SWICA
First Draft, 2013-23
archival pigment print, edition of 3
50 x 25 inches

ELLA GONZALES
Folds, 2021-23
oil on unprimed linen, baltic birch shelf
10 x 14 x 7 inche

YAM LAU
Creature (study), 2022
two digital prints
11 x 8.75 inches each

HYANG CHO
No title 1-9, 2020
paper, glue, each measures 4.5 x 6.75 inches x variable depths

DAVID MERRITT
No1, 2016
water and kraft paper
48 x 80.5 inches

NICK OSTOFF
Six Marks, 2016
oil on canvas on panel
36 x 48 inches