BELL and GANASSI
The Corpses - Discipline, 2023
12 x 11 in.
Leather tassel, matchbox, and plastic netting on paint-stained paper towel on paper on cardboard
— The Venus Victrix on a souvenir matchbox from Rome's Borghese Gallery takes on a different tone when joined with a cut-up leather tassel and tightly wrapped and knotted netting meant to protect a wine bottle —
The Corpses - Dark Matter, 2023
10.5 x 8.5 in.
Mixed media and found objects on paper on cardboard
— A dismembered calculator and a found red plastic donkey kicking up its heels in a puddle of paint converge with text to create a merrily ominous mood —
The Corpses - What Remains?, 2023
11 x 8.5 in.
Mixed media, broken china, fabric, and stamped napkin on paper on cardboard
— A cocktail napkin stamped "For Deposit Only" gets a metaphorical boost from shards of a broken vintage pitcher, a piece of cut patterned fabric, and golden brushstrokes on the verso of a painting on paper —
The Corpses - Games of Chance, 2018
12 x 9 in.
Found objects, marbles, fabric, and mixed media on framed blackboard
— Measuring cups and a paper cup become tools of a losing game (two of the vessels are bottomless), as a handkerchief waves farewell —
The Corpses - Horse Latitudes, 2018
Plastic horse, mixed media, tape, and poem on paper
— Accidental dog pawprints and a broken but still forward-looking horse tread a found ink wash painting on paper, overseen by Emily Dickinson's "I heard a Fly buzz - when I died - “ —
Bell and Ganassi
ARTIST BIO
LAURA BELL
At Douglass College, Rutgers University, Laura Bell studied with Fluxus artist Robert Watts, who gave her a deep appreciation for the spontaneous and serendipitous, and with clay sculptor Ka Kwong Hui, whose sense of the relationships of forms went far beyond the ceramic studio. She received a 2020 “Bronx Recognizes Its Own” (BRIO) painting grant from the Bronx Council for the Arts, has been an artist-in-residence at the Millay Colony, and has participated multiple times in the Governors Island and Aqua Art Miami art fairs. Her paintings and mixed-media work have been shown in New York, Provincetown, New Haven, Philadelphia, Berlin, and elsewhere. She lives and has her studio in the Bronx.
IAN GANASSI
Ian Ganassi has worked as a writer, teacher, and percussionist. His poems have appeared in numerous literary magazines, including Survision, Home Planet News, Meniscus, Offcourse, BlazeVOX, Clockwise Cat, Otoliths, The Yale Review, and New American Writing. His poem “Blunt Trauma” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and his translations from Virgil’s Aeneid have appeared in New England Review. His first poetry collection, Mean Numbers, was published by China Grove in 2016; his second poetry collection, True for the Moment, was published by David Robert Books in 2023. A third collection, By This Time, is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press in June 2024. He is a long-time resident of New Haven, Connecticut.
