Nazarian / Curcio is pleased to announce Material Matters, a group exhibition featuring works by Jamal Cyrus, Vaughn Davis Jr., Aryana Minai, Fay Ray, and Tori Wrånes. These artists are united through their use of abstraction and materiality as a means to explore personal narrative, address pertinent political histories, and deal with issues of labor, migration, the body, and memory. Employing a wide range of media, including denim, metal, stone, silicon, paper-pulp, and shredded canvas, each artist’s respective material is coded with specific meaning and utilizes the language of abstraction to create nuanced and provocative narratives that speak to lived experience. 

Jamal Cyrus is a Houston-based artist whose expansive practice encompasses collage, assemblage, and conceptual sculpture to explore the African diaspora, particularly the symbioses between Black political movements and spiritual struggles. Since 2019, the artist has worked with denim as a raw material, transforming used jeans into painterly abstractions. Cyrus states that these works, “use the materials and format of the quilt to document aspects of Black political history.” Whether mining FBI memorandums surveilling Black activists and artists or shedding light on underknown corners of the Black American experience, Cyrus’ practice acknowledges how hardship and tragedy function to fuel hope, resistance, and progress within Black American culture, presenting the viewer with an expanded understanding of American history.