Gordon Robichaux is pleased to present Origin Story, a group exhibition featuring paintings, sculptures, and photographs by nine artists—Peter Acheson, Florence Derive, John Finneran, DW Fitzpatrick, Pippa Garner, Ava Woo Kaufman, Reverend Joyce McDonald, Miguel "Mikie” Perez, and Richard Porter—many of whom haven’t previously exhibited at the gallery.

The artworks in Origin Story evince each artist’s distinct engagement with the poetics of reflection, memory, self-realization, and locating oneself in the world.

I want to die alive. That’s maybe a way of transferring life, or taking some of it with me.

—Pippa Garner

Peter Acheson (b. 1954; Washington, DC) lives and works in Ghent, New York. He received his BFA from Yale in 1976 and participated in the 1980s Williamsburg art scene. His work has been exhibited at Novella Gallery, New York; John Davies Gallery, Hudson, New York; the American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York; elizabeth harris gallery, New York; and Baumgartner Gallery, New York. In the winter and spring of 2017, he was the subject of two solo exhibitions, at Thompson Giroux Gallery, Chatham, New York, and at Brennan & Griffin, New York.

Florence Derive (b. 1945; Nantes, France) lives and works in Paris, France. Derive studied at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts et Industries Textiles (ENSAIT) in Roubaix, and at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (ENSAD) in Paris, France. Her work has been featured in numerous group exhibitions including at Gordon Robichaux, New York (2020 and 2018); Morán Morán, Los Angeles (2019); Gavlak Gallery, Los Angeles (2020, 2017, 2015); and Thaddeus Ropac (curated by Jack Pierson), Paris (2014). Profiles of the artist were featured in Candy and Seymour Magazine, and Derive’s private commissions in collaboration with architect Alberto Pinto have been featured in Architectural Digest. Derive has also performed in various films and TV shows such as Vénus beauté (institut) with Audrey Tautou, Appearance féminine, and Beauté fatale.

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John Finneran (b. 1979; New York, New York) lives in Los Angeles, California. He earned his BFA from the Cooper Union in 2002 and his MFA from Bard College in 2008. Finneran has presented solo shows at FARAGO, Los Angeles (2022); Arcade, London (2020, 2019, 2016); 47 Canal, New York (2017, 2013); Hannah Hoffman, Los Angeles (2015); Marvelli Gallery, New York (2011); Tony Wight Gallery, Chicago (2010); and Upstairs Berlin (2008). He has also participated in numerous group shows, including at Tatjana Pieters, Ghent, Belgium (2018); Ballroom Marfa, Texas (2016); MoMA PS1, Queens, New York (2015); Mary Mary, Glasgow, United Kingdom (2014); and Guild & Greyshkul, New York (2009).

DW Fitzpatrick (b. 1964; Long Island, New York) lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Fitzpatrick has presented solo exhibitions at Gordon Robichaux, New York (2018); Lighthouse Works, Fishers Island, New York (2015); Art in General, New York (2014); KNOWMOREGAMES, Brooklyn, New York (2013); Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan (2012); Museum 52, New York (2010); and Bellwether Gallery, New York (2007). Their work has been included in group exhibitions at Higher Pictures, New York; Artist Curated Projects, Los Angeles; Public Fiction, Los Angeles; Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Texas; M+B, Los Angeles; American Contemporary, New York; Art in General, New York; Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE); Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco; Cohan and Leslie, New York; Brent Sikkema, New York; and the Yale University School of Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut. Fitzpatrick’s work has been reviewed in Artforum, The New York Times, and The New Yorker, and is featured in Vitamin 3-D: New Perspectives in Sculpture and Installation (Phaidon, 2014). They are currently a faculty member at Bard College and have previously taught at Yale Sculpture (2001–2011), The Cooper Union, and ICP-Bard.

Pippa Garner (b. 1942, Evanston, Illinois) lives and works in Long Beach, California. She studied transportation design at the ArtCenter College of Design in Los Angeles. Her five decade-spanning career takes the form of a dense body of work performance, drawing, sculpture, installation, and video that push back against systems of consumerism, marketing, and waste through mail-order catalogs, classified ads, garments, cars, and performances on the streets or on television. Garner has exhibited at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (1980); the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (1985); and the Oakland Museum of California (1997). She performed at the Whitney Museum of American Art with Chip Lord (1980) and appeared in character as a guest on talk shows including The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, The Merv Griffin Show, and Monster Garage. Recently, Garner has had solo exhibitions at Kunsthalle Zürich, Switzerland (2023); Art Omi, Ghent, New York (2023); FRAC Lorraine, Metz, France (2023); Kunstverein München, Germany (2022); STARS, Los Angeles (2021); and JOAN, Los Angeles (2021). In late 2023, White Columns, New York, will present a solo exhibition of Garner’s work.

Ava Woo Kaufman (b. 1986; San Francisco, California) lives and works in Point Reyes, California. She graduated from UCLA’s Department of Art in 2008 and co-founded the company Buena Vista in 2012. Her career spans over a decade working in textiles, photography, printmaking, and painting that mostly incorporate found materials. In 2022, Kaufman presented Selvage, a solo exhibition at South Willard, Los Angeles.

Reverend Joyce McDonald (b. 1951; Brooklyn, New York) lives and works in New York and is a self-taught, visionary, multidisciplinary artist, activist, and minister. After her HIV diagnosis in 1985—the result of a long battle with addiction—McDonald was ordained as a minister. She uses her own struggles to drive her work as an artist, activist, advocate, and self-identified “spiritual nurse.” McDonald presented solo exhibitions at Gordon Robichaux in 2021 and at Maureen Paley, London in 2023. She has participated in numerous group shows including at Marc Selwyn Gallery, Los Angeles; Parker Gallery, Los Angeles; in Souls Grown Diaspora, apexart, New York; AIDS at Home: Art and Everyday Activism, Museum of the City of New York; Persons of Interest, Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, New York; Curated, Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art, New York; and HIV+WOMEN+ART, Puffin Foundation Gallery for Social Activism, Teaneck, New Jersey. McDonald’s work has been celebrated in The New York Times on two occasions and is held in the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum, New York; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; and Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.

Miguel "Mikie” Perez, a self-taught artist, was a superintendent for apartment buildings on the Lower East Side. Bearing witness to the activity of the East Village art scene in the 1980s, Perez made paintings with what he had at hand: leftover paint from work and scraps of wood, frames, and windows that had been discarded, which he repurposed as supports for his paintings. His most frequent subject was animals, including horses, birds, and other wildlife painted in a direct style with his signature and biographical information incorporated into the composition. Originally from Puerto Rico, Perez is believed to have returned to live with family following his time in New York City. His paintings captured the attention of other artists and collectors, and his work is held in the American Folk Art Museum, New York.

Richard Porter (b. 1988) lives and works in London, United Kingdom. He earned his MFA from Goldsmiths in 2019. Working with sculpture, painting, moving image, and performance, his Porter explores issues around queer identity, myth, memory, and time. In 2021, Amanda Wilkinson Gallery, London presented a solo exhibition of his work. Group exhibitions include I know where I'm going / Who can I be now at The Modern Institute, Glasgow (2021) and at Amanda Wilkinson, London (2020). In 2017, he founded the non-profit imprint Pilot Press, focusing on independent publishing. With Pilot Press, Porter has published Not Here: A Queer Anthology of Loneliness (2020), Over There: A Queer anthology of Joy (2018), and A Queer Anthology of Rage (2018). Porter is the co-curator of Queers Read This at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London.

1. Pippa Garner in Erin Ikeuchi, “Pippa Garner and Gray Wielebinski Construct Modern Mythologies,” Document Journal, June 26, 2023, https://www.documentjournal.com/2023/06/pippa-garner-gray-wielebinski-americana-art-queer-culture-genderhacking-sell-your-self/.

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