Room 57 Gallery is proud to present an electric quartet of contemporary artists Yam Shalev, Andrea Kamini Parikh, Roxanne Jackson, and Jude Hughes at the Untitled Art Fair in Miami Beach this week. Together their work forms a humorous simulacrum of an outdoor picnic, functioning as both social critique and celebration. Upon the walls, seven vibrant paintings by Yam Shalev hang, featuring sumptuous food, wine, cloth, and seating, suggesting abundance and festivity.

In the center of the display, Andrea Kamini Parikh’s naturally dyed and hand-tufted “Campfire Hot Dog Rug” on an astroturf floor, conjuring a sense of “camp” through the simulation of outdoors. Drawing the eye towards the middle, Jude Hughes’ glowing tendrils of his LED magnetic touch-sensitive lamps mimic a glowing hearth. And finally, a relic from the twisted world of Roxanne Jackson: a disembodied ceramic hand, candy colored green with 80’s memphis design squiggles, clutches a hot dog for dear life as its sinews pour out like ground beef through a meat grinder, adding an humorous-albeit-unsettling touch to the grander theme. As each artist investigates the time-tested subject of a feast, they do so with a contemporary freshness achieved by vibrant colors and interdisciplinary media. By mining this incredibly ordinary subject for its abstract qualities, their work reveals new ways of seeing. Collectively, their work both invites and scrutinizes a communal gathering: posing an ultimately modern question to the audience: how do we both critique and participate? This curation examines the symbol of a picnic as a psychological metaphor; a space where the crossroads of social status and human ambition, public and private space, as well as joy and intimacy occur–a kind of “déjeuner sur l’astroturf.”

On display through December 4th at Booth C52 at Untitled Art Fair