Extra Parts: NAPOLEON

Opening: Saturday July 20, 6 - 9 pm
Exhibition dates: July 20 - August 4

Good Children is pleased to announce Extra Parts. The exhibition is the first phase of our exchange with NAPOLEON.

Extra Parts
When you put something together, you usually hope there aren’t any parts left over. Two screws lying on the carpet means you skipped a step. An unfamiliar piece of plastic, with three cryptically placed holes, must have a home somewhere. Maybe these leftovers mean the thing you’re building won’t quite function. Then again, maybe it will do something new and surprising, if only for a moment. Maybe this new function is richer, or stranger, or perhaps it can help us imagine something new and different.

This engagement with both envisioning a new world, and questioning the narratives of our past, runs across many of the works in the exhibition. Other works draw from more intimate and personal experience, reflecting on the challenge of creating space and stability in a world where events seem to be moving at an ever accelerating pace.

Extra Parts brings together works by the nine current members of NAPOLEON. This publication grew from the realization that each member would have to provide instructions for installing their work. We invite you to think of it like a poetic manual for engaging with the works on view. Exhibiting artists include: Lewis Colburn, Ava Hassinger, Christina Kerns, James Maurelle, Daniel Oliva, Heather Raquel Phillips, Rebecca Tennenbaum, Tamsen Wojtanowski, and Ricardo Zapata.

Founded in 2011, NAPOLEON is a collectively-run project space in Philadelphia’s Rollins Building. The collective currently has nine artist-members, who share the responsibilities for programming and operating the small, 220 square-foot gallery. NAPOLEON presents exhibitions in the gallery on a monthly basis, and these projects have included performances, group and solo exhibitions by artists from across the United States, in addition to an annual open call. The members of NAPOLEON have also exhibited as a group in other venues across the country, including Coop Gallery in Nashville, TN, SOIL in Seattle, WA, Goggleworks in Reading, PA, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. More info at www.napoleonnapoleon.com.