Mark Havens @ Gravy, in Philadelphia

DESIGNPHILADELPHIA RECEPTION
October 12, 6:00PM – 9:00PM

Gravy is pleased to announce the upcoming exhibition Monster Factory by Mark Havens. This stunning new series is based on stark black and white images made at grassroots wrestling shows. The scenes are then sublimated onto anodized gold aluminum plates. The artist explains the series as “baroque spectacle recast as a meditation on conflict, camaraderie and the elemental desire to see good triumph over evil. These are pervasive subtexts in wrestling’s crude folk theatre and are eternal themes in art (and life). In draining these images of kitsch, the work suggests a fundamental yearning of the human spirit.”

Mark Havens was born in Camden, New Jersey. He lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and teaches at Philadelphia University. Mark has shown other photography series recently at Slingluff Gallery in Philadelphia and Sasha Wolf Gallery in New York. More work can be seen on his website: http://www.markhavens.com/