Metousiosis | Simon Allison & Ted Larsen

Metousiosis is a Greek term (μετουσίωσις) that means a change of ousia (οὐσία, "essence, inner reality").

FOLD is pleased to present Metousiosis a two-person show by Simon Allison and Ted Larsen. Each artist in this show approaches the material and physical matter of their work using a combination of sophisticated visual playfulness, and a range of carefully considered responses to modernism and abstraction.

Working with the ideas of transformation, transition and permanence through renewal, both artists work with found materials. By re-purposing these materials they create new kinds of ready-made abstract sculptures. This ‘change of essence’ or inner reality celebrates the fact that the materials have memories of their own previous existence.

Objects are beaten, cut and pulled apart. Then reconfigured inlayed and carved. Objects are forged, melted, sheered and moulded. These physical actions and processes are apparent in the effect they have on the viewer. Encouraged to move physically to interact with what is presented to them, the audience at once becomes aware of the material nature of the object - how it was made - and also the space it inhabits.

Simon Allison, Born 1955, Auckland, New Zealand. educated Nelson College, N.Z. 

Simon attended the Canterbury School of Fine Arts graduating in 1978 under the tutelage of Tom Taylor who ran the sculpture department with Martin Mendelsburg, a young American sculptor. The paintings of Don Peebles who also taught at the school remain an on going influence on Simon’s work. His sculpture including commissioned works is held in private and public collections throughout Europe and New Zealand.

Ted Larsen (b. 1964, USA) is an internationally exhibiting artist and Pollock-Krasner Foundation recipient with a BA from Northern Arizona University. Ted Larsen's work has been exhibited widely in museums in the US, including the New Mexico Museum of Art in Santa Fe, The Albuquerque Museum, The Amarillo Museum of Art, The Spiva Center for the Arts in Joplin, Missouri, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art as well as in over eighty gallery exhibitions. Ted Larsen is included in the collections of The New Mexico Museum of Art, The New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs, The Edward F. Albee Foundation, Proctor & Gamble, The Bolivian Consulate, and many more public and private collections.