Johanna Jackson and Sahar Khoury's 'bow bow' exhibition explores slapstick aesthetics through material experimentation

Johanna Jackson and Sahar Khoury presented their two-person exhibition 'bow bow' in New York from May 5 to June 11, 2017. The California-based artists adopted a deliberately clumsy, slapstick approach to material usage across diverse objects including sculptures, paintings, rugs, and a mirror. Jackson created unkempt ceramic sculptures resembling kindergarten drawings, featuring a pendulum clock, shoes, and an oversized penny alongside tin book-sculptures and hand-hooked rugs. Khoury's work, shown in New York for the first time, employed poured concrete, papier-mâché, old clothes, painting, and bamboo in paintings and sculptures that transformed industrial materials into gentle, supple forms. Her piece Untitled (triangle, rug pedestal) (2017) embedded mint-green machine-made rug into concrete resembling a right-angled triangle, with light pink paint tinting sections. Khoury incorporated display mechanisms directly into works, using paper shopping-bag handles and bamboo triangles as hanging devices. The exhibition's crowded installation reflected the artists' embrace of disorderly presentation, contrasting with more measured approaches. ArtReview featured the exhibition in their Summer 2017 issue.