Steve Hash and Andy Warhol: Poverty / Porn

Chase Contemporary is pleased to announce Poverty / Porn, a two-person exhibition of concrete sculptures by Steve Hash and late black-and-white paintings and works on paper by Andy Warhol. This marks the gallery’s first exhibition with Los Angeles-based artist Steve Hash and his first exhibition in New York.

The exhibition engenders a dialogue between Steve Hash and the late Andy Warhol. Both Hash and Warhol grew up in poverty, heavily immersed in religious ideologies. Warhol (1928–87) was a Ruthenian Catholic and son of a coal miner in depression-era Pittsburgh, PA. Hash (b. 1982) was raised in a radicalized Christian community in rural Mississippi, the son of a construction worker. Warhol was able to elevate the quotidian commodities of American life into the realm of fine art. Similarly, Hash transforms everyday, accessible materials into elegant forms.

Poverty / Porn features sculptures from three of Hash’s ongoing bodies of work: “Voids,” “Nurture vs Nature” and “Clotheslines.” The hollow, self-supporting figures from Hash’s “Voids” are formed from concrete-infused cotton toweling. They employ the use of drapery as a means to dissolve innate perceptions of the individual, dissolving social identifiers that would otherwise indicate gender, race, or socioeconomic class. This use of common materials is a constant theme in Hash’s work. In The Pity I (Plank), a concrete-draped figure is supported by a simple wooden plank, recalling both classical renaissance works in marble and the 1973 post-minimal work by artist Charles Ray. 

Alongside Hash’s figurative sculptures, one is confronted with the artist’s “Clothesline” works consisting of socks, briefs and undershirts, hung from steel wire and frozen in concrete. His “Nurture Versus Nature” series includes tall, precariously balanced totems, erected from casting the interior space of used milk jugs, canned food, beer cans or cigarette packs. All are the contents in which Hash himself has consumed over a specific course of time.

Warhol’s late black and white works appear to be a deliberate departure from the polished, celebrity-obsessed Pop Art he became famous for. Warhol’s works chosen for this exhibition pull from source material indicative of his early days in advertising. Warhol depicted adverts of everyday commodities with hand-hewn sensibilities, while concurrently exploring themes of spirituality and religion as seen in the artist’s screen print on silk scarf titled The Only Way Out is In! from 1984. A direct reference to Osho, The Only Way Out is In! depicts a figure seated in the lotus position under the image of the All-seeing eye.

Steve Hash
Hash was born in Santa Barbara, CA and raised in De Soto National Forest in southern Mississippi. He later moved to New York City where he worked as a creative director for a major record label, and currently lives and works as an artist in Los Angeles, CA. Since his 2018 debut at Los Angeles’s HILDE Gallery, which received a “Critic’s Pick” review in ArtForum, Hash has exhibited at L.A. Louver, Bombay Beach Biennale, Marfa Invitational and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. He received a “Director’s Choice” at Art Miami for his Mother I and Child I sculptures in 2018.

About Chase Contemporary
Established in 2017, Chase Contemporary is an art gallery with two prominent locations in the heart of Chelsea, New York City. The gallery exhibits work in a variety of media including painting, photography, sculpture, and works on paper. Chase’s core program is to exhibit both blue chip art as well as work by emerging and mid-career artists, catering to both the established and beginning collector. The gallery regularly hosts artist talks and lectures, events and benefit auctions, and participates yearly in major art fairs.

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*Press contact: SteveHashMedia [​at​] NadineJohnson.com