Mike Goodlett

Almost Folly

June 12th - August 30th 2019

Tops is pleased to announce Almost Folly, an exhibition of recent sculpture by Mike Goodlett at our Madison Avenue Park location.

Almost Folly, presents concrete works that use both organic and man-made forms to create a personal iconography that is both familiar and increasingly recondite. Goodlett has tended to obfuscate the forms of his works, channeling his ideas and cloaked desires into a self-proclaimed abstracted intimacy. These new sculptures are beginning to pull away from the strictly abstract forms of years prior and into a realm of identifiable symbols-and further, figuration.
Goodlett's practice is fundamentally domestic. He has lived and worked in the same secluded farmhouse outside of Lexington, KY for over thirty years and his house has become as much an environment for his art as it is a home for the artist. More than a home studio, the house is integral to the work. It is the place where the work is made, and displayed and lived with. It is also where the sculptures and drawings make the most sense for the artist. Goodlett refers to his work and place as "ongoing installation that never ends". His biomorphic sculptures recall early modernist forms made to the scale and with the materiality of lawn ornaments. This is understandable given that the works are often installed in his yard before they are sent out into the larger world.
The domestic nature and scale of the works provide a distinction to the carnal and deviant impulse that drives their creation.

This exhibition is organized in collaboration with Institute 193, a non-profit contemporary art space and publisher that collaborates with artists to document the cultural production of the modern South.