James Cohan is pleased to present a special exhibition of early work by Elias Sime, on view at the gallery’s 52 Walker Street viewing room from October 25 through November 23, 2024.

Elias Sime creates densely layered assemblages of everyday materials, transforming them into lyrical meditations on the world around him. Predating Sime’s well-known Tightrope series, these canvases, made between early 2000s and 2009, represent the stylistic and conceptual foundations of the artist’s later, monumental tableaus composed of braided wire and mosaic-like arrangements of electrical components.

In this early body of work, Sime stitches thread, yarn, buttons, bottle caps and other found objects onto canvas, creating highly textured surfaces and vivid color fields. These works, ranging from figuration to abstraction, highlight Sime’s handling of material with the fluency and formal instincts that lie at the heart of his practice.

These distinctive works are inspired by traditional Ethiopian practices of weaving and embroidery. Having grown up amidst this tradition, Sime found the use of the stitched yarn and textile as natural avenues to express himself. By incorporating buttons, bottle caps, toy arms, and clothing, Sime gives a second life to these objects. In the artist’s own words, “Each material I collect has its own story, and has been touched by many hands. It has its own language. All the different stories related to the material move me, and I transform these intuitive reactions into my compositions.”

Sime encourages viewers to look slowly and closely, tracing each fiber stitched onto the canvas. By engaging with the work in this way, we echoe the artist’s own process. Tracy L. Adler, Director of the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College notes, “This notion of slow looking is integral to Sime’s approach. In our fast-paced world, he reminds us that we must take the time to observe closely, to follow each thread. Once we allow ourselves to do so, we can get lost in the details of Sime’s surfaces. His work initiates a meditative process that encourages engaged study and reflection. As we investigate and interrogate the work, we also learn about our own process of viewing it.”

For Sime, the history of these materials hold multiplicities of meaning. They suggest the tenuousness of our interconnected world, alluding to the frictions between tradition and progress and nature and the man-made.