timo fahler at Stanley’s

At Stanley’s in Chinatown, timo fahler’s stained glass works cast intricate shadows on the walls behind them. Each one is made with a rebar frame and hung offset from the wall, many held up with plaster casts of fahler’s own hands. The refinement and delicacy of glass counterbalances the more common and rough physicality of both rebar and plaster, materials which are often used in building construction. 

On the far wall, Self Portrait in Glass recreates the artist’s own visage in an abstracted and almost melting form. Moving forward in his self-exploration, fahler’s Alter Egos series features four characters rendered in glass — the Aztec fertility god Tlaloc, the clown, Medusa, and the vaquero — each one a unique archetype representing a facet of the artist and exploring his white and Hispanic heritage. Again, fahler’s cast plaster hands prop up these works, while various finger configurations add communicative but abstract meaning. A final triptych of works muse on the feminine divine, as well as the impending birth of the artist’s own child. Together these delicately crafted pieces are both an intimate self portrait and a commentary on the complexity and formation of identity.

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Photo: timo fahler, “light, first and foremost” (installation view). Image courtesy of the artist and Stanley’s Gallery. Photo: Ruben Diaz.