Halsey McKay is pleased to present V-Effekt. The artists in this exhibition both conceal and reveal labor to varying degrees across diverse approaches to making. Mundane domestic objects and ephemera are depicted, constructed, and suggested. Paint, gel pens, graphite, and inkjet transfers create, distort, and belie images. Illusions are tenderly formed, yet repeatedly interrupted, fragmented, and obscured.
Bertolt Brecht’s concept of Verfremdungseffekt—often translated as the “alienation effect” or “distancing effect”—asks audiences to question the seductive and immersive qualities of theatrical performance, rejecting these popularized Aristotelian conventions. By exposing the mechanics of the stage or employing formal interventions that reveal theatrical artifice, Brecht sought to encourage objective reflection on one’s role as an observer, inhibiting emphatic identification with characters or narrative. Ultimately, he believed this distancing could open a pathway toward liberation grounded in a critical analysis of social and economic structures.
In a world increasingly adept at capturing and redirecting our attention, the ability to look beyond surface-level messaging—whether in advertising, politics, or media—has become essential to retaining the human experience. The artists in this exhibition are acutely attuned to the dynamics of attention: how it is shaped, sustained, and disrupted. Through their practices, they not only exercise deliberate control over attention in the studio, but also invite viewers to become conscious of their own modes of seeing—both within the act of encountering an artwork and in the ways we observe and move through the world at large.
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS:
DAVIS ARNEY, GINA BEAVERS, DAVID KENNEDY CUTLER, BUTT JOHNSON, KYUNG-ME, ERIKA SHIBA, STACY LYNN WADDELL
PRESS:
https://brooklynrail.org/2026/02/artseen/v-effekt/