When They Pet Brain

Kira Scerbin

At King’s Leap, NY

November 9 – December 9

They’re All Potatoes , 2018 Oil and wax on wood 23 x 34 ½ inches

As is
You are a complete human
With snot
To please you with intellect and fineness of brain limits who can pet us…


When They Pet Brai n features five new paintings and two sculptures by Kira Scerbin and examines ways
to view both the transformation and traces of alien bodies.


Three paintings on wooden board, in the shape of a girl’s head, a pumpkin, and a found farm wheel
respectively, offer Scerbin a frame for her portals where witches, goblins and spirits contort themselves.
Her surfaces, much like the subject of the paintings, deceive our expectations, the edges of the boards
curving to better contain the forces that are housed within them. Scerbin’s use of wax, twigs, soap, and
lavender, among other materials in her sculpture, creates unfamiliar and devious forms. Here we can
peek into her world of anthropomorphic trees and fossilized remains as a means of reacquainting
ourselves with our own physicality.


Scerbin’s work allows us entrance into realms that are at once uncomfortable and unknown. Like the
sensation that she proposes in the title of the show, of literally being able to pet our own brain, Scerbin
shows us new ways that we can relate, see and feel our flesh.


Do not be afraid
This is natural
Earthiness irrationality death force and the little creeper
This is the goblin wind: el duende…

Kira Scerbin, When They Pet Brain, Exhibition view, 2018
They’re All Potatoes , 2018 Oil and wax on wood 23 x 34 ½ inches
Kira Scerbin, When They Pet Brain, Exhibition view, 2018
Dino Pie , 2018 Joint compound, oil and wood 12 x 12 inches
Dino Pie , 2018 Joint compound, oil and wood 12 x 12 inches
Dino Pie , 2018 Joint compound, oil and wood 12 x 12 inches
Kira Scerbin, When They Pet Brain, Exhibition view, 2018
REALMS REALMS REALMS REALMS REALMS , 2018 Oil and wax on wood 23 ½ x 43 inches
REALMS REALMS REALMS REALMS REALMS , 2018 Oil and wax on wood 23 ½ x 43 inches
Christine , 2018 Oil on canvas 16 x 12 inches
Kira Scerbin, When They Pet Brain, Exhibition view, 2018
Kira Scerbin, When They Pet Brain, Exhibition view, 2018
Mairiana Trench , 2018 Oil and wax on wood 21 x 21 inches
Mairiana Trench , 2018 Oil and wax on wood 21 x 21 inches
Kira Scerbin, When They Pet Brain, Exhibition view, 2018
A Petter , 2018 Stick, wax, chamomile, valerian, and lavender 56 x 13 ½ inches
Kira Scerbin, When They Pet Brain, Exhibition view, 2018

When They Pet Brain

Kira Scerbin


At King’s Leap, Brooklyn, NY

November 9 – December 9, 2018


King’s Leap

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