The New York solo debut of Los Angeles-based artist Kirsten Stoltmann.

Stoltmann's work in collage, video, photography and sculpture brazenly walks the lines between desire and obsession, pathos and longing, identification and self-flagellation. Mining both the formal language and psychic baggage of Midwestern adolescence, Stoltmann's hilarious and often discomfiting work is a lampoon with earnest underpinnings, mimicking the regressive outbursts of juvenile angst as a tactic for personal and cultural revelation.

Stoltmann's materials are the stuff of suburban banality: craft paper, fluffy taupe bedding, a pink velour tracksuit, and cutouts from news and fashion magazines. Melding such seemingly disparate elements as a Ferrari Testarosa, ocean fauna, Victorian bric-a-brac and Toni Braxton, Stoltmann creates lively and jarring juxtapositions with a keen sense of the darkly absurd.

Stoltmann's videos reinvigorate the medium with an astute balance of farce and irony underscored by a definitive feminist agenda. Chronicles is a 12-minute "video-collage" that features a glacier, a breast pump, Hearst Castle and a choreographed Druid Bacchanalia played out (by the artist and cohort) in a suburban backyard. It is a vigorous romp that pushes the boundaries of politeness in bold gestures that get under the viewer's skin. This space of intense discomfort is Stoltmann's battlefield and her playground--her arsenal stocked with a biting wit and a raw vulnerability foist upon us with enviable bravado.

"I Know What I'm Doing" is Stoltmann's first solo exhibition in New York. Selected exhibitions include The Suburban (Oak Park); Zach Feuer Gallery New York); Donald Young Gallery (Chicago); The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (Chicago); Hallwells Contemporary Art Center (Buffalo); Henry Art Gallery (Seattle); Midway Contemporary Art (St. Paul); The Wexner Center for the Arts (Columbus); Collaborations with Sterling Ruby include: Jonathan Vyner/Fortescue Avenue (London, forthcoming); Sister (Los Angeles); The Bower (San Antonio); Smart Project Space (Amsterdam).