I love flat design. When you work in the digital sphere, it has a different meaning than when you work with tangible items, but the contrast of 2D shapes on a 3D body can downplay even the most sophisticated cut. These pieces from Delpozo and Adeam Collection play within a similar palette, exaggerating negative space. The lyrical movement of line nearly looks topographical from an aerial view. What do you think?
Our choice gallery picks this week use form and texture to explore the effect of history on objects.
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1. In her newest works, each titled Waulked Triangle, Helen Mirra weaves with a continuous strand on a triangle loom. It is a slow and primitive method, and also physically engaging at Peter Freeman Inc
2. Virgil Marti’s art merges his passion for Americana with his distinctive explorations of the world of domestic interiors at Locks Gallery
3. Photography, painting, sculpture, video and mixed-media installations by twelve artists from Thailand and Singapore exploring the human condition will be on view at Sundaram Tagore
4. Debra Smith works with fabric as if a painter would work with paint, creating gestural and graphic abstract works while the use of vintage textiles brings it’s own history to the work at Haw Contemporary
5. Nick Cave’s two exhibitions share certain elements such as found objects presented within elaborate armatures built up with items from his familiar lexicon of ceramic birds and flowers, porcelain fruit, and copies of Capodimonte; however, the content between the two is quite different at Jack Shainman
6. Sheila Hick’s latest work, Unknown Data at Galerie Frank Elbaz
While scrolling through Zady this morning, the textile designer, Sandra Nanushka, and the story behind her work really popped. Beyond this beautiful blouse motif, Zady shares her creative process and a behind-the-scenes glance at the initial drawings that premeditated the final textile. Born and raised in Budapest, Hungary, Nanushka absorbed the fashion industry through both her mother’s work, and her studies at the London College of Fashion. This particular pattern pays homage to the shells and magical objects from the old biblical story, Dance of the Seven Veils. To learn more and/or purchase, click here.
In the same world of storytelling with similarly beautiful but distinctly different motifs, we have Mary Katrantzou’s Fall Collection. Neutrals and blush backgrounds are continuing to shine in all creative worlds- from fashion and beauty to web and mobile, and these floating stories are a fun step forward for the new season ahead.
The artist’s in this week’s gallery picks pause time in motion, reflecting on the nuance of emotional states and of life changes.
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1. Chris Gwaltney’s ruminations on time in these paintings are reflective of this new stage in his life after the children are grown and both his own father and father-in-law have passed at Seager Gray
2. Jenny Morgan builds on the technical intricacies of her hyperrealism by wearing down, scrubbing away or painting over many of the features of her subjects. For the artist, wearing away at the subjects is at times an emotional roller coaster that is derived from the personal relationship and feelings she has towards the painting’s subject at Purdue Galleries
3. Sissi Farassat isolates each photograph’s subject with her handiwork, replacing the original background with a delicate overlay. By doing so, she blurs the distinction between the photograph and the object, the revealed and the concealed, and eliminates the subject from its original context at Houk Gallery
4. Vesod’s paintings represent frozen moments in time – entangled and linked with the present and future at C.A.V.E Gallery
5. Endless Summer continues Ian Francis’ ongoing investigation into contemporary issues facing the human condition, presenting a new body of identically-sized studies that capture suspended snapshots of modern life at The Outsiders
6. By painting from photographs instead of live models, Kai Samuels-Davis is able to utilize multiple images of the same person—or even images of different people—to create highly layered, dynamic portraits at Dolby Chadwick Gallery
Trees and the landscapes they inhabit are a prime source of inspiration in this week’s gallery picks.
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1. Deedee Cheriel’s whimsical In Search For More Than Another Shiny Object at Merry Karnowsky Gallery
2. Known for her expressionistic, visceral explorations of the natural landscape, Joan Mitchell abstracted tree-forms throughout her career. Dating from 1964 to 1991, the paintings in this exhibition are inspired by the form and structure of trees at Cheim Reid
3. During and after her travels to a villa in Nice, France in 1979–80, Jennifer Bartlett embarked on an ambitious freehand drawing project of nearly 200 unique perspectives, experimenting with countless modes of representation of the villa’s garden. After her well-celebrated gallery installations of the works on paper, Bartlett embarked on equally riveting paintings that experimented with serial perspectives of the same scene and psychologically charged re-imaginings of her surroundings at Locks Gallery
4. With his new body of work, “Woods” Romanowski continues to build on his compositions of found objects, which aesthetically shed light on his keen eye and extremely competent sense of design at 111 Minna Gallery
5. Although the focus of “A Sense of Space” is landscape, it may well be considered an abstract exhibition. None of the works are literal, as each artist explores various concerns – light, atmosphere, weather, composition and mood at Seager Gray
6. The works of Anna Vogel’s exhibition focus on the nonchalance with which we treat the world, the unintended vestiges that we leave behind in it, the fleeting and superficial manner in which we perceive it at Sprüth Magers Berlin
It’s imperative to recognize that our dissatisfaction originates within us. It arises out of our own blindness to what our situation actually is, out of our wanting reality to be something other than what it is.
Here is an enlarged glimpse of Brandon Locher’s Mazes to the Motherlode series, as well as a quote explaining it’s purpose and existence. I’ve been following Locher’s work for some time- as I first discovered him through Ghostly International. His instagram is wonderful, as he shares his work-in-progress, so you’re able to see how these intricate and magnificent pieces form. At times, Locher finds himself drawing for 10 hours straight – which requires incredible discipline.
He’s generously sharing several of these works for desktop download via Ghostly. Click here to view.