Color as Structure at McKenzie Fine Art

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Summer Solos, Part 1: Brenda Goodman   

Summer Solos, Part 2: Debra Ramsay

I've got two more Summer Solo posts waiting in the wings, but here I want to show your some images from the splendid show Color as Structure, which is on view at McKenzie Fine Art  on the Lower East Side through Saturday, August 2.

Panorama of the gallery

(click to enlarge)

In an exhibition of wall-hung work, gallerist Valerie McKenzie has selected 16 artists for whom color and structure intertwine, either to create a suggestion of dimensional space or to invigorate a planar surface with pattern, repetition, or optical effects.

We're going to follow the arc of the panoramic view shown at the top of the post. Here, Kate Shepherd, Paul Corio, four by Jason Karolak

Kate Shepherd: Chunk Logo, laser-cut screen print

Paul Corio: Megalicious, acrylic on canvas

Continuing our tour of the front gallery: Karolak, Rob De Oude on the left wall; Don Voisine on near facing wall, center right; Cordy Ryman; a glimpse of Elise Ferguson, right

While all of the works are strong individually and offer a cogent visual narrative as installed, I found myself drawn to the conversations between and among certain works.  For instance, the linear dimensionality of Jason Karolak's architectural compositions offer an airy counterpoint to Deborah Zlotsky's weighty shapes inhabiting a similar pictorial space (scroll to see her work).

Jason Karolak: Clockwise from upper left, Untitled (P-1406), Untitled (P-1403), Untitled (P-1402), Untitled (P-1405), all oil on canvas over panel

Rob De Oude:  Cloud Computing/3, oil on panel

 Don Voisine: Time Piece, oil on woodpanel

Don Voisine anchors two walls with geometric paintings flat as can be, which open up to reward the viewer with a dip into their chromatic and compositional depths. And I am taken with a corner conversation between Elise Ferguson's fresco-like painting, suggestive of a mural fragment, and Martha Clippinger's shaped construction, both with knife-sharp angles and intersections.

Swinging around to the right: Elise Ferguson, Martha Clippinger, Holly Miller

Elise Ferguson: NW, pigmented plaster on MDF

Image from the gallery website

Martha Clippinger: Converge, acrylic and oil on wood
Image from the gallery website

Continuing the arc of the front gallery: Miller, De Oude, Deborah Zlotsky

Deborah Zlotsky: Indoor Voice, oil on canvas

Image from the gallery website

Let's venture into the middle and back galleries . . .

Richard Roth: A trifecta of color and structure

Relief sculptures--or are they sculptural paintings?--by Richard Roth punctuate the planar rhythm of the installation with striped and stacked color that slides around to the sides of the box-like constructions. Their modest proportions are perfect for what's taking place visually on each one, and for the way the artist's ideas jump from one to the other. The visual repartee with Mel Bernstine's flat but architectural paintings is snappy and smart.

There's more, which you'll will see as you scroll--or, better, if you get to the gallery to see for yourself.

Richard Roth: Still Under the Influence,  acrylic on birch plywood

 
Above: Still Pairing
Below: Slap Happy

Mel Bernstine: Feminina, acrylic on linen

View from the back gallery looking toward the front, with from left, Richard Roth, Richard Caldicott, Mel Bernstine

Turning again to face the backmost part of the gallery: Holly Miller, Kate Shepherd, Paul Corio, Don Voisine

Holly Miller: Bend #7, acrylic and thread on canvas

Image from the gallery website

Don Voisine: Aeriel, oil on wood panel

On the right wall of the back gallery: Alan Biltereyst, Cordy Ryman, Maureen McQuillan

Alan Biltereyst, 2/0/12, acrylic on wood panel

Cordy Ryman, Back of the Beam, encaustic on wood

Maureen McQuillan,  Untitled (DR6/5), Untitled (DS/N&X), Untitled (DS/U6X), all ink and acrylic polymer on museum board

Closer view of center work, Untitled (DS/N7X)

Image from the gallery website

Below: Detail of the structure 

There are some works for which images will not suffice, even with details. McQuillan's paintings are a case in point. Layers of ink and acrylic polymer are built up by the artist to have an optical depth far greater than the material itself. Rob De Oude, who paints in oil with the thinnest of brushes on a flat surface, weaves a network of layers to atmospheric effect. Holly Miller imbues her geometries with thread.

Continuing along the back gallery, looking toward the front with work by Richard Garrison and Cordy Ryman

Image from the gallery website

Richard Garrison: Circular Color Scheme: Walmart, October 1-16, 2010, Page 1, Everyday Low Prices on your Holiday Favorites,  watercolor, gouache and graphite on paper

Image from the gallery website

A look back with another view of Cordy Ryman's MOD 45 Green/Blue Text (a),  acrylic on wood

You can see additional installation views of the exhibition, as well as individual views of each work and information about them here