A Tour of "Lush Geometry"

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View from the entry: Richard Bottwin, Carole Freysz Gutierrez, Louise P. Sloane

I cover a lot of exhibitions and art fairs on this blog. I don't call them "reviews" so much as "reports" though I do, of course, have and share my opinions about what I see. I'm more careful when I show you an exhibition in which I'm participating, as in this post. Here I'll take the "tour" approach. We'll start at the beginning and walk around. I'll connect a few dots, share what I know. My opinions I'm keeping to myself. (Well, except that I think this is a beautifully curated show and I'm delighted to be part of it.)

So, welcome to Lush Geometry, up through June 1 at dm contemporary in Manhattan. The gallery is on 29th Street, a bit too far east to be called Chelsea but an easy walk from there. Doris Mukabaa Marksohn, the owner and director, has put together a show that focuses on the luxurious aspects of reductive geometry: brilliant color, rich surface, tangible materials, repeated pattern. Participating artists are Steven Baris, Richard Bottwin, Carol Freysz Gutierrez, Louise P. Sloane and myself.

Full-on view of Louise P. Sloane's work, which is shown at an angle in the opening photo:  Blue Compose, 2010, acrylic gel, pigment and gouache on gessoed paper, 23 x 22 inches

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Above and below: We're walking into the gallery with a closer view of some of Bottwin's sculptures on the left wall and in the second gallery. What you can't see is that there's a wall of windows opposite Bottwin's work, so while the gallery lights maintain a certain level of illumination, the light in the space changes throughout the day
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Two by Bottwin
Above, shown on left wall: Profile #2, 2008, acrylic and zebrawood veneer on birch plywood, 16 x 13.5 x 13 inches

Below: Parallel #1, 2006, macassar ebony, acrylic paint on birch plywood, 15 x 8.5 x 9 inches

The installation shot just below this image gives you a good a sense of the inside/outside relationship of color to wood

From the center gallery we look into the far gallery, with views of work my me--the blue diamond--and two more sculptures, including a floor piece, by Bottwin

Below, a view of four new paintings from my series, Diamond Life
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Diamond Life 18, 2012, encaustic on panel, 22.5 x 22.5 inches
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Closer view of the Bottwins and my two paintings: Diamond Life 17 and Diamond Life 19, both 2012, encaustic on  panel, 22.5 x 22.5 inches

I made these paintings especially for the show, cleaving as closely as possible to the title. The lushness of my painting material, pigmented wax, has luminosity and visual depth; I counterpointed it with the hard-edge geometry of the pattern

Diamond Life 17

Diamond Life 19

Moving to the back wall, which you saw in the opening shot, we see this painting by Carole Freysz Gutierrez: Layers 35, acrylic on canvas, diptych, 30 x 90(?) inches

Panorama of the two galleries: Freysz Gutierrez, Bottwin, Sloane, Mattera, Bottwin, Freysz Gutierrez

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Use this panorama to orient you as we walk back through the middle gallery and into the project room, where you'll see work by Steven Baris

Two paintings on paper by Louise P. Sloane

Below:  Red Red Violet, 2009, acrylic gel, paint and gouache on gessoed paper, 30 x 22 inches
Known for her paintings, which have a more dimensional surface, Sloane's paintings on paper are nonetheless texturally and retinally dramatic
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View of the Bottwin wall from the opposite direction. With Bottwin's work, the opposite direction usually reveals a surprise, like the "wood side" view of Profile #2, shown in a different orientation earlier in the post

(I visited Bottwin's studio a couple of summers ago and wrote about it here.)

We've walked along the "Bottwin wall" past the entrance to the other side of the gallery. Now we're peeking into the Project Room, aka the "Baris Room" for this exhibition. That's Joseph Whitt at the desk.  My Diamond Life 21, 2012, encaustic on panel, 22.5 x 22.5, is on the outside wall

Below: Two by Steven Baris

Left: Rhizome D31, 2012, oil on mylar, 24 x 24 inches; right: Nested Forms #12, acrylic on shaped plexiglass, app 15 x 30 inches.

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Below: Closer view of Rhizome D31
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Installation from the Rhizome D series, all 2012, oil on mylar, 24 x 24 inches. With a sense of perspective, Baris's geometric forms suggest a depth that is enhanced by a marked and chromatically modulated field; image courtesy of dm contemporary

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Below: Closer view, where you can begin to see the markings and subtle color variations within the surface
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 This last one was too good to pass up. Eva Lake, visiting from Portland, Oregon--in town for her solo at Frosch & Portman on the LES--stopped in at the opening. Her manicure couldn't have been more perfect