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Doppler Shift, curated by Mary Birmingham for the Visual Art Center of New Jersey, explores shifting perceptions of color and space. The work is largely geometric in form, the geometry allowing for what Birmingham calls "spatial ambiguities" based on angle of viewing, distance, and light.
Visitors Molly Heron and Cora Jane Glasser standing before Similar Motions by Gilbert Hsaio
JM photo
With two enormous windows in its large main gallery, the museum offers plenty of opportunity for these kinds of shifts. And in its smaller seven-sided Eisenberg Gallery, the lowered ceiling and angle of the walls offer yet more opportunities for shifts in perception.
The term Doppler Shift is, says Birmingham, "the apparent change in the frequency of emitted waves relative to an observer." You've probably heard it with regard to weather forecasting, where radar bounceback from rain, snow and hail allows meteorologists to determine the placement and intensity of approaching precipitation. I like to think of this exhibition, then, as a kind of visual weather report for a particular kind of painting and sculpture. ( Disclaimer: I have one piece in the show, but I'm one of 26 artists in an exhibition with a total of 46 artworks.)
Two wall drawings: Rob de Oude, left, and Iemke van Dijk
Guido Winkler photo
The exhibition, which had its opening the last Sunday in September, is up through January 18, 2015. Many of the artists were in attendance--some from the West Coast and as faraway as Germany and the Netherlands--and the images you see in this post were shot by a number of them: Steven Baris, Brent Hallard, Rob de Oude, Debra Ramsay, Guido Winkler and myself, all credited, and I've pulled a few images from the VACNJ website as well.
The group photographic effort mirrors the gestation of this exhibition, as Thomas Micchelli describes in his essay. In brief, painter Mel Prest created a suitcase exhibition, which she brought to Amsterdam and traveled throughout Europe in 2013. The following year, artists Rob de Oude and Enrico Gomez showed an iteration of the exhibition at their Brooklyn gallery, Parallel Art Space. Debra Ramsay brought Birmingham to see the show. With Prest's blessing, Birmingham reinvented and expanded the concept as
Doppler Shift. (This is when you realize that it really does take a village.)
I'm keeping my comments brief in favor of the visual walk-through, but you can read two splendid essays in the catalog,
viewable online, by curator Birmingham and the artist/writer Thomas Micchelli. The catalog will also provide more information about the artworks that I can include here.
Installation views
Above: looking into the gallery from the main entrance
Below: From the opposite end of the long space
Guido Winkler photos
Mary Birmingham, left, addressing the visitors at the opening
We're going to begin our tour of the exhibition with work out of the range of this photo
Edgar Diehl, Weisbaden, Germany; Jupiter Landung IV, 2014
Closer view below
JM photos
Diehl's painting is to the left of the window you see here. Now we'll proceed clockwise around the gallery. On the wall behind Mary Birmingham: Karen Schifano, Enrico Gomez, Don Voisine, Steven Baris, Brent Hallard
Brent Hallard photo
Karen Schifano, New York City; Pent Up House, 2014
Guido Winkler photo
Enrico Gomez, Don Voisine
Guido Winkler photo
Enrico Gomez, Jersey City, New Jersey; Hope Break Beat II, 2014
VACNJ photo
Baris, Hallard
Brent Hallard photo
Steven Baris, Philadelphia; Stations of the Cube #4, 2014
Steven Baris photo
Brent Hallard, San Francisco; Rim, 2014
VACNJ photo
Three by Kevin Finklea; Joanne Mattera
Brent Hallard photo
Kevin Finklea, Philadelphia; Parakeet for Palermo, group 2, 2010, Dolores Street, 1963, 2011
Guido Winkler photo
Another view of Finklea and Mattera, with Jose Heerkens and Rob de Oude
Brent Hallard photo
Joanne Mattera, New York City, Chromatic Geometry 21, 2014
VACNJ photo
Jose Heerkens, Zeeland, Netherlands; Travelin' Light, 2013-P21, 2013
Guido Winkler photo
Rob de Oude, New York City; Proximities and Parameters, 2014
VACNJ photo
This image, which opens the post, is a painted installation on the back wall of the gallery
Gilbert Hsaio, New York City; Similar Motions
JM photo
One cube with two views to orient it within the gallery
Gay Outlaw, San Francisco; Camo Cube
JM photos
We're back at the entrance to the gallery, this time working counterclockise
Foreground: Patricia Zarate, New York City; Sliding Up, 2014
Brent Hallard photo
Gilbert Hsaio, Lucky Strike, 2013
Brent Hallard photo
Continuing down the wall counterclockwise: Henriette van 't Hoog, Nancy White, Gabrielle Evertz, Richard Bottwin, Don Voisine
Brent Hallard photo
Shifting the perspective: White, van 't Hoog
JM photo
Nancy White, Redwood City, California; #48, 2012
VACNJ photo
Henriette van 't Hoog, Amsterdam, Netherlands; Triangle 1, 2012
JM photo
Stepping back to look at Zarate, Hsaio, Van 't Hoog, White, and view Gabrielle Evertz and Richard Bottwin
Guido Winkler photo
Gabrielle Evertz, New York City; Messenger Spectrum, Door to the East Series, 2013
JM photo
Richard Bottwin, New York City; two views of Yellow Facade, 2013
JM photos
Don Voisine, New York City; Wrench, 2014
VACNJ photo
Orienting you down the wall from Voisine (and giving you a full view of the gallery's long wall): Guido Winkler, Ruth van Veenan, Gracia Khouw
Guido Winkler photo
Upper left corner: Gracia Khouw, Amsterdam; Closed Circuit Series/ CC3 (yellow/black), 2013
JM photo
Ruth van Veenan, Haarlem, Netherlands; Untitled, 2012
VACNJ photo
Guide Winkler, Leiden, Netherlands; One of the endless possibilities of seeing a particular rectangle a little different XII, 2011
JM photo
. . . . . . . . . .
Now we exit the large gallery and enter with Birmingham calls "the strolling galleries."
Lemke van Dijk, Leiden, Netherlands; Uutitled Wall Drawing, 2014
Guido Winkler photo
Turning the corner to Rob de Oude wall drawing, Double Take #9, on the left . . .
JM photo
. . . and Lone Star video stills below by Sarah Klein and David Kwan, San Francisco
with detail following
Detail of Lone Star
JM photos
Shifting perspective, we walk back through the strolling gallery to view de Oude's framed drawings. above and below
JM photo above
Rob de Oude photo
. . . . .
We now find ourselves back at the glass door of the large gallery we exited moments ago. We're not going back in. Instead, to our right we're going to enter the Eisenberg where the exhibition continues.
On the outer wall of the Eisenberg Gallery: Albert Roksam, Leiden, Netherlands, Four vanishing points in a square #3, 2014
Here, about a 240-degree view of the Eisenberg Gallery. Click to enlarge
JM photo
Another panorama with, from left: Stephen Maine, Patricia Zarate, Gay Outlaw, two Brent Hallards bracketing two Debra Ramsays; right wall: Steven Baris, Debra Ramsay, Mel Prest
Guido Winkler photo
Stephen Maine, New York City; HP13-0909, 2013
Detail below
Patricia Zarate, Sweet Spot; Gay Outlaw, Untitled (Cube Study after Donald Judd), 2005; Brent Hallard, Green Candy, 2011
JM photo
Another view of Zarate, Outlaw, Hallard
Brent Hallard photo
Hallard; Debra Ramsay, New York City; Two Equal Lovers with Yellow Green and Two Equal Lovers with Yellow Green 2, both 2013
Brent Hallard photo
Ramsay,van 't Hoog, Hallard
Brent Hallard photo
Van 't Hoog, Core IV, 2012; Hallard, Baris
JM photo
Brent Hallard, Orange Candy, 2011
Brent Hallard photo
Steven Baris, Debra Ramsay, Mel Prest
Debra Ramsay photo
Steven Baris, Somewhere Beyond or Behind D4, 2011
VACNJ photo
Debra Ramsay, The Effects of a fold on a Pink line, 2013
VACNJ photo
Mel Prest, Vielen Danke Schoen, 2013
VACNJ photo
Detail below
JM photo
Prest, Finklea, White
Brent Hallard photo
Kevin Finklea, Pelikan for Palermo #8, 2014
VACNJ photo
Nancy White, #61, 2013
JM photo
Albert Roskam, Two vanishing points on 2 opposing diagonal lines #1, 2014
VACNJ photo
Also in the Eisenberg Gallery: A video program of time-based art running simultaneously with Doppler Shift, curated by Sarah Klein and produced by David Kwan
Guido Winkler photo
. . . . . . . .
Wait, there's more! In the upstrair Studio X, Gary Petersen created what is essentially a walk-in painting on the gallery's five walls. With shifting planes and ambiguous space, Tilting Points effectively counterpoints the premise of Doppler Shift and vice versa.
Outside the gallery . . .
and just inside the door
Corner view . . .
. . . and a panorama that shows you 360 degrees of the installation. Cllick to enlarge
JM photos
Additional events will take place during the riun of the show. Click
here to find out