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ABSTRACT ARTISTS FEATURED IN EXHIBIT AT WILLIAM PATERSON UNIVERSITY
--“Concurrent” features four artists with distinct approaches and outcomes
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Four artists who have devoted their careers to abstraction, and whose approaches are distinctly individualistic, are featured in a touring exhibit which will be on view at the Ben Shahn Galleries at William Paterson University in Wayne from February 2 through March 6, 2009. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free.
The exhibit, titled “Concurrent,” features paintings by Natalie Alper of Boston; Tim McFarlane of Philadelphia; Larry Webb of New York City; and sculpture by Diane Simpson of Chicago. Organized by Samek Art Gallery of Bucknell University and the Ewing Gallery at the University of Tennessee, the exhibit was developed using a novel approach: a representative of four of the participating venues, including Nancy Einreinhofer, director of the Ben Shahn Galleries, served as a curator to select the works of one of the artists to be included in the exhibit.
“If there is a common link between these artists (who have never met each other), it is the impact of the urban environment on their art--whether it is in Chicago, Boston, New York City or Philadelphia,” says Sam Yates, director of the Ewing Gallery and one of the organizers of the exhibit. “Abstraction seems a most appropriate vehicle for capturing the essence of the urban experience—silence versus noise, horizontal versus vertical, calm versus energy, order versus chaos.“
Each artist is represented by a substantial number of works, thus providing the viewer with a comprehensive experience of the work on view. In addition, the exhibit includes a small selection of drawings by each artist to provide further insight into their working processes.
Alper’s paintings are in part a product of her world, the interchange between a structure of order, or a grid, and the interaction of human energy with that structure. “It (the city) is an intrinsic part of my experience of the world and how my vision formed,” she says. Grid-like lines have been scratched into the wet paint, creating a clever negative/positive implication.
For McFarlane, painting is an act of discovery. In works often dominated with a grid of mesh-like forms, he creates paintings that visualize the city and city life, while also abstracting these forms. In his more recent work, McFarlane’s lexicon of forms has morphed into imagined shapes that seem to teem with life. He states that he is “thinking more about the human element, people, their environment, and the interrelated interconnectedness of the two.”
Webb has remained committed to gestural abstraction since the mid-1970s. Whatever the nature or dimensions of the work, the working method is the same: put a mark down, react to it, react again. Graffiti observed around his hometown of New York is a major source of inspiration. The qualities of congested movement and graffiti tags are sensed in works such as “Express,” which is dominated by an intense red where patches of sea foam green burst through a faceted, patchwork ground with gestures of black “writing” dispersed across the surface.
Simpson’s compressed sculpture, drawings and installations are intelligent, meticulous and charismatic. Content is suspended seamlessly between abstraction and allegory, object and image, clothing and architecture. Much of the artist’s work is prefigured by elaborate drawings on graph paper.
In addition to Einreinhofer and Yates, curators of the exhibit include Paul Krainak, chair of the art department at Bradley University; Kristina Olsen, assistant professor of art history at West Virginia University; Dan Mills, director of the Samek Art Gallery at Bucknell University.
The exhibit is one of two exhibits on view concurrently in the Ben Shahn Galleries. “Three Latino Artists/Artistas Latinas: Elia Alba, Rodriguez Calero, Juana Valdes,” curated by Alejandro Anreus, an associate professor of art at William Paterson, is on view in the Court Gallery. This exhibit is made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.
The Ben Shahn Galleries are wheelchair-accessible. Large-print handouts are available. For additional information, please call the Ben Shahn Galleries at William Paterson University, 973-720-2654.
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January 26 , 2009
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