Chan, Molnar and Wozniak at Platform

Launched in September 2007, Denise Bibro created Platform to highlight local New York-area curators, emerging artists and spotlight works outside of the mainstream. Currently on view is work by Amy Chan, Cheryl Molnar, and Karla Wozniak, who met during their undergraduate studies at Rhode Island School of Design. I’m not sure how their work is outside the mainstream, but it depicts America�s ever-evolving architectural landscape, and addresses issues like the juxtaposition of the vernacular, natural, and imagined landscapes; the relationship of industrial development to historical sites; and the homogenizing effect of suburban sprawl. Wozniak’s lazily painted, colorful images of chain restaurants and roadside signage capture a sense of playfulness rarely apprehended in the worn out American landscape haphazardly created over the last fifty years. In The Village Voice, RC Baker writes that Wozniak transforms the blanched banality of suburban sprawl into beautifully bedraggled vistas. “The electrical tower in 2007’s ‘Fireworks, I80, IN,’ has first been swiped with a rusty stroke of watercolor, then the paper has been rubbed raw, implying Midwestern heat, dust, and ennui. Her deft touch with materials is also evident in the oil painting ‘WACK, Los Angeles, CA,’ where thin sweeps of orange that mimic L.A.’s petrochemical haze drip onto a diamond-shaped schmear of yellow surrounding a black stick-figure pedestrian.” Read more.
“Everywhere and Nowhere,” Denise Bibro Platform, New York, NY. Through March 1.