Don’t miss “
SKIN,” at
The Painting Center in Chelsea. Curated by painter Suejin Jo, “SKIN” is an elegant exhibition that features a couple of my paintings as well as work by Josh Blackwell, Martin Bromirski, Suejin Jo, Scott Richter and Drew Shiflett. (Image above: Installation view: One of my larger pieces on the left, two of Martin Bromirski’s new paintings on the right. Images courtesy of The Painting Center.)
Sharon Butler, Martin Bromirski, Josh Blackwell.
The skin of an artwork speaks of the singular visual vocabulary of its
maker. Each of these artists found a way of making a unique skin, either
by using nontraditional materials or by employing traditional materials
in an unusual way. This exhibition features the work of Josh Blackwell,
Martin Bromirski, Sharon Butler, Suejin Jo, Scott Richter and Drew
Shiflett.
Josh Blackwell�s skin is plastic. Elaborating upon everyday
experience, he makes intentionally redundant objects from found
materials that explore the humdrum rituals of use. Treading a precarious
path between convenience and excess, the plastic bag has occupied his
attention for the past seven years.
Martin Bromirski tends to torture
the skin of the canvas. He deliberately picks cheap ready-made canvases
that he paints, rips, cuts out circles, washes in the sink, scrapes,
sands, patches and stains till the history of all his trials and errors
produces this effect. If he stops from exhaustion, he deems that it is
the right skin and moves on.
Sharon Butler subverts the traditional use
of common materials. Her raw canvases are pinned on stretchers in
peculiar disarray, unsettling the viewer and causing them to focus on
the image in order to figure out why it is sitting there: Is it lost?
Does it need help? What does it want to say?
Suejin Jo paints with oil
and acrylic paint in a nontraditional way. Deeply interested in the
texture of the picture surface, she painted with oil and dry pigment for
over a decade despite health risks. Experimenting to find a healthier
alternative led her to discover oil and acrylic paints wet on wet gave a
unique skin to the painting.
Scott Richter makes his own medium to give a
distintive skin to the work, undergoing considerable effort and
expense. He believes that words strip the work of mystery and the dialog
with the viewer. His well-known pieces are brilliantly constructed with
impasto oil paint and airy whispers circulating among the clearly
defined forms.
Drew Shiflett uses the traditional materials but her way
of building the skin of her art work is anything but traditional. She
repeatedly draws, paints, cuts, glues, layers, pulls and builds until
all the element evolve to reference a sculptural wall or relief.
“SKIN,” curated by Suejin Jo. The Painting Center, Chelsea, New York, NY. Through December 21, 2013.
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