after Albers
Site: 120710
Aug 22 – Sep 13
Curators: Mel Prest
Description: We are pleased to present the works of Barry Beach, Brian Caraway, Von Coffin, Janay
Futch, Chad Hasegawa, Howard Hersh, Sarah Hotchkiss, Bernadette Jiyong Frank,
Keira Kotler, Kristina Lewis, Scott Malbaurn, Elaine Nguyen, Alex Paik, J Rivera Pansa, Steuart
Pittman, and Carlota Rodriguez.
AFTER ALBERS is an exhibition that connects the works of contemporary artists to
integral themes investigated by Josef Albers, such as permutation, geometry, and the
interaction of color. The artists presented in this exhibition are loosely connected
through their work and are not part of a particular group or movement. Instead, each
uses their personal voice, together creating visual relationships and connections that
echo throughout the exhibition.
Barry Beach, Alex Paik, and Carlota Rodriguez each work with humble materials,
including yarn, paper and wood offcuts, using additive/ subtractive processes to build up
a final work. Individual elements are adhered with glue, thread or tape. Paik composes
modules comprised of strips of hand-cut watercolor paper, each hued with colored
pencil and/ or paint. Working this way allows Paik’s pieces to be reconfigured in each
setting. His sculpture, Partial Right Triangle (Aqua Blue), can also be wall-hung, with
individual components overlapping, creating color and light reflection. Beach and
Rodriguez’s work are both part of an ongoing series, with each iteration permanently
adhered to become a wall-hung or floor-displayed object.
J Rivera Pansa, Elaine Nguyen, and Keira Kotler use aspects of photography to make their
work. For Kotler and Nguyen, light is the subject and method: working directly with
light results in abstract, non-monochromatic color fields. Pansa cuts and grommets
photographic and x-ray prints in organized compositions that shift beneath your gaze.
The soft constructions form into loose grids that refer to chain mail, and by inference,
the body. Bernadette Jiyong Frank’s work is also inspired by light, and she achieves
sublime depth of color through successive layers of oil paint.
Existing between hard edge and soft edge painting lie the works of Brian Caraway,
Janay Futch, Chad Hasegawa, Sarah Hotchkiss, Scott Malbaurn, and Steuart Pittman.
Each artist incorporates architectural, geometric forms in entirely different ways. The
intense colors and crisp edges of pieces by Caraway, Hasegawa, and Malbaurn arise
from masterful composition, planning, and taped edges. 1-6-5-2-5 Erie Pickoff, by
Caraway, was composed after seeing a “pickoff” during a baseball game. Each player’s
position was assigned a number and color, and the painting was composed based on
the play. Futch, Hotchkiss, and Pittman paint without tape, and play with soft/ hard
edges shaped without mechanical means. Futch is influenced by patterns and modern
abstract painters, such as Josef Albers, and she lends the title of her monoprint to this
show.
Von Coffin, Howard Hersh, and Kristina Lewis create chromatic, minimal wall-
hung sculpture. Having a machined quality, their pieces feel like functional objects that
might animate with a human touch. Lewis’ works are inspired by the foam inserts used
in shipping that cushion objects and fill negative space. Her pieces are meticulously
built with wood, covered with canvas and painted in several layers of color to a smooth,
semi-matte surface. Coffin and Hersh employ buoyant color and simple materials, such
as plywood and ceramic, to fabricate super precise sculptures. Each form has a kinetic
quality, almost asking the viewer to participate by pushing a “button,” filling a groove or
spinning the form.
AFTER ALBERS explores echoing motifs of abstraction, color theory, and
modularity through the practices of 16 artists. Individually, each artist’s work creates a
world of its own, asking viewers to slow down to experience the moments of play and
perfection. Together, their works interact with strange harmony, resonating into
dimensions beyond painting and sculpture.
There will be a free abstract drawing session held on Sunday, August 30, from 2:00-3:30pm. The session will be led by curator Mel Prest, artist Barry Beach and possibly others TBA. The drawing sessions will be inspired by the Conditional Design Workbook, a framework created by artists and designers in 2014. The prompts encourage making drawings as a team and promote process, entropy, and accumulation.
