NIGHTLIGHT: The Heist Gallery
Heist Gallery is pleased to present, Quick While Still, a ‘pop-up’ exhibition of large-scale paintings by New York based artists Katherine Bernhardt, Kadar Brock, Mark Gibson, Matt Jones, John Newsom, and Wendy White who will exhibit their works in an exciting, unfinished space. This is the flip side of the coin for those that read about the paintings we just saw at Sotheby's. One might even say that the rawness of the space itself is a reflection of the rawness of these artist’s ambitions. Quick While Still offers a chance to see their work stripped of the glamour of the highly polished white cubes of Chelsea. Peachy Deegan checked it out last Thursday, and was pleased to see our Mover and Shaker Laura Livingston Rubin in attendance.
The opening too place from 6-9pm on Thursday, January 21st 2010 at 143 Madison (between 31st and 32nd). The exhibition will continue until Sunday, February 21st, and will be open for view from Tuesday through Sunday, 10am to 6pm. We recommend checking it out!
The central theme running through Quick While Still deals with the idea of maintaining stillness in action. Each artist uses paint rather loosely, gesturally, in a way that is meant to call attention to the properties of the paint and the act (or action) of painting. There is a responsive/adaptive spirit that centers the show. The paintings on view range from representational and illusionistic to abstract and object-orientated.
“The artists involved in Quick While Still seem to be showing us a way out of the mess we made of the past decade. After two wars, a failed banking system, the real estate bubble, etc., they seem to be introducing new values and new paradigms. Their work is focused yet restless, considerate yet volatile. I find their energy infectious and their ambition refreshing” says Talia Eisenberg, the owner of Heist Gallery. “Putting up this show in an unfinished space seems to make all the sense in the world – it is time for us to hear from the artists themselves on what and how we need to rebuild.”
Katherine Bernhardt’s Swatch Watch paintings represent a new direction. While her thick, loose and rapid painting handling remains indebted to the destructive forces of Abstract Expressionism, her target has moved from questioning issues of beauty, glamour, and fetish to the fascination with time as object, icon and centeredness. For Bernhardt, the Swatch Watch paintings reposition the outwardness of looking with the inwardness of mediation and yoga. The center of the watch face is the point of contact between the different ‘hands’ or ‘arms’ of time and of body.
Kadar Brock’s new series of work investigates the roots of Abstract Expression and Minimalism to find a common intersection. Working on a large scale, his mostly black, white and silvery gray paintings explore the formal questions of the painting as an object while never losing sense of the surface’s ability to sustain a visual experience. Crucial to Brock’s work is a sort of reduction in the decision making process in order to focus on the singular act of mark-making. To accomplish this, he has recently begun employing a system of chance – rolling a dice – to eliminate the element of chance during the act of painting.
For the past five years, Matt Jones has worked in four inter-related modes: ghosts, outer-space, inner-space, and energies. Together they form a way for Jones to interact with, critique, negotiate and play with the world around him. His ghosts are ‘portraits’ of the people who have witnessed his development as a person (son, boyfriend, etc.) In his outer-space painting, the bottom third of the picture is a paint speckled version of our universe while the top two thirds of the painting are a highly reflective black gloss, so that the viewer, standing in front of the picture, is literally projected into the great unknown.
John Newsom continues to explore the natural order as an allegory for the human experience found in Newsom’s earlier work. He vibrantly and energetically incorporates a layered pictorial space, abstract patterning and highly detailed renderings of birds and insects in an exploration of themes of love, hope, courage, and change. Newsom orchestrates complicated canvases, featuring a wide variety of gesture and attention to detail, which contributes to the conveyance of visible energies within the paintings. Newsom integrates various painting methods through his dynamic brushstrokes. The coarse application of paint is both a style and a statement for Newsom, in which the canvas becomes an emotionally charged field of action and the primal material qualities of the paint are fully expressed.
For QWS, Wendy White is presenting a new direction in her work. The visual language she has been developing is still present – multipanel canvases, sooty spray paint blacks, tart tennis-ball yellows, Pepto-Bismol pinks, elements of graffiti and spectacle. Her new paintings are building off the internal dynamics – both intuitively and formally – of the stenciled language within the picture plane by quite literally escaping from it. In “Reform,” we see the reversed R on the left side of the ‘primary’ canvas flowing into an abstracted, supportive and architectural R. In this exciting painting, one is witnessing the transition from the word in the image to the object as word.
Heist Gallery would like to thank The Smithtown Bank Real Estate, and Abraham + Martin, for the generous opportunity to mount Quick While Still.
About Heist Gallery: Heist Gallery, located in the heart of the Lower East Side, is a vibrant addition to the gallery scene. Always seeking to show work that inspires dialogue in the context of its rich and unique neighborhood, Heist Gallery adds a vital element to current rampant creativity.
Heist Gallery is located at 27 Essex Street (between Grand and Hester). Hours: Wednesday – Sunday 12 – 6 PM. Tel: (212) 253-0451. For additional information visit www.heistgallery.com.
