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7/9/2004

July Evans

Metaphor Contemporary Art, New York

Swish of the Yak Tail Fly-Wisk
New Paintings and Works on Paper

In her recent work, Julie Evans continues her ongoing exploration into the painting traditions of India. Her brightly incandescent new paintings and works on paper in gouache and acrylic sing with elaborate patternings and mandalas of color layered over fields scraped and burnished like antique silks. Utilizing triple hair brushes and intense mineral pigments acquired in Jaipur, the works are made on a scale akin to traditional Indian miniatures and play on their conventions. Having made three trips to India, Evans has internalized the intensity of India's visual culture, one that carries with it both richly decorative and deeply meditative connotations. In her small, jewel-like, and tightly focused works she registers a highly personal response to this rich repository of source, creating detailed and emotionally resonant abstractions.

In four of the recent pieces she invited the collaboration of the renowned miniaturist Ajay Sharma whom she met while in Jaipur on a Fulbright fellowship. The resulting combinations of their concentrated techniques add yet another layer to the already complex levels of association to be found in these paintings which reference among other things the colorful clothing and bangles of Indian women, devotional garlands, and the cosmic diagrams of Tantric art. The Bindis that punctuate another new group of paintings on paper are indeed worn by Indian women on their foreheads to both mark the mystic 'third eye' and as indicators of status and style. Julie Evans has written of her work and experience that; "Of specific interest to me is the way daily life [in India] is such a fluid amalgam of ritual, art, and visuality, within which the act of ornamentation plays an extremely active and profound role. The humblest forms are elevated to devotional objects through the act of embellishment."

The lyricism and careful composition of her work has been compared to the classical Indian Ragas, but with their high keyed color and keen energy the new paintings could as easily have spilled from a steamy "Bollywood" romance. These new paintings by Julie Evans beguile the eye with their sensuous and vivid color while satisfying the mind with the crisp clarity of their execution.
-Julian Jackon

Julie Evans lives and works in New York City. She has had many solo and group exhibitions throughout the US and abroad. Her work has been reviewed in The New York Times, Flash Art, The New York Observer, Art on Paper Magazine, Art and Antiques, TimeOut Magazine, The Times of India and elsewhere. From 1994 -2003 she held the position of Director of the Visual Arts Program at The New School in NYC, as well as having been an adjunct professor and visiting artist at Rutgers University, Long Island University, New York University, University of Connecticut, University of Baroda and elsewhere. As the recent recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship, Evans traveled through India and Nepal researching Indian miniature paintings for eight months. Evans' work is represented in many public collections including JP Morgan Chase & Co., Pfizer Inc., Progressive Corp., the US Trust Corp and the Federal Reserve Bank.

September 8 - October 10, 2004 .
Opening reception: September 8, 6-9 pm
brochure available with an essay by Stephen Westfall

Image:
Julie Evans, "Bindi Dharma #2", gouache and bindis on paper, 8" x 8"

METAPHOR CONTEMPORARY ART
at 382 ATLANTIC AVENUE, BROOKLYN NY 11217

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