Two exhibitions
dal 6/4/2004 al 8/5/2004
Segnalato da
6/4/2004
Two exhibitions
Nohra Haime Gallery, New York
Shimon Okshteyn, A Stroke is a stroke is a stroke: the artist in these nine stunning graphite on canvas drawings, continues his exploration of natural objects. This time the object is the brush stroke itself. Angela Gill, Firmament. The confrontation between beauty and distortion enable Gill to show that the abstract and the figurative are able to co-exist in art.
SHIMON OKSHTEYN
A STROKE IS A STROKE IS A STROKE
April 7th – May 8th
A STROKE IS A STROKE IS A STROKE, an exhibition of Shimon Okshteyn's newest work, will be on view at the Nohra Haime Gallery from April 7th to May 8th, 2004.
Shimon Okshteyn, in these nine stunning graphite on canvas drawings, continues his exploration of natural objects. This time the object is the brush stroke itself. Practicing what has been called 'an overstated realism', the artist makes renderings of brush strokes so precise that it is difficult to believe they are not natural brush strokes.
For Okshteyn, the drawing of an object has always been the object's equivalent, never a mere visual record. Okshteyn's careful graphite drawings of brush strokes display the detail that can only come from minute, almost scientific observation and the longing to understand something at its deepest level. He joins other contemporary artists who strive to know their natural surroundings by drawing them, being aware of the paradox involved in drafting copies of the real thing.
Brush strokes cannot be recorded exactly. In Okshteyn's graphite brush stroke studies, the light and dark shading of masses in space produce the closest effect to actual strokes. This new body of work shows that Okshteyn, a driven explorer, can still surprise the viewer with an utterly novel and breathtakingly strong tour de force.
This is Shimon Okshteyn's first exhibition at the Nohra Haime Gallery. In the spring of 2003, his monumental graphite on canvas drawing 'Metal Container' was on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art along with works by Christo, Jasper Johns and Jim Dine ('Approaching Objects', works from the Whitney permanent collection).
Shimon Okshteyn was born in the Former Soviet Union and has lived in United States since 1980 and in New York since 1989. His works are in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, Brooklyn Museum and several regional and university museums in the United States.
OPENING: Wednesday, April 7 from 6 to 8 p.m.
HOURS: Tuesday – Saturday 10 AM to 6 PM
For further information contact William Davidson
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ANGELA GILL
FIRMAMENT
April 7th – May 8th
'A painting has to be new and old at the same time, as if it has been within you for a very long time, yet you have never seen it before'
- Philip Guston
Firmament, an exhibition of Angela Gill's most recent work, will be on view at the Nohra Haime Gallery from April 7th to May 8th, 2004. The oils on canvas are a metaphysical journey to a place where you begin to see things again, but for the first time.
The confrontation between beauty and distortion enable Gill to show that the abstract and the figurative are able to co-exist in art. With no clear-cut lines or boundaries, her work is more familiar with finding constant and never-ending states of becoming or dissolving, without any fixed notion of completion. Concerned with the weight of the past, Gill focuses on the physical wreckage of time and the decay of statues and monuments. Through canvases containing broken relics, fragmented forms and statues in various stages of deterioration, Gill explores the meditative feelings and emotions that one feels whilst among ruins, thus giving the works inspiriting qualities and pointers to their mysteries.
The canvases contain faint, ghost-like figures that are partially concealed by Gill's abstract designs. The abstraction distorts the viewer's sight line but enables them to sneak up upon these precious relics and watch them in silence, from the safety of abstraction. Gill aims to allow the viewer the drama of discovering a statue hidden in an archway – wingless, headless, timeworn, vandalized – which she feels accentuated by silence, somehow communicates with and belongs to our very essence.
Angela Gill lives and works in New York City, but is currently at the British School in Rome until June 2004 as a Recipient of the Rome Scholarship. This is Angela Gill's first show at the Nohra Haime Gallery.
Image: Shimon Okshteyn, Fan, graphite and pencil on canvas, 80'' x 62'' (1998)
OPENING: Wednesday April 7, from 6-8 pm
HOURS: Tuesday - Saturday 10 AM to 6 PM
For further information contact William Davidson
NOHRA HAIME GALLERY
41 EAST 57TH STREET
NEW YORK, N.Y. 10022 (212)888-3550 FAX (212)888-7869